Serious question for anyone who wants to answer (I'm asking this sincerely as a Canadian who doesn't understand how to interpret the data):
What is the dynamic that accounts for the fact that the highest Covid mortality rates in the US are in blue states?
The top 4 are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.
Then you get the first Red State (Mississippi) at number 5.
10 of the top 15 highest death rates are blue states.
People talk about the recklessness of states like Texas and Florida, but their mortality rate is actually smack in the middle at number 24 and 25.
I mean, yes, we could argue that New York and New Jersey are kind of unfortunate one offs that git hit early before anyone had a good understanding of best practices. But overall? Surely if the Red States were run and populated by reckless, anti-science cavepeople, and the Blue States were run and populated by thoughtful citizens who follow the science, that would show up in the results, no?
I'm not throwing a bomb here. I'm legit interested in what people think is happening here. (Less interested in what people on the right think about this question since the data is in keeping with their views on the issue. More interested in what people on the left think is happening here, since the data doesn't seem to follow their logic.)
Source:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/