Originally posted by Mountain Man
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Originally posted by Mountain Man
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But the numbers are also likely skewed. The states reporting the greatest numbers are also the states that have implemented the most widespread testing, and the numbers reflect reported reflect the most confirmed cases. Naturally, if you don't care enough to call for shelter-in-place, you're likely not to care enough to push testing out. Of the top 15 states/areas for testing, 11 were blue states in 2016 and 4 were red. Since governors are fairly important, 8 have Democratic governors, 6 have Republican, and one has no governor at all (D.C. and is under the stewardship of Congress). If you go to the bottom 15 of the list, three went blue in 2016 and 12 went red. Looking at the governors, 9 are Republicans and 6 are Democrats.
It's hard to make a claim about the numbers being bigger in one place than another when there is no consistent plan for testing or tracking the disease. Either the high states were badly managed, or the high states are doing more testing than the low states. Deciding which it is can only be speculation. This is part of the mess Trump left us with.
ETA: There is also the reality that disease spreads more readily in high density areas than low density areas, which is a basic truth of epidemiology. High density areas and states are predominantly Democratic strongholds. It is inevitable they are going to see higher infection rates than low density areas, which are predominantly Republican.
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