” But because of the small sample size (only 12 people died overall), the results may not be statistically meaningful.
Some researchers who were not involved in the new study said the California variant did not seem to pose as much of a threat as other coronavirus variants. “It’s not as big a deal as the others,” William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, told The New York Times.”
From the link