Common, Chuck, you know better than to assume that
You are very right.
But lets get real.
The Elections are now less than six (6) weeks away, and it would be foolish to expect a change in our leaders prioritization of self-interest and re-election concerns over public health measures.
If they didn't care and downplayed virus for the past 6 months at the national, state, and local levels, they certainly are not going to change that for the next 6 weeks. And vice versa.
For better or worse, a significant proportion of the US population does listen to our leaders' advice.
That's not likely to change over the next 6 weeks either.
National Geographic has a handy county-specific chart of increases/decreases in cov2 Cases and Deaths.
I am not prepared to posit a theory as to why MidWest is getting hit the hardest now, but here is the data:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...20200925&rid=48D8AF38258A6081E4777481F50D60CB
New Cases are the leading indicators.
New Deaths are the trailing indicators of past infection caseload peaks. There FL, TX, and CA have lead the country for the past few weeks.
There was a time when NY and NJ were #1 and #2 in the Cases
and Deaths in the US.
We got hit early, and hard. Partly, that's on all of us for not being prepared, and not reacting fast enough.
Now NY and NJ are #4 and #8 in cases, and NJ will soon become #5 in deaths.
That's squarely on our political leaders for neglecting to take proper precautions to safeguard our people.
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