SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 BY MICHAEL STONE
The Red States Are Winning: 70 percent of new coronavirus cases are coming from red states, according to a new report from The Washington Post.
The Hill reports:
Red states in the U.S. are officially at the forefront of COVID-19 outbreaks, with 70 percent of new cases stemming from the nation’s Republican-led areas.
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In recent weeks there’s been a rise in coronavirus cases in red states and counties, places that did not see high case numbers until the summer…
The Washington Post notes:
When the pandemic was at its high, about three-quarters of new cases were in red states. Now, about 7 in 10 new cases are in red states.
The fact that the majority of new coronavirus cases are concentrated in states that voted for President Trump in the 2016 election should not be a surprise. Indeed, as early as last May data began to indicate that coronavirus was spiking in counties that voted for Trump.
Indeed, the fact that Trump has often minimized, deflected, and obfuscated issues concerning the pandemic has only exacerbated and politicized the tragedy. Writing for The Washington Post, Philip Bump opines:
It’s hard to overstate the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has been saturated with partisan politics. Simple recommendations like wearing a face mask have been recast as acts of devout patriotism or as mandates for fealty to an insidious federal government. It’s a direct and indirect function of the president: Everything President Trump touches becomes partisan, both intentionally and not, and Trump’s got his hands all over the pandemic.
Anecdotal evidence lends credence to the idea that Trump supporters may be more susceptible to the virus. For example, Landon Spradlin, a Virginia pastor who claimed the “mass hysteria” around the coronavirus pandemic was part of a media plot against Trump, died from the virus.
And Karen Kolb Sehlke, a Trump-loving woman from Texas, is dead from COVID-19 after claiming the virus was a “media driven” hoax.
And the pandemic is expected to only get worse. A new model predicts that there will be more than 410,000 coronavirus deaths in the U.S. by January.
Bottom line: 70 percent of new coronavirus cases are coming from red states, and there is no end in sight to the pandemic.
