Taking a snapshot of the COVID-19 cases as of Apr 23 I was curious to see if there were any differences in infection and death rates between states that has a Democrat Governor and those states that has a Republican Governor. And indeed there is, there are nearly three times as many cases (2.89) in states with a Democrat Governor as there are in states with a Republican governor, and the death rate is 62% higher, a more telling statistic.
There could be many reasons for this discrepancy, but here is some food for thought: The indoor environment is where most viruses spread, elevators, staircases, central ventilation, mass transportation just to name a few. This is typical of the urban environment. Living in rural areas on the other hand, much more time is spent outdoors, in sunshine, which kills the virus nearly immediately and fresh air is very good for basic health. Therefore to issue a nationwide ban to stay inside was the wrong thing to do. Cleanliness, social distancing and get outside as much as possible would have been much better. Go out, plant your garden, take your boat out for a weekend spin or visit your cottage in the woods. If you don’t have a cottage just take a walk in the woods and listen to the sounds of spring, but don’t put canned music in your ears. If you don’t have any woods nearby, use any area not crowded. That is one way to eliminate cabin fever.
Here are the statistics, state by state.
Democratic governor Cases Deaths
New York 268,581 20861
New Jersey 100,025 5428
California 39620 1531
Pennsylvania 37053 1685
Illinois 36934 1688
Michigan 35291 2997
Louisiana 25739 1599
Connecticut 23100 1639
Washington 12753 711
Virginia 11594 410
Colorado 11262 552
North Carolina 7854 281
Rhode Island 6256 189
Wisconsin 5052 257
Nevada 4208 189
Kentucky 3481 191
District of Columbia 3361 139
Delaware 3308 92
Minnesota 2942 200
Kansas 2734 113
New Mexico 2379 78
Oregon 2127 83
Maine 937 44
Hawaii 596 12
Montana 442 14
Total: 647,099 40,983 Death rate 6.33%
Republican governor Cases Deaths
Massachusetts 46023 2360
Florida 29648 987
Texas 22393 576
Georgia 21883 881
Maryland 15737 748
Ohio 14694 656
Indiana 13039 706
Tennessee 8266 170
Missouri 6384 243
Alabama 5832 201
Arizona 5769 249
Mississippi 5153 201
South Carolina 4917 150
Iowa 3924 96
Utah 3612 35
Oklahoma 3017 179
Arkansas 2599 45
Nebraska 2124 47
South Dakota 1956 9
Idaho 1836 54
New Hampshire 1670 51
West Virginia 981 31
Vermont 825 43
North Dakota 709 15
Wyoming 453 7
Alaska 337 9
Total: 223,781 8,749 Death rate 3.91%
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 