CORONAVIRUS BLUE, CORONAVIRUS RED: Some random thoughts.

Just for grins, I decided to see how the coronavirus pandemic fared in Red states and Blue states. Looking around online I found a 2016 (pre-election) map indicating the political leanings of the 50 states. There were 19 Blue states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin); 22 Red states (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming); and 9 swing states (Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia).

Then from the Coronavirus Dashboard, I pulled the latest (August 4th) death numbers from each of the 50 states. Finally I looked up the 2019 population numbers for the 50 states. Results:

1. Red state population is about 105 million; blue state, 170 million; and swing state, 53 million.

2. Red states had 30,456 coronavirus deaths for a per capita death rate of 0.0291%; blue states had 110,127 deaths for a per capita death rate of 0.0648%; and swing states had 15,524 deaths for a per capita death rate of 0.0293%.

3. New York alone has had more coronavirus deaths (32,798) than all 22 red states (30,456); New York and New Jersey together have had more coronavirus deaths (48,719) than the combined total (45,980) of the red states and swing states.

4. The top 5 states for per capita coronavirus deaths are New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. All are blue states and the total number of deaths in those 5 states is 62,815 -- 40% of the total. (Those 5 states have a combined 12% of the U.S. population.)

5. The 5 states with the least per capita deaths are Hawaii, Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, and West Virginia. Of them, only Hawaii is a blue state. Their total number of deaths is 266 -- 0.17% of the total. (Those 5 states have a combined 1.70% of the U.S. population.)

6. Statistically, the 9 swing states roughly mirror the red states.

Don't be a blue state.