First some slightly bad news for the red states: The COVID-19 death rate has increased significantly in many states. However, the death rate in even the worst-affected red states is still well below that of most of their progressive counterparts that remained closed (Graph 1), so CDC following recommendations to “roll back” the opening of these mostly red states are likely to do more harm than good. Graph 1: Data for political affiliation for 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016 was provided by Gallup. Coronavirus data (accessed on May 14 and July 23, 2020) was provided by USA Today. All data used in the graphs is accessible here. Now for the really good news for red states: The death rate per 1000 cases in the 12 most conservative states has improved to the point that it is currently five times lower than the corresponding average rate in the 12 most progressive states (Graph 2). Graph 2: Note that nearly all improvement for COVID-19 survival took place in red...(Read Full Article)