First published at 05:49 UTC on May 26th, 2020.
The Coronavirus Is Deadliest Where Democrats Live
The staggering American death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching
100,000, has touched every part of the country, but the losses have been
especially acute along its coasts, in its major cities…
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The Coronavirus Is Deadliest Where Democrats Live
The staggering American death toll from the coronavirus, now approaching
100,000, has touched every part of the country, but the losses have been
especially acute along its coasts, in its major cities, across the industrial
Midwest, and in New York City.
The devastation, in other words, has been disproportionately felt in blue
America, which helps explain why people on opposing sides of a partisan
divide that has intensified in the past two decades are thinking about the virus
differently. It is not just that Democrats and Republicans disagree on how to
reopen businesses, schools and the country as a whole. Beyond perception,
beyond ideology, there are starkly different realities for red and blue America
right now.
Democrats are far more likely to live in counties where the virus has ravaged
the community, while Republicans are more likely to live in counties that
have been relatively unscathed by the illness, though they are paying an
economic price. Counties won by President Trump in 2016 have reported just
27 percent of the virus infections and 21 percent of the deaths — even though
45 percent of Americans live in these communities, a New York Times
analysis has found.
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