Thread by @doctorow

Nationwide, the American south is facing the worst harms from coronavirus (as @yvessmith points out, big blue cities get more coverage because that's where the press lives).

pewtrusts.org/en/research-an…

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Southern states have the worst wealth inequality in the country. They also have the lowest taxes (these facts are related), and their Republican leadership blocked Medicaid expansion because they said they were too broke for the 10% co-pay the feds asked for as part of ACA.

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(Of course, blocks to Medicaid expansion can't be blamed solely on empty coffers; the GOP leadership in red states are ideologically opposed to universal health-care and wanted to discredit Obama)

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Cities like Albany, Georgia have per-capita coronavirus rates to rival NYC. These are predominantly Black cities, whose local governments are broke, and whose state governments are unlikely to offer sufficient (or even meaningful) aid.

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The southern states' problems aren't just the result of brittle infrastructure. These are also states whose power-centers are white evangelical Fox-viewing Republicans, who deliberately ignored public health advice to own the libs.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/27/jus…

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Their governors were late to declare lockdowns. During the exponential growth phase of a pandemic, even small delays add up to huge increases in spread. Southern states had very, very large delays.

pluralistic.net/2020/04/13/con…

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The affluent white southerners who are the architects of the region's brittle public health system and who performed tribal loyalty by defying quarantine advice skew older, but are also more likely to have access to better health care.

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Meanwhile, the New Jim Crow means that Black southerners are already likely to have chronic, untreated health conditions, no savings to allow them to choose not to work to protect their health and their families, and no access to health care.

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"It's a high-stakes stress test on our system, revealing weaknesses and gaps we’ve always known were there. The question is whether the light will be bright enough this time that our officials will be forced to face the reality and address it." -@JimCarnesAL, @AlabamaArise

eof/