President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged that in the event you excluded blue states, America’s Covid-19 loss of life numbers would look signifi
President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged that in the event you excluded blue states, America’s Covid-19 loss of life numbers would look significantly better. “In the event you take the blue states out, we’re at a stage that I don’t suppose anyone on the earth could be at,” he mentioned at a White Home press convention.
There are many issues with this. It implies that the deaths of People who stay in blue states don’t matter as a lot to Trump. It means that he doesn’t take any accountability for deaths within the states which have a unique political social gathering in cost. And it’s usually absurd for Trump to behave as if he’s not the president of the entire nation.
Nevertheless it’s additionally flatly false: When dividing states based mostly on their 2016 votes for president, 11 of the highest 20 states for Covid-19 deaths went for Trump. Total, blue states fare worse with a loss of life price of 63 per 100,000 individuals, however crimson states nonetheless have a comparatively excessive loss of life price, by world requirements, of 40 per 100,000.
To place it one other approach: In the event you someway “take the blue states out” and crimson states had been their very own nation, they’d nonetheless be within the high 20 for Covid-19 deaths worldwide. Blue states would rank within the high 15. Amongst solely developed international locations, blue states could be within the high 5 and crimson states could be within the high 10.
As a complete, the US is at present 11th worldwide and fifth amongst developed nations for Covid-19 deaths.
Particular person states look even worse. If Republican-run Mississippi, with its Covid-19 loss of life price of 93 per 100,000, was a rustic, it will be within the high three globally, after San Marino and Peru. Democratic-run New Jersey and New York, with loss of life charges of 181 and 168, respectively, would lead your complete world.
America’s coronavirus epidemic hit blue states notably arduous at first, particularly within the Northeast. New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts are nonetheless the highest three states for Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 individuals. (Massachusetts has a Republican governor.)
However the current resurgence of Covid-19 hit crimson states arduous too, sadly balancing the scales on this grim statistic.
Trump’s feedback are simply one other approach that he’s tried to shirk accountability for America’s Covid-19 epidemic because the nationwide loss of life toll nears 200,000, successfully shifting the blame to Democratic leaders. Beforehand, Trump advised journalist Bob Woodward, “The virus has nothing to do with me. It’s not my fault. … China let the rattling virus out.” Trump later advised Woodward, “Nothing extra might have been completed.”
The fact is rather more might have been completed, however the president blundered at each step of the way in which. As circumstances climbed within the US, Trump abdicated issues with testing to native, state, and personal actors; pushed states to reopen approach too early to supposedly “LIBERATE” their economies; spoke negatively about masks whereas refusing to put on one himself; and backed unproven and even harmful approaches to treating Covid-19, together with injecting bleach. Every of those failures compounded and led to the present US loss of life toll — and native and state governments, as arduous as some tried, merely don’t have the assets to battle a pandemic on their very own because the federal authorities flails.
The consequence: Whereas the US hasn’t seen probably the most coronavirus deaths of all rich nations, it’s within the backside 20 p.c for deaths amongst them because the pandemic started, and reviews seven occasions the deaths because the median developed nation. If the US had the identical Covid-19 loss of life price as, say, Canada, 115,000 extra People would possible be alive at this time.
That’s on Trump, irrespective of how a lot he tries to shift the blame to blue states, China, and everybody else.
Assist hold Vox free for all
Hundreds of thousands flip to Vox every month to grasp what’s taking place within the information, from the coronavirus disaster to a racial reckoning to what’s, fairly probably, probably the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Our mission has by no means been extra very important than it’s on this second: to empower you thru understanding. However our distinctive model of explanatory journalism takes assets. Even when the economic system and the information promoting market recovers, your assist will likely be a important a part of sustaining our resource-intensive work. In case you have already contributed, thanks. In the event you haven’t, please contemplate serving to everybody make sense of an more and more chaotic world: Contribute at this time from as little as $3.