Southern Culture And Politics May Prove Deadly In Pandemic

MOBILE, Ala. — A close friend here confided her worries about a recent family funeral. Her extended family memorialized a loved one with a well-attended service in a small church in eastern Alabama, and they gathered afterward at a home for the traditional repast of Southern-style comfort foods. My friend did not attend, but her elderly mother did.

Such gatherings have already been singled out as carrying a high risk for spreading the novel coronavirus. A funeral held in Albany, Georgia, in late February likely contributed to the high rate of infections — and COVID-19 deaths — there, as The New York Times has reported. Still, much of the Deep South remains in denial. That won’t be the only well-attended funeral in this part of the world in the weeks ahead.

Earlier this week, Dr. Deborah Birx, a prominent member of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, showed slides from a sophisticated computer model that predicts the United States could easily suffer 200,000 COVID-19 deaths even “if we do things almost perfectly.” If we fail to take the stringent precautions that the task force recommends, that number could quickly soar to upward of 2 million. Continue reading.