South Dakota and Vermont are not only two very different states politically — they are also two states that have had very different COVID-19 outcomes. And Dr. Ashish Jha, a dean at the Brown University School of Public Health who is often featured as a medical expert on MSNBC, lays out some reasons for those outcomes in an op-ed published by the Washington Post this week.
South Dakota is a deep red state with a Republican governor, Kristi Noem, who is a far-right supporter of former President Donald Trump and has been highly critical of COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing measures. Even now, she still brags about her refusal to comply with basic public health precautions:
South Dakota did not do any mandates. We trusted our people, gave them all the information and told them that personal responsibility was the best answer. https://t.co/46QTDPxnYl
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) July 11, 2021
Vermont, in contrast, is a blue state that has a Republican governor, Phil Scott, who leans conservative economically but is far from a Trump loyalist. Although Scott has policy differences with Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist,” he crossed party lines in the 2020 presidential election and voted for now-President Joe Biden — not Trump. And Scott has never been a coronavirus denier. Continue reading.