So far, not enough Trumpists are dying of COVID to have a significant impact on the midterms. Although more Republicans are dying than normal people, many are in solidly red areas where even a few hundred missing voters won't make much difference. Because of Trump's collosal incompetence and disinterest, the U.S. has had more COVID deaths than any other country. As of yesterday these were the dozen countries with the highest number of deaths:
USA- 775,218
Brazil- 609,484
India- 461,043 (severe undercount)
Mexico- 289,674
Russia- 246,814
Peru- 200,438
Indonesia- 143,545
U.K.- 141,805
Italy- 132,391
Colombia- 127,533
Iran- 127,299
France- 117,910
Obviously, Trump may be the leader of the pack, but he isn't responsible for all those gruesome and largely preventable deaths himself. He had lots of help from criminal governors like:
Greg Abbott (TX)- 72,406 (54% fully vaccinated)
Ron DeSantis (FL)- 60,197 (60% fully vaccinated)
Brian Kemp (GA)- 29,483 (48% fully vaccinated)
Doug Ducey (AZ)- 21,409 (53% fully vaccinated)
Bill Lee (TN)- 16,509 (48% fully vaccinated)
Henry McMaster (SC)- 13,896 (50% fully vaccinated)
Mike Parson (MO)- 13,143 (50% fully vaccinated)
Tate Reeves (MS)- 10,153 (46% fully vaccinated)
Let's see... who's doing worst? Ah, yes, scholar and scientist Tate Reeves of poor Mississippi, which is usually last on every list. Right now, Mississippi is in the news because the state is suing to end Roe v Wade in order to negate women's choice and criminalize all abortions. And now Reeves has ordered all state agencies to support an upcoming lawsuit aimed at undoing Biden’s federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Reeves said that Biden's "vaccine mandates are one of the most shocking attacks on personal liberty we have seen in this country during my lifetime." Presumably another shock attack was when he, "as lieutenant governor and Mississippi Senate president in 2015," presided over the unanimous passage of a bill to incarcerate tuberculosis patients who refuse treatment." Reeves noted that Trump was so awesome in developing the vaccines but Biden's mandates "threaten every Mississippians’ individual liberties. They are nothing short of tyranny." Reeves is well known for his craven hypocrisy.
Biden’s federal vaccine mandates do include several exemptions, including for medical reasons, disability and “sincerely held religious beliefs” about vaccines.
“Our laws guarantee you religious freedom, and the federal government cannot force or threaten you to make a decision that may jeopardize your personal health,” said Reeves, whose own state’s childhood vaccine mandates for other diseases are among the strictest in the nation and do not allow religious or other non-medical exemptions.
...When the Mississippi governor first described Biden’s mandates as “tyranny” in September, the president publicly denounced the remarks.
“In Mississippi, children are required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis B, polio, tetanus, and more. These are state requirements. But in the midst of a pandemic that has already taken over 660,000 lives, I propose a requirement for COVID vaccines and the governor of that state calls it, quote, ‘a tyrannical type move?’ It’s the worst kind of politics,” Biden said on Sept. 16. “Because it’s putting the lives of citizens in their states, especially children, at risk, and I refuse to give into it.”
...Vaccine mandates have served a role throughout U.S. history, dating back to 1777 when General George Washington ordered the mass inoculation of the Continental Army to prevent the spread of the smallpox virus.
The U.S. Supreme Court has long upheld vaccine mandates for public health reasons. Since last month, the current slate of U.S. Supreme Court justices has rejected challenges to vaccine mandates in Maine, New York and Indiana. Those cases were filed by individual teachers, health care workers and Indiana State University, though, not by the states themselves.
Multiple surveys of Americans in August and September found that a majority of Americans support Biden’s federal vaccine mandates, including 63% of respondents in a Monmouth poll, 51% in a Fox News poll and 65% in a survey conducted by a consortium of universities.
Mississippi has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the nation. Despite being spared the worst of the pandemic’s first few months, one of every 292 residents has now died of COVID-19.
Before vaccination rates spiked when the delta variant swept the state over the summer, Mississippi ranked last in COVID-19 vaccinations. Today, 46% of Mississippians are fully vaccinated for COVID-19, below the national rate of 58%. Mississippi now ranks 46th in COVID-19 vaccinations, ahead of only Alabama, Idaho, West Virginia and Wyoming.
