By Jennifer Rubin, Photo: Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press, The Washington Post, March 17, 2022
It should come as no surprise that the highest rates for covid-19 deaths and murders are found mainly in red states. A political mind-set that prioritizes racial resentment, anti-science zealotry and manufactured cultural wedge issues is not likely to be conducive to long, healthy lives. Indeed, antagonism toward “elites” (e.g., experts) often impedes common-sense measures that save lives.
Steven H. Woolf, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, writes in the Journal of American Medicine: “Disparities in health across the 50 states are growing, a trend that began in the 1990s. For example, in 1990, life expectancy in New York was lower than in Oklahoma, but the trajectories separated sharply in the 1990s and, by 2016, New York ranked third in life expectancy, whereas Oklahoma ranked 45th.” Moreover, “the widening gap cannot be explained by changes in the racial and ethnic composition of states, because the same trend occurred within racial and ethnic groups.”
Instead, Woolf says the politics of red states is killing their residents. “Conservative governors increasingly use preemption, the authority to override local governments, to block liberal health policies (e.g., indoor smoking bans),” he notes. “States have preempted local regulations on nutrition (e.g., menu labeling, food deserts) and, as of 2013, 45 states had enacted statutes to limit local firearm regulations.”
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