Jim, a little reservation about one point:
On July 6, Massachusetts had 1,349 active cases of COVID-19 infection; by August 31, the state had 34,671 active cases, a 25-fold increase. It cannot be emphasized enough: Vaccination does not prevent infection and cases, and an increase in cases is not necessarily a reflection of low vaccination rates in an area.
Massachusetts has a relatively high rate of vaccination. But, as you note, a third of its 7 million people are unvaccinated, meaning that there are about 2.3 million unvaccinated people in the state. That seems like a more than large enough population of people to produce 34,000 active cases, including the modest share of “breakthrough” cases. The unvaccinated account for about one-third of the population but three-fourths of the cases.
Or am I misunderstanding something?