Mocking the South for re-opening

Next time a Cat 5 hurricane threatens Miami, I fully expect New York City to evacuate.

— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) April 22, 2020

Politico looked down its nose and sneered in a headline, "Southern governors create a COVID-19 coalition and experts fear a 'perfect storm.'" Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of COVID-19 will stay these snobs from their appointed rounds of bigotry.

The story said, "Republican governors across the Southeast are teaming up to reopen the region’s economy, even as they lack the testing to know how rapidly the corona virus is spreading.

"One health expert called the political decision a 'perfect storm' for the virus to reassert itself.

"The newly formed coalition includes Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, a part of the country that has underfunded health systems, as well as high rates of obesity, diabetes and other illnesses that amplify the deadliness of the corona virus.

"And unlike their peers in New York, New Jersey and other Northeastern states that have been working cooperatively since last week to restart their economies, the six in the South have lagged on testing and social distancing measures."

Those sophisticated Northerners are much better organized than these hicks.

The facts just called. There have been 2,351 COVID-19 deaths in those 6 states, whose combined population is 51,956,382.

There have been 21,716 COVID-19 deaths in New York and New Jersey, population 28,335,751.

Deaths per 1 million people are 1,004 in New York, 535 in New Jersey, 137 nationally, 79 in Georgia, 61 in Mississippi, 42 in Florida, 39 in Alabama, 27 in South Carolina, and 24 in Tennessee.

Looks like the SEC is doing fine (except for Louisiana).

The Big East is shell-shocked.

COVID-19 is nowhere near the problem in those 6 states as it is in New York and New Jersey.

That is to be expected. Communicable diseases hit urban areas hardest. Over the last century and a half, New York City has been a world leader in taming the beast. Past pandemics were far more devastating.

Hurricanes are the bane of existence in the South. Over the years, they have tamed that beast.

What hasn't evolved is journalism. The same prejudices and one-sided stories that plagued it in the days of yellow journalism are around today. This story shifted the goalposts to make the South look bad.

Politico reported, "As of Tuesday morning, the six states had collectively tested about one-tenth of 1 percent of their total populations. Mississippi, which ranks 15th nationally in testing, had the group’s best testing rate at 1.7% of its population. Georgia was the lowest, with a testing rate of less than one one-hundredth of 1%, or 42nd in the country, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

"By comparison, the coalition of seven states in the Northeast has a collective testing rate twice that of the Southeast, having swabbed more than two-tenths of 1 percent of their collective population.

"Five of the seven states included in the Northeastern coalition are in the top 15 nationally in per capita testing."

Nowhere in the story is the death rate mentioned.

How many people actually died of COVID-19 should matter more than how many passed the test.

We were told we had to stay indoors to flatten the curve. We did. Now is the time to free the prisoners. We served our time. Open the country up already.