The Coronavirus is Getting Ready to Devastate the South

Poverty, conservatism, science denialism will help spread COVID-19

nwyPhoto by Markus Spiske (Unsplash)

As the coronavirus ripples across the United States, we’re witnessing how different states are reacting to it. The first reported case was in Washington. But now, California seems to be “flattening the curve,” as it was quick to shut down large population centers such as the Los Angeles metro area and the Bay Area. New York is faring much worse. At one point, New York recorded about 1,000 fatalities in a day.

Doctor Predicts Coronavirus Outbreak in American South

But now the virus is spreading to the Midwest and southern states. Louisiana recently topped 1,000 coronavirus deaths. The virus is likely to kill thousands of people in the Heartland and the South but these regions are ill-prepared to handle the disease.

Here are the reasons why:

The South Was Already Unhealthy

It’s common knowledge that southern states such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have some of the most unhealthy people in the nation. Poor eating habits, lack of access to nutritious food and a car culture that doesn’t cater to pedestrians have created a deadly mix. States like Mississippi have health outcomes as poor as developing countries.

A 2013 Salon article analyzed World Health Organization figures and found the average life expectancy of a male in Tunica, Miss. (66 years) was the same as Guatemala. Also, southern states have high rates of hypertension, obesity and diabetes, all diseases that make you more susceptible to dying from the coronavirus. Even more disturbing is states such as Alabama and Mississippi have large black populations who tend to suffer from these kinds of ailments.

Defunding Healthcare

Some Midwestern and Southern states are very conservative. They refused to invest money through the Medicare expansion program because many right-wing politicians don’t believe in “government-run healthcare” and would rather put things in the hands of the for-profit healthcare system.

“At the driving range, while Geoff Frost (a Democrat) and his like-minded friends slathered on hand sanitizer and kept six feet apart, the white-haired Republicans seemed to delight in breaking the new rules. They made a show of shaking hands, and complained loudly about the ‘stupid hoax’ being propagated by virus alarmists,” said McKay Coppins — The Atlantic.

This is the same system that’s laying off medical workers at the height of a pandemic and charging people $3,000 for getting treated for the coronavirus. A friend of mine who lives in Oklahoma sounded the alarm on this about three weeks ago. She said Oklahoma had slashed funding to rural hospitals. Many sparsely populated states, such as Oklahoma and Mississippi, are made up of large rural areas. This is going to be a disaster when people sick with the coronavirus have to drive hundreds of miles to the nearest hospital in a metro area.

Aggressive Ignorance

This is also linked to politics. Right-wing politics has cultivated ignorance for years. Some of the biggest stars in right-wing radio, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, are all college dropouts who disdain intellectuals and experts. For years, Limbaugh blew off the dangers of smoking, now he has cancer. (In 2000, Vice President Mike Pence penned an article claiming ‘’smoking doesn’t kill.”)

Additionally, right-wing news media is also prone to believe in conspiracy theories. The ludicrous QAnon conspiracy theory, that claims the world is run by a secret cult of child-murdering Satanists, has been featured on One America News, President Donald Trump’s favorite channel. Additionally, the majority of Republicans don’t believe in climate change. Right-wing media has primed its viewers to disregard scientific facts. Naturally many conservatives still refuse to take COVID-19 seriously. On March 13, Limbaugh called COVID-19 “the cold virus.”

Have Conspiracy Theories Gone Mainstream?

In a March 30 Atlantic article McKay Coppins details the dangers of science denialism in the age of the coronavirus. According to Coppins, some Trump supporters refuse to practice social distancing as a form of political protest.

“At the driving range, while Geoff Frost (a Democrat) and his like-minded friends slathered on hand sanitizer and kept six feet apart, the white-haired Republicans seemed to delight in breaking the new rules. They made a show of shaking hands, and complained loudly about the ‘stupid hoax’ being propagated by virus alarmists,” said Coppins.

He also interviewed Katherine Vincent-Crowson, a Louisiana resident, who compared social distancing rules to Nazi Germany. Vincent-Crowson also said, “I’m a libertarian … I don’t really like being told what to do.”

On April 15, The Daily Beast reported that ReopenNC, a Facebook group with more than 25,000 members, gathered to protest shutdown orders. In addition, several governors in Midwestern and southern states still refuse to implement shutdown orders.

Poverty Leads to Deadly Lack of Choice

Finally, