Weaponizing COVID-19 for the ultimate political benefit, the usefulness of COVID-19 fear cannot solely rely upon the infection of President Trump. For maximum election usefulness the infection fear must be nationalized; and at the very least emphasized in those states most important for electoral gains.
Cue the next predictable phase in the 2020 political weaponization…
YAHOO – As the summer slowed down in August and early September, it seemed the U.S. had reached a turning point in the pandemic—finally COVID case numbers were going down. But in recent weeks, the country’s fate has changed. As of Oct. 3, the U.S. is seeing an eight percent rise in COVID cases from the average two weeks earlier, The New York Times reports. Of course, as has been the case throughout the pandemic, some states are being hit worse than others. It’s clear the virus has been ravaging the Midwest and now, is inching its way into western states as well. Based on the latest data, those two regions have the worst COVID outbreaks nationwide.
There are many ways to measure a state’s COVID outbreak, but these are the three key metrics: the number of new daily cases per 100,000 residents; the positive test rate, which is the percent of COVID tests done in each state that yield a positive result (a metric Anthony Fauci, MD, has called a “good predictor of a surge“); and the infection rate, which indicates the number of people each positive patient will infect. (read more)
