The reality of the least affected thirty states...

So one of the things mentioned at the briefing was that there were as many as thirty states who may be within the guidelines to start a phased reopening of their economies. This doesn't mean that the Governors will be just reopening everything all at once like nothing ever happened. But it does mean that a majority of our states have areas identified that can safely see a partial opening back up of their economies.

To put this into perspective, we need to look at the numbers:

• The thirty states in question account for about 6% of the actual reported deaths nationally
• This equals out to less than 2200 deaths in all 30 states combined
• Out of those deaths, approximately 1700 of them are over the age of 65 and nearly 2000 of them are 55 and older
• That means that in those 30 states combined, less than 500 working age people have died of Covid-19 since the outbreak began
• Of those 500, only about 200 under the age of 55 have died in those 30 states combined
• Many people in these rural red states live in counties that have yet to report even a single case, much less a death

Now I want you to put yourself in their shoes for a second. You are not seeing anyone around you even getting sick, much less dying. You might have heard about one or two people, but nothing that would cause you any great alarm.

But you are currently not allowed to work, make money, pay your bills, and you may even be struggling to buy groceries. You might be running through your retirement, you might be worried about losing your house, your car, or the possibility of filing bankruptcy.

That assumes that you even have a job to go back to, as many are worried that the longer they go without an economy, the lower the chances is that the company or business they work for will even be there when this is over. 

All this is happening not because anyone around you is dying, but because people in coastal population centers are getting sick and dying. So while you may feel for what is happening in New York, New Jersey, or Michigan, it is simply not happening to you or the people around you.

Moreover if you happen to live in a state with a Democratic Governor (like Minnesota), the shut down is even more draconian than most of your neighbors. This is being done in spite of obvious evidence that the vast majority of your state's death are occurring in nursing homes and assisted living communities, and in spite of your Governor's own research showing that a more moderate plan to contain the spread would have been just as successful as the complete shut-down you are being put through. 

But what is possibly the most irritating portion of all of this is that the calls to shut down your community are largely coming from other areas of the country and they seem to be politically motivated. People are putting pressure on every Governor to take the same draconian measures as are being used in places of high outbreak. When someone refuses (such as several Midwestern state Governors) every reported case in those states is being escalated nationally as if it the personal responsibility of that Governor. 

Time to respect that this is not just a country of and for the coastal population centers. There is a vast country where states like Texas are the size of France and it takes longer to drive from one coast to another than it does to drive across Europe. There is no reason why every state has to follow the same path, just because it makes certain people feel better. 

Not when people's lives are not really in danger, but their livelihoods are.