By the numbers, Paradise isn’t doing badly at all

Every so often we receive press releases talking about the town of Paradise and studies that show certain results. Too many of these press releases are speaking of Paradise as it was before the Camp Fire.

Now, we can excuse some of these folks if you’re not from Paradise or California and your information hasn’t been updated since before before 2018.

But who we cannot excuse is the state of California.

According to the state’s Department of Health, Paradise has had just 18% of its citizens fully vaccinated while 21% have had just one shot.

Pretty bleak numbers, ranking of them at the bottom of the county.

Except for the fact that the numbers are blatantly wrong.

The numbers were used by a local television station to ask honest questions about what was happening. That led to an Enloe Medical Center officer saying — based on that incorrect number — that seemed to indicate Paradise is a super spreader community. Which would be true if the numbers were correct, but they’re not.

According to the state, the town of Paradise has 20,498 residents who are 12 and over. Have any of the people at the California Department of Public Health heard of the Camp Fire?

It is shameful at best that they wouldn’t know this.

The best estimate of Paradise‘s population is about 6,100 in total. So if we were to use that number, and apply the state’s so-called 18% number of the 20,498 we find out that: 3,690 are fully vaccinated within Paradise

That means 61 percent of the people actually living in Paradise have been fully vaccinated, placing it above the state’s overall figure of 57 percent — hardly a superspreader status.

We don’t blame the news media for asking questions based on the state’s numbers, and we don’t blame Enloe’s people for responding to those numbers

But we do expect everybody connected to this area to know that there are not nearly 20,500 people over the age of 12 living in Paradise. And we think that number should be questioned by Butte County Public Health and the town of Paradise directly to the California Department of Public Health.

Incorrect information can have a debilitating effect on communities when they’re being placed in a false light.

Particularly ones recovering from a disaster.