Rotadom
Satan's Plaything
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2017
- Posts
- 8,711
Covid may have brought the health impacts of red state policies to light, but it's a phenomenon decades in the making.
https://thinkbigpicture.substack.co...fUR-wD1-oaze2eaq_0f_sOqsVtYqukSG4s7KO5914mSR4
Beginning in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic brought to light a clear divide in health outcomes between those who live in red (Republican-leaning) counties and those who live in more pro-Democratic blue counties.
The more liberal the area, the more likely mask mandates, social distancing, and vaccine requirements would be implemented and followed, while the more conservative the area, the less likely that would be the case.
As a result, even though Covid’s initial spike in deaths and hospitalizations was concentrated in densely populated blue cities, it didn’t take much time for that to flip, resulting in a disproportionately greater number of hospitalizations and deaths due to Covid in red areas.
But this stark difference in health outcomes based on where Americans live is hardly a new phenomenon. This trend has been evident for decades thanks to conservative policies that simply put their constituents at greater risk.
As The Washington Post recently put it in their headline:
How Red-State Politics Are Shaving Years Off American Lives
This phenomenon can be traced back to conservative hero Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, who empowered states to take ownership of how federal dollars were spent.
In this piece, I’ll look at the differences in mortality rates in red vs. blue areas of the U.S. over time and how we got to such a stark and disturbing divide.
https://thinkbigpicture.substack.co...fUR-wD1-oaze2eaq_0f_sOqsVtYqukSG4s7KO5914mSR4
Beginning in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic brought to light a clear divide in health outcomes between those who live in red (Republican-leaning) counties and those who live in more pro-Democratic blue counties.
The more liberal the area, the more likely mask mandates, social distancing, and vaccine requirements would be implemented and followed, while the more conservative the area, the less likely that would be the case.
As a result, even though Covid’s initial spike in deaths and hospitalizations was concentrated in densely populated blue cities, it didn’t take much time for that to flip, resulting in a disproportionately greater number of hospitalizations and deaths due to Covid in red areas.
But this stark difference in health outcomes based on where Americans live is hardly a new phenomenon. This trend has been evident for decades thanks to conservative policies that simply put their constituents at greater risk.
As The Washington Post recently put it in their headline:
How Red-State Politics Are Shaving Years Off American Lives
This phenomenon can be traced back to conservative hero Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, who empowered states to take ownership of how federal dollars were spent.
In this piece, I’ll look at the differences in mortality rates in red vs. blue areas of the U.S. over time and how we got to such a stark and disturbing divide.
