Since when is Texas a pejorative? By itself it would be a world top-15 economy, and its pandemic performance was not an outlier or exceptional. If anything it, along with Florida, demonstrated that extremely strict lockdowns don't correlate to better outcomes. Nothing like Alberta.
The death rate in Florida is 180/100k [1]. That's pretty close to the national average. If the entire US had gone like Florida, then instead of 613k deaths, we'd have 590k. So, yes, Florida was better than average despite not having a severe lockdown. But Florida also has fairly separated populations: a lot of old people very likely to get vaccinated, and a lot of young people very likely to survive.
For comparison, Oregon had a pretty hard lockdown. Its death rate is 68/100k. If the entire US had that same death rate, 390,000 Americans would still be alive today.
If you look at the data, it is clear that lockdown is not the only thing affecting death rate. But it also seems pretty obvious that social distancing did have a significant impact on the number of people who died. There are thousands of Americans that are dead today because people wanted to go to a party, or a restaurant, or a wedding.
>There are thousands of Americans that are dead today because people wanted to go to a party, or a restaurant, or a wedding.
And there are tens of thousands of Americans who willingly gave their lives fighting in wars so that Americans (and citizens of various allied countries) could still do such things and live freely. A life driven just by fear of death is barely a life at all.
Deaths in the US (like in the UK) are barely moving unlike during the other waves b/c of elderly vaccination rates. I really doubt this will budge the aggregate fatality rates much at all.
The numbers I've seen are that death rate per capita has been lowering California than Florida so far, so while I think investigation should be done about about "were the outcomes so much better to justify whatever additional cost[0]" I haven't seen anything suggesting that public health measures haven't had any effect.
We should, of course, also wait until things have actually settled down and we don't keep having more periodic surges...
[0] how costly, exactly, things have been is another question that needs more investigation, especially for all types of interventions. E.g. if, after 2022, nowhere in the US institutes another Covid mask mandate or lockdown, all the folks hysterical about how "Covid is just an excuse for democrats to take your freedoms away and never give it back" should rethink a few things.
Florida also has a lot more residents in the vulnerable 65+ age group. So all else being equal we would expect Florida to have a much higher death rate.
On the flip side, Florida has year round warm weather and sunshine. Not only does that sanitize viral particles, but it makes it easier to move socialization outdoors.
India's per-capita deaths are lower than Floria. And sunlight sanitizing the air might be bunk, but being able to socialize more outdoors is very much not. India's population density is nowhere close to Florida's.
'Pray for rain' type politicians and Taliban style government. (Rick Perry, the Bushes, Paxton and Abbott)
Cronyism run rampant.
Some of the most corrupt corporations.
The electrical grid collapse, Refinery explosions,
West Fertilizer Company explosion, Result of letting corporations 'regulate themselves'
Cowboyism/Ignorance as a virtue.
One the most polluted states.
The only reason Texas can be in the world top 15 economy is due to population and landmass size, along with its dependency on oil. But given Texas is second in state population behind California and California is #5 in the world, I'd argue it's not doing as well as it could be.
Oh, and the weather in Texas is less preferable to having a weasel clamp down on your balls.
Okay Mr. Facts, show me the breakdown of vaccine rates by different groups. And then tell me about how all those groups lean Republican. Because in my state it is groups who overwhelmingly vote democrat who make up the vast majority of unvaccinated. But I have a feeling that bashing Republicans for not getting vaccinated is a lot like publicly pronouncing your hatred of pineapple pizza. Just something the cool kids do.
And when you say complete disregard for the virus/vaccine, show me some facts that back it up. Like "complete disregard" means no republicans got vaccinated? None of them said vaccines work and to please get vaccinated? Like share some of these facts that you base this on and show me it isn't your political bias.
Who cares about "your state" which is clearly just anecdata? This is a national trend where Republicans shun mask mandates and vaccines. That article above provides more links for the vaccine related claims
> when you say complete disregard for the virus/vaccine, show me some facts that back it up
How's this for size - Florida (you know, a famously Republican state with a Republican governor) is threatening to withhold EDUCATION FUNDING from school districts that have mask mandates: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/07/30/des...
I could go on, but you are being very emotionally charged and disregarding a lot of very obvious rhetoric to try and make a blatantly false point.
