Coronavirus has come to Trump country

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Politics • Analysis

Coronavirus has come to Trump country

After being centered in blue states, cases are now being added faster in red ones.

By Philip Bump
June 17, 2020 at 11:03 a.m. EDT

After months of quarantine and restrictions, a health care worker and a large group of her friends went out for a meal at a recently reopened restaurant in Florida.

She and 15 others have tested positive for the coronavirus, infections she blames on that meal.

Stories like this are what epidemiologists feared as states pushed to reopen after months of efforts to contain the virus: lax oversight and a failure of people to use protective measures such as masks in places where the virus had not receded. What makes this story particularly telling, though, is where it occurred: Jacksonville, recently chosen by the Republican Party as the site of President Trump’s formal acceptance of his party’s nomination for November’s presidential election.

The party’s convention was originally going to be held in its entirety in Charlotte. Trump forced a change of plans, though, out of frustration that North Carolina mandated social-distancing measures intended to slow the spread of the virus. Jacksonville was more amenable to the sort of energetic crowd he wants to see. It was also more amenable to that large dinner party.

{snip}

Philip Bump
Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. Before joining The Post in 2014, he led politics coverage for the Atlantic Wire. Follow https://twitter.com/pbump

[dawg day]

1. The map shows an unbroken "rising" rate all across the south.

It's really strikingly bad.
But the governors are going to follow Pence's advice and pretend it away.

[Frustratedlady]

2. Golly gee! He simply can't make a good decision, can he? The virus follows him around like a puppy.

I'll bet his campaign committee is going nuts trying to satisfy his whims.

Where will they land next?