Coronavirus Prefers Republican States

(10 August 2020)  Right after the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C. took control over direct reporting of COVID-19 statistics, the second wave of the pandemic started to fade in the United States. Whether the altered trend reflects changes in methodology behind COVID-19 data, natural abatement, or renewal of anti-covid restrictions in many US states, one fact is beyond a doubt: republican strong-hold states experienced a significantly stronger second wave of COVID-19.

• The latest polls from FiveThirtyEight and case data from the COVID Tracker Project show that all US states for which Trump has an advantage over Biden along with so-called swing states—like Arizona, Florida, and Georgia—experienced a strong second wave of the pandemic in July. 
• In 11 states where Democrats have the advantage, either the second wave was held off or the number of daily COVID-19 cases in July was much lower than in the April to May timeframe.