Tragically, many right wingers are acting as if the COVID-19 pandemic isn't much of a threat. This is contrary to the news around the country and around the world. Why? Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, right wing radio, evangelical preachers, etc. are telling the Trump faithful that it is all an over-hyped story designed to unseat their hero, Trump. So, Trump Country is has not been staying home as a show of solidarity for how much they love Trump and how much they dismiss actual news.
I am lucky to be in California where our Democratic governor called for us to shelter in place over two weeks ago. The happy result is that we are flattening the curve of the spread of the virus and we have a decent chance of not overwhelming our medical system. Still a long, long way to go but we are on the right track.
The red states are not so lucky. Most of their governors have been downplaying this pandemic. Too many of their people are not social distancing nor sheltering in place. Why? They aren't getting the actual news. They decided long ago that the actual news was fake and they are in a right wing media bubble that feeds them ideology rather than news. And they are in even more trouble than the rest of us, I fear.
The New York Times shows a map of who has not been staying home - Trump County has not been staying home. I am sorry for that.
I can't figure out how to paste that map into this post, but you can click through to see it here
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-social-distancing.html
