Trending
Editor, News-Register:
With the devastating two-year surge of the COVID-19 pandemic appearing to have seen significant improvement of late, at least for the time being, it is quite noteworthy and troubling that it has been repeated that since the coronavirus vaccine became available to all Americans on July 1, 2021, that the 14 states in our great nation with the highest deaths rates -- not coincidentally, all have Republican governors, with West Virginia leading the way with 199 deaths per 100,000, followed by Wyoming with 172 deaths per 100,000, and Florida with 153 deaths per 100,000 residents.
In comparison, the least impacted areas were almost exclusively areas/states under Democratic leadership, led by Washington, D.C., with 27 deaths per 100,000, and the state of California with 58 deaths per 100,000 residents being the least impacted.
The aforementioned statistics are, quite obviously, a result of Republican governors taking a much less cautious approach in combating the pandemic as a result of their lack of stressing the importance of being fully vaccinated along with the wearing of protective masks, and encouraging social distancing in many cases, which has contributed to the demise of a great many Americans.
In particular, the Republican governor of the state of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has been very vocal in spreading unsubstantiated fears about the COVID-19 vaccines' safety, while threatening to even sue schools and private businesses for their instituting vaccine and mask mandates, with the horrific results of his "leadership" being quite obvious, and for which he and such others should be held accountable.
Much of the "war on reality" was initiated by and under the leadership of former Republican President Donald J. Trump, who when COVID-19 first began to impact Americans over two years ago, stated that even then that COVID-19 was somehow "under control," "was no worse than the common flu," "would fully disappear by Spring 2020," and was nothing more than a "Democratic hoax," completely ignoring what he had been told by medical professionals.
Conversely, and hypocritically, the vast majority of those who had vehemently verbally opposed, or at the very least, questioned the vaccine, were fully vaccinated themselves, including former President Trump, the vast majority of Republican elected officials, employees of Fox News, as well as a multitude of those affiliated with conservative "news" outlets.
Richard Hord
Martins Ferry