While I work on a more involved post regarding New York Times’ consistent obsession with “red state science denialism” as the single causal explanation for Covid mortality, I wanted to share an important resource.
Congratulations Josh, scanning the authors it looks like you are in good company.
Looking forward to your long post on NYT obsession with Red State Science denialism. It's been really fascinating following their journalists (David Leonhardt seems to be the most devoted) cling to this unfalsifiable premise.
Especially considering science already had the answer all along why "red" states have higher mortality rates than "blue" states. It's not like this was a surprise. We just didn't care that West Virginia had an annual death rate of 127 per 100K while Colorado only had 69 per 100K pre Covid.
When West Virginia jumped to 143/100K and Colorado to 84/100K in 2020 we suddenly care? Now we decided that it was science denialism causing this disparity and not obesity, age, and rural healthcare access? The CDC wrote about this as recent as 2017 https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0112-rural-death-risk.html
There is also the issue of access to specialized medicine. People in rural areas have far fewer, and typically less experienced specialty doctors - especially the kind you need for the obese, hypertensive, and inactive. The best cardiologists, vascular surgeon, neurosurgeons, etc tend to concentrate in urban areas.
When you need them in an emergency, the difference between a 20 minute drive and a 3+ hour ambulance/helicopter transport affects your outcome.
There are incentives in pay to bring specialists to smaller communities but the demand far exceeds the supply.
Congratulations Josh, scanning the authors it looks like you are in good company.
Looking forward to your long post on NYT obsession with Red State Science denialism. It's been really fascinating following their journalists (David Leonhardt seems to be the most devoted) cling to this unfalsifiable premise.
Especially considering science already had the answer all along why "red" states have higher mortality rates than "blue" states. It's not like this was a surprise. We just didn't care that West Virginia had an annual death rate of 127 per 100K while Colorado only had 69 per 100K pre Covid.
When West Virginia jumped to 143/100K and Colorado to 84/100K in 2020 we suddenly care? Now we decided that it was science denialism causing this disparity and not obesity, age, and rural healthcare access? The CDC wrote about this as recent as 2017 https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0112-rural-death-risk.html
You nailed it. Spoiler alert- red areas are older, less healthy, and every year their rates are higher.
There is also the issue of access to specialized medicine. People in rural areas have far fewer, and typically less experienced specialty doctors - especially the kind you need for the obese, hypertensive, and inactive. The best cardiologists, vascular surgeon, neurosurgeons, etc tend to concentrate in urban areas.
When you need them in an emergency, the difference between a 20 minute drive and a 3+ hour ambulance/helicopter transport affects your outcome.
There are incentives in pay to bring specialists to smaller communities but the demand far exceeds the supply.