This morning, NY Times columnist David Leonhardt wrote that "Conservative areas tend to be older, less prosperous and more hostile to mask wearing, all of which can exacerbate the spread or severity of Covid-19." And after the vaccine arrived and reaction to them became so hyper-partisan that a huge gap opened between red areas and blue areas. "The gap in Covid’s death toll between red and blue America," he wrote, "has grown faster over the past month than at any previous point... The vaccines are remarkably effective at preventing severe Covid, and almost 40 percent of Republican adults remain unvaccinated, compared with about 10 percent of Democratic adults."
In October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of heavily Trump counties died from Covid, more than three times higher than the rate in heavily Biden counties (7.8 per 100,000). October was the fifth consecutive month that the percentage gap between the death rates in Trump counties and Biden counties widened.
...Covid deaths have been concentrated in counties outside of major metropolitan areas. Many of these are in red states, while others are in red parts of blue or purple states, like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Virginia and even California.
This situation is a tragedy, in which irrational fears about vaccine side effects have overwhelmed rational fears about a deadly virus. It stems from disinformation-- promoted by right-wing media, like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, the Sinclair Broadcast Group and online sources-- that preys on the distrust that results from stagnant living standards.
I'm going to try a little experiment. The 5 states that voted most heavily for Trump in 2020 were Wyoming (69.9%), West Virginia (68.6%), Oklahoma (65.3%), North Dakota (65.1%) and Idaho (63.8%) and the 5 states that voted least for Trump were Vermont (30.7%), Massachusetts (32.1%), Maryland (32.1%), Hawaii (34.2%) and California (34.3%). Let's look at the bluest and reddest county in each state and see both their Trump rates and vaccination rates. First the states filled with morons (in order of proven, undeniable stupidity):
Wyoming- 44% fully vaccinated
Crook Co.- 88.6% Trump (26% fully vaccinated)
Teton Co.- 29.6% Trump (82% fully vaccinated)
West Virginia- 41% fully vaccinated
Grant Co.- 88.4% Trump (41.3% fully vaccinated)
Monongalia Co.- 49.4% Trump (58.5% fully vaccinated)
Oklahoma- 50% fully vaccinated
Cimarron Co.- 92.0% Trump (% fully vaccinated)
Oklahoma Co.- 49.2% Trump (% fully vaccinated)
North Dakota- 48% fully vaccinated
Slope Co.- 89.0% Trump (10% fully vaccinated)
Sioux Co.- 21.7% Trump (3926% fully vaccinated)
Idaho- 44% fully vaccinated
Franklin Co.- 87.7% Trump (36% fully vaccinated)
Blaine Co.- 30.3% Trump (69% fully vaccinated)
And now the states where there are more people smart enough to figure out what a con man is after listening to him for for years, and smart enough to get a life-saving vaccine:
Vermont- 70% fully vaccinated
Essex Co.- 53.5% Trump (46% fully vaccinated)
Chittenden Co.- 21.0% Trump (68.6% fully vaccinated)
Massachusetts- 70% fully vaccinated
Bristol Co.- 42.6% Trump (58% fully vaccinated)
Suffolk Co.- 17.4% Trump (65% fully vaccinated)
Maryland- 66% fully vaccinated
Garrett Co.- 76.9% Trump (45% fully vaccinated)
Prince George's Co.- 8.7% Trump (64% fully vaccinated)
Hawaii- 60% fully vaccinated
Honolulu Co.- 35.7% Trump (74.0% fully vaccinated)
Kalawao Co.- 4.2% Trump (n.a. % fully vaccinated)
California- 62% fully vaccinated
Lassen Co.- 74.5% Trump (33% fully vaccinated)
San Francisco Co.- 12.7% Trump (75% fully vaccinated)
Do I have to tell you how to interpret these numbers? Short version: the dummies stupid enough to vote for Trump and stupid enough to fear getting vaccinated and to spread the disease in a screwed up country that doesn't shoot these kinds of people down in the street like dogs-- or at least ship them off to an island someplace to die in their own glory.