Is COVID 19 Accelerating the Shift from Blue to Red States
For some time and for many reasons, there has been a significant population shift from north to south; another way to look at it is from blue states in the north to red states in the south. The question is not if COVID-19 is causing the shift, but rather is the virus accelerating the population shift? Based on the death rate between blue states versus red states, you would be safer living in a red state.
If you are approaching the age where a nursing home is in your near future and you are living in a blue state, would you be looking to move to a red state? Even if you weren’t considering a nursing home, but just a move based on mortality rates, would you rather live in a red state or blue? I live in southwest Florida, and Florida has had a terrific record in protecting its seniors, as well as the rest of its citizens.
Can you imagine being so scared where you live that you would consider purchasing a new home based on Internet pictures? That’s happening every day in many cities in Florida, and also in other parts of the south. Recently I spoke to a local realtor and he told me that he has people from the north wanting to buy Florida housing because they are unsure whether the virus will come back. Based on their actual experience in looking at the statistics, they no longer wish to be where they are and they are looking for alternatives.
Every time a realtor makes a sale, he announces it to his prospect list with a card flyer saying just recently sold. It would describe the property and how much it sold for. One day this week, I received four cards in the mail from the same realtor for sales that recently took place. I can tell you that I have been on Sanibel Island for 12 years and I’ve never seen that happen before.
It is apparent to me that there are clear lines between the COVID-19 leadership of red states and blue states. It appears to me that the blue states want to keep people sequestered and businesses shut down. As governor Mike DeWine put it, “Until There’s a Vaccine, Life in Ohio Isn’t Opening Up Normally”. I’m not sure whether this is an ill-informed statement, or the Democratic governor wants to continue to add to the suffering of his constituents with the idea that they will turn against Republicans and support Democrats at the polls.
We have seen many protests within states that are continuing under restrictions and where the people are protesting the overreach of governments in Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado, and many more. The governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer has banned the purchase of paint and carpeting; one has to ask why? How is it that states like Georgia, Florida, Texas, and others mostly in the south have successfully begun the process of opening their states with fewer restrictions on the people and businesses. At the same time, so far in these states we have not seen significant changes in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths because of this increased activity. We have seen that many in the news media have been highly critical of the leadership of these increasingly-open states, where the media has expected and even predicted a rapid acceleration of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Where it hasn’t happened, the media basically has been silent about its previous warnings to the states for acting irresponsibly and putting their citizens at significant risk. Speaking of death rates, so far two states, Colorado and Washington, have been re-examining the number of reported deaths, and both states have made downward revisions of deaths directly related to the coronavirus. The Colorado Sun reports, “Nearly a quarter of the people Colorado said died from coronavirus don’t have COVID-19 on their death certificate.”
If you went to a hospital and you tested positive for the coronavirus, and you died of a heart attack, you were counted as a death for the coronavirus. In fact, Doctor Birx told us in a news conference several months ago that, “Birx says government is classifying all deaths of patients with coronavirus as ‘COVID-19’ deaths, regardless of cause.”
Perhaps all the states should have an internal examination of all people who died during the pandemic to see if the deaths have been miscounted.
The one thing that we have learned in this pandemic is that America has paid a terrible price on deaths in nursing homes. In many cases in some blue states, due to lack of regulation, nursing homes can be death traps. AARP reports that New York only has 6 nursing homes that had no one infected while two-thirds of the nursing homes in Florida had no cases. Any organization or committee that takes a backward look at the coronavirus has to give serious attention as to how local, state, and national elected officials have handled this pandemic in America’s nursing homes. It must assess the problem and make recommendations to make these facilities as safe as possible for America’s elderly.
One evening as my wife and I were watching the never-ending news about the virus, in this case focusing on deaths in nursing homes in New York and New Jersey, vs Florida my wife said to me, don’t ever put me in a nursing home. As a reality, the time may come that one of us may be facing that decision and I am glad for now that I live in a red state.
Dan Perkins is a published author of 4 novels on nuclear and biological terrorism against the United States and is a current events commentator for over 20+ news blogs. He recently has had commentaries posted on Flag&Cross and Clash Daily. He appears on radio and TV regularly many times a month. Dan’s newest show is called “America’s Cannabis Conversation,” on the W420radionetwork.com. More information on Perkins can be found on his web site: danperkins.guru.