How the ‘California miracle’ dissolved into a winter coronavirus nightmare

That California could somehow avoid a large COVID-19 surge without a China-style lockdown was naive, said UC Irvine public health professor Andrew Noymer. There is some randomness in when outbreaks hit — Illinois’ worst surge came in November while California’s hit in December — but there won’t be safety from the pandemic until herd immunity via a vaccine is achieved, he said. “This virus will find a way,” Noymer said. “No place in the United States is just going to somehow evade this.”