Unlike many other US states whose governor is a Republican and maintains a conservative attitude towards the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, Florida is one of the places with a high vaccination rate in the US.

Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has opened many mass vaccination sites across the state and sent many vaccination teams to nursing homes and elderly communities.

However, like many other conservative governors, DeSantis refused to impose a blockade and mandate mandatory mask wearing, instead relying solely on the vaccination campaign to deal with the fast-spreading Delta variant.

But what happened in reality was much worse.

`It’s a very sad thing for us,` said Natalie E. Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University.

Medical staff transfer Covid-19 patient from ambulance at Morton Plant hospital, Clearwater, Florida in early August. Photo: Reuters.

Florida’s story is considered a warning for the fight against Covid-19 in the US, a country that considers vaccines as the main anti-epidemic weapon.

`It’s clear that vaccines help prevent hospitalization, but we haven’t been able to achieve the herd immunity that many people expect,` DeSantis said.

Morgues and crematoriums in the state are both nearly overloaded or out of space.

The average number of daily deaths last weekend was even equal to the combined number of deaths of California and Texas.

The most likely explanation for what happened in Florida is that the state’s vaccination rate is good, but not enough to protect all residents.

According to experts, the most important reason is that Flordia has disregarded other epidemic prevention measures.

Unlike Oregon, which still requires wearing masks outdoors even though the epidemic is under good control, Governor DeSantis and Florida officials hope to be able to overcome the outbreak without having to impose restrictions, despite the number of cases.

Florida has recorded higher-than-normal deaths from Covid-19 and other causes throughout the pandemic.

`We’ve seen a lot of people calling in to report Covid-19 deaths,` said Dr. Stephen J. Nelson, Polk County medical examiner.

Although 82% of people over 65 in the state have received two doses, about 819,000 seniors are unprotected or partially protected, according to Jason L. Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida.

`The Delta strain has the ability to prey on vulnerable communities,` he said.

Vaccination rates in Florida’s nursing homes are also lower than most states in the US, except Nevada, according to the CDC.

Elderly people are also more likely to be immunocompromised and have underlying health conditions, making them more vulnerable to the virus, according to Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California in San Francisco.

In addition to the elderly, young people also account for the majority of deaths from Covid-19 in Florida.

56% of people ages 12-64 in Florida’s 10 largest counties are fully vaccinated.

`My mother had no underlying medical conditions, she was very healthy,` Tré Burrows said about her 50-year-old mother Cindy Dawkins who died of Covid-19 on August 7.

Mrs. Dawkins, a mother of four who worked at a restaurant in Boynton Beach, began falling ill shortly after her birthday, while the family was on their way to Orlando to celebrate.

People were not wearing masks in a neighborhood in West Palm Beach, Florida last weekend.

Unvaccinated people are only part of the reason for this surge.

Compared to other states, Florida has avoided a bad winter outbreak.

In addition, hot weather causes many people to stay indoors more, creating conditions for the Delta variant to spread.

Dr. Dean believes that one of the things to keep in mind in the fight against Covid-19 is to control the hospitalization rate.

Dean added that policymakers also need to realize that for Delta, the vaccination threshold must be raised higher than previously calculated.

`Things can get out of control. I believe this can happen in other places,` she said.