I mean, sure highly dense urban areas at the beginning of the pandemic got hit hard when testing was barely possible. But if you filter data from before June i

I mean, sure highly dense urban areas at the beginning of the pandemic got hit hard when testing was barely possible. But if you filter data from before June if last year (approx. 90 days from WHO pandemic declaration), the story is very different. There is an absolute trend based on political leadership in performance, and educational attainment level. It’s even worse since vaccination started. As of right now: The 25 of 27 of worst states or territories per capita right now in CoViD cases are all GOP leglislated and governed. These regions also have between 2 and 5x the per-capita cases of the rest of the states and territories. What’s worse is it’s not necessarily the legislators or governors at fault (ignoring a couple high profile idiots from both parties), but the politicization of science and reality. 638,000 Americans are dead, nearly everyone in America personally lost a friend, acquaintance, or family member to this disease. Out of every person I know myself who got it and didn’t die it was due to their either being a front-line worker (EMT, Nurse, Doctors), or not taking precautions such as social distancing, mask wearing, or avoiding crowds (usually all 3). If somehow you believe that essentially all (over 95%) professionals in microbiology, pharmaceuticals, bioinformatics, virology, and internal medicine, immunology, and biotechnology are somehow “wrong” you’re more likely to believe this rubbish. I have several publications in biotech, bacteria/bio sensing/growth modeling mostly. I will rip the CDC a new one for abject leadership failures that resulted in piss poor information for the populace, but I also know enough of the science and math to know that the vaccines work, social distancing works, masks work (honestly we didn’t know how well they would at the beginning), and shutdowns worked. These are not new methods, quarantine procedures for hundreds of years have been far more draconian — there shouldn’t even have to be mask mandates because we should care about our fellow citizens. But right now, only democrats seem to be even trying to listen to scientists and doctors. This makes it very clear that there is a rhyme and reason to the impact of CoViD-19, and this article is more “both sides” bullshit. Make no mistake, this former Republican, off-road truck owning, gun owner, libertarian-minded, pro-nuclear, scientist, entrepreneur, and capitalist will vote for the Democrats every time going forward because of it’s a choice between killing my family by ignoring reality and voting for a Democrat, than it isn’t a god damned choice.