I owe
you an apology for this post:
I had
planned to share that snapshot above after I had some documentation and explanation to go with it. But, I was in a hurry
and away from my desk and for some reason, instead of saving it, I shared it to Facebook all by itself, and it started a firestorm.
It’s just data.
In a normal environment, statistics would be viewed with neutrality. The
peculiar findings would be questioned, investigated to determine the cause—without
cause for heated debate.
But,
alas, we’re not living in a ‘normal’ environment. The whole world it seems, is
teetering at the tipping point. I knew that. Thus, the reason I didn’t want to
post it without an explanation, investigation.
I
apologize.
On a
side note, just now, while writing, I’ve also been listening to Alexander Scourby
at freeavbible.com. These words just played: “He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone...”
I love God's timing.
My hands are empty. No stones.
I don't know about you, but for me, those statistics mentioned above create more questions than answers.
Obviously,
commonsense tells us that COVID doesn’t have a favorite color and choose blue
over red. The invisible enemy isn’t killing democrats over republicans at a
rate of seven to one; simply because of the way they voted.
So
what’s going on? It’s not just an error in reporting because the anomaly has
been reported over and over on both sides of the political aisle.
New
York Times noted the same disparity:
Why?
The NY
Times article points to population density as being one of the contributing
factors; claiming democrats live in more populated areas than republicans.
NOTE: New
York has about a third of all COVID deaths in America. It seems to make sense
that the denser the population, the easier it’d be for any bug to spread.
However,
that theory breaks down when looking at the big picture. Similar densely
populated areas in the country haven’t seen such a drastic toll. Florida, which
is similar in population and has densely populated cities and traffic hubs, such
as Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, yet, the case and death tolls are only
a fraction of that of New York.
It was
reported that Florida would decline into an Italy like COVID crisis; they’d be
the next hotspot of the nation, similar to New York, due to their elderly, density
and lack of government ordered shutdowns. Florida was, reportedly, a perfect
storm for COVID-19. Yet, weeks and months went by and the health crisis never
happened.
Texas,
the second most populous state, was one of the last states to shut down and
first to open. Yet, even with densely populated areas such as Dallas and
Houston, their numbers are even lower than Florida.
The afore
mentioned findings appear to evidence that density does not necessarily result
in higher COVID impact.
What
made the difference? Places with similar demographics, population and density,
yet dramatically different outcomes regarding the COVID-19 death rates…seemingly
along party lines.
No, I
don’t believe God is killing the democrats. Don’t even go there.
But
what? What’s the difference?
The only
difference we can account for so far is the Governing style. The one was heavy
handed lockdown, stay home or die warnings. The other was light handed, we trust
you to use good judgement, recommendations.
One
state hunkered down. The other exercised caution and went on living. With
dramatically different outcomes.
Arkansas Governor, Asa Hutchinson, reported on News Max, “We
managed the virus. We took it seriously, exercised caution. But we didn’t shut
down the state.” They didn’t issue stay at home orders or mandatory lock downs. They increased testing and managed the virus. According to World Meter Arkansas has had a
total of 120 deaths. (that’s 40 per one million people).
New
York governor Andrew Cuomo claimed 66% of new cases were found to be from people
who had stayed home, quarantined. Not from “essential” workers that were out
and about, but from those hunkered down in the house.
Fear.
Stress. Lack of exercise. Lack of sunlight…all deplete our immune system.
Sunlight, is the best disinfectant.
Real
Clear Politics article states: “To put things in perspective, the virus is
now known to have an infection fatality rate for most people under 65 that is no
more dangerous than driving 13 to 101 miles per day. Even by conservative
estimates, the odds of COVID-19 death are roughly in line with existing
baseline odds of dying in any given year.”
Population
density may play a small role in the death rate disparity between red and blue
states. However, it appears the major difference is that the people who
maintained their freedom to choose their freedom to come and go as they deemed
responsible and necessary were by far healthier and happier.
One
more very very very important element, that must be mentioned is the age of
most victims of the invisible enemy. By a large margin, the majority of deaths
occur among the elderly; mostly those who have poor health to begin with. Not
all. But most.
This
brings up a most important issue. This was a well know fact early on. Protect
the most vulnerable was echoed far and wide. Yet, some states (New York, New Jersey,
Massachusetts, California, others) ordered COVID 19 patients into nursing homes
creating “slaughter houses” as stated in an article by Foundation for Economic
Education:
At an April 23 press
conference, Gov. Andrew Cuomo sounded indignant when a reporter asked if anyone
had objected to New York’s policy of forcing nursing homes to admit recently
discharged COVID-19 patients.
“They don’t have the right to
object,” Cuomo answered before the reporter finished his question. “That is the
rule, and that is the regulation, and they have to comply with it.”
It’s
hear-breaking to know that multiplied thousands of our dearest souls who carried
a wealth of wisdom, our most precious, sweetest, wisest, population, were snuffed
out, by nothing short of criminal negligence, or worse.
This grieves my heart...should us all.
To sum
it up, we know these things.
A
light-handed approach, not touching folk’s individual freedom to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness, reaps dramatic benefits.
Further
lock-down or shutdown orders are nothing short of political
posturing. The results are equivalent to strangling the life out of each and
every one of those loving elderly. Because purposely stalling the restart of
our economy is like pulling the trigger on a thousand suicides and killing a million
dreams...mine, yours, ours.
I pray our country will get amnesia to whether we're white or black or brown or red or blue and just remember, we're people, brothers, sisters, family...Americans.
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