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The Coronavirus Is Deadliest Where Democrats Live
The New York Times ^ | 25 May 2020 | Jennifer Medina and Robert Gebeloff

Posted on 05/25/2020 7:35:28 AM PDT by Theoria

Beyond perception and ideology, there are starkly different realities for red and blue America right now.

The staggering American death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching 100,000, has touched every part of the country, but the losses have been especially acute along its coasts, in its major cities, across the industrial Midwest, and in New York City.

The devastation, in other words, has been disproportionately felt in blue America, which helps explain why people on opposing sides of a partisan divide that has intensified in the past two decades are thinking about the virus differently. It is not just that Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to reopen businesses, schools and the country as a whole. Beyond perception, beyond ideology, there are starkly different realities for red and blue America right now.

Democrats are far more likely to live in counties where the virus has ravaged the community, while Republicans are more likely to live in counties that have been relatively unscathed by the illness, though they are paying an economic price. Counties won by President Trump in 2016 have reported just 27 percent of the virus infections and 21 percent of the deaths — even though 45 percent of Americans live in these communities, a New York Times analysis has found.

The very real difference in death rates has helped fuel deep disagreement over the dangers of the pandemic and how the country should proceed. Right-wing media, which moved swiftly from downplaying the severity of the crisis to calling it a Democratic plot to bring down the president, has exacerbated the rift. And even as the nation’s top medical experts note the danger of easing restrictions, communities across the country are doing so, creating a patchwork of regulations, often along ideological lines.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2020; braking; china; coronavirus; covid19; dsj03; election; newyorkslimes; politics
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To: Steve_Seattle

The liberal media were for downplaying it before they were against downplaying it.


41 posted on 05/25/2020 8:20:03 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: God luvs America

Population density may contribute to the SPREAD of the disease, but I don’t see how it makes a difference in the morality rate. Why would more densely populated areas DIE at a higher rate?


42 posted on 05/25/2020 8:21:34 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: Steve_Seattle

“Right-wing media, which moved swiftly from downplaying the severity of the crisis to calling it a Democratic plot to bring down the president, has exacerbated the rift.”

Once again we see the lie that only “right-wing” media downplayed the virus. As we all know, it was also downplayed by the NYT, the Washington Post, Vox, Politico, CNN, MSNBC, and most left-wing outlets.
______________________________________________________-

In my own personal circle, the progs in Chicago suburbs were calm. “It’ll be over by April”. The most conservative people I know were convinced it was the end of civilization, if not actually Captain Trips.

Today, the conservative (with a medical education), is convinced we’ve been played, while the progs laud their Governor and have no problem with a Forever Lockdown,

No one I respect is still fearful of the virus. All are outraged by the way the progs manipulated every aspect, from lack of preparation, to conniving for a bailout and especially their attempts to extort Federal funds and institutionalize vote fraud.

We were expected to self-immolate because they felt a chill.


43 posted on 05/25/2020 8:23:39 AM PDT by reformedliberal
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To: Steve_Seattle

The Left wing media is NEVER responsible for ANYTHING.

So put on your mask and read the New York Times.


44 posted on 05/25/2020 8:24:00 AM PDT by Maris Crane
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To: budj

Actually I think Alyssa Milano is trolling people with that crocheted mask. I saw this on the KTLA morning news and there is some kind of cloth filter inside of it.


45 posted on 05/25/2020 8:24:36 AM PDT by broken_clock (Go Trump!)
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To: fireman15

You are correct. Red States are Republican and Blue are Democrat. For some reason my Brain went dead when picking out colors. Sorry about that.


46 posted on 05/25/2020 8:28:30 AM PDT by Old Retired Army Guy
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To: Theoria
The staggering American death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching 100,000...

Sorry NYT, I'm going to have to stop reading right there. You, me, and the dog barking down the street all know that number is no-where near accurate.

We may never know the real number. We know virtually anyone that passes away right now is being counted as a coronavirus death. It doesn't have to be the cause. It doesn't have to be a significant contributing factor. It doesn't even have to be confirmed by a test. Medical staff can (and do, because there are incentives to do so) attribute a death to coronavirus merely based on an unconfirmed presumption.

The only way we have a hope of maybe coming up with an actual death toll directly and correctly attributable to coronavirus might be to do an after-the-fact statistical analysis. Something along the lines of looking at how many people normally pass away in this timeframe each year from various other natural and non-natural causes. Then subtract that out from our numbers this year. However, even that is going to be imprecise on the order of tens of thousands of deaths. That's the normal variability from just seasonal flu. Taken together with the variability of other typical causes of death it is going to be very hard to use that approach with any certainty.

We could approach it another way - via widespread testing we could come up with actual infection rates and mortality rates based on a multi-variable problem (age, health, etc.). We could then use that to estimate total infections and total deaths. Again, imprecise and subject to a fairly wide confidence interval.

In short, the 100,000 number is meaningless outside propaganda use.

47 posted on 05/25/2020 8:40:01 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps
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To: euram

“Is there a connection between democrats and bad things happening?”

“For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
ALL WHO HATE ME LOVE DEATH.”

—Wisdom, Proverbs 8


48 posted on 05/25/2020 9:02:04 AM PDT by avenir
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To: Theoria
They take inconvenient facts (for liberals) and try hard to spin them so that they can claim that everyone is at risk and conservatives are just blindly ignoring the danger.

For example, they have a chart comparing the number of counties that voted for Trump in 2016 that have high infection rates with the number of Clinton counties that have high infection rates. Initially, there were more Clinton counties, but since mid-April Trump counties have taken the lead. Now, there are twice as many Trump counties that have high infection rates as Clinton counties!

Oh no! That is what happens if you start reopening businesses. All those Trump counties had better start falling in line with the democrats and keep the economy shut down until after the election!

Trump won over 2600 counties in 2016, Clinton won less than 490. All things being equal, there should be more than five times as many Trump counties that have high infection rates as Clinton counties because there are more than five times as many Trump counties.

If they had instead charted the percentages of Trump and Clinton counties with high infection rates it would show that Trump counties with high infection rates have increased from 0 to less than 9% in the same period of time as Clinton counties with high infection rates have increased from 0 to over 30%.

49 posted on 05/25/2020 9:12:33 AM PDT by kennedy (No relation to those other Kennedys.)
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To: Helicondelta
Morality rates, eh? I wonder how that was measured.


50 posted on 05/25/2020 9:26:28 AM PDT by rx (Truth will out!)
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To: Theoria
Right-wing media, which moved swiftly from downplaying the severity of the crisis to calling it a Democratic plot to bring down the president, has exacerbated the rift.

Eye roll...

Red areas also have the most common sense, better policy makers and managers, and didn't order terrible policies like putting infected COVID19 patients into nursing homes.

51 posted on 05/25/2020 9:42:55 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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To: Theoria

Turns out the be a diet and nutrition issue.

eople who end up in the hospital with covid-19 have both low vitamin d and C levels. The CDC is not telling folks to get their vitamin c and d levels up, along with taking zinc.


52 posted on 05/25/2020 9:59:03 AM PDT by hotdogjones (Study shows possible link between blood pressure meds and severe cases of COVID-19)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Certainly a blind correlation...

Perhaps this reveals another correlation between one’s belief they are a victim and responsible behaviors like staying healthy?

53 posted on 05/25/2020 12:04:08 PM PDT by TeleStraightShooter (SARS-Cov-Flu(x2) infects like a flu with pRRa amino acid INSERT and it infects like a cold)
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To: Theoria

I’d say the clintoon criminals are the “deadliest” when they are “crossed”.


54 posted on 05/25/2020 12:07:08 PM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp???)
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To: RedStateRocker
True, population density increases instances of transmission - breathing infected exhale for ~ 15 minutes.

* epidemiologists have clearly shown walking by someone @ the market will rarely result in an infection, even if they are coughing (coughing obviously increases chance infection).

* touching an infected surface will rarely result in an infection, unless an contaminated finger somehow gets in the respiratory system
(digit + nostril = public taboo for a damn good reason/ bad hygine!)

* Main infection locations (breathing infected exhale for ~ 15 minutes)
** Home - the more crowded house = better odds of infections
** public transit
** crowded office/ worksites

55 posted on 05/25/2020 12:41:57 PM PDT by TeleStraightShooter (SARS-Cov-Flu(x2) infects like a flu with pRRa amino acid INSERT and it infects like a cold)
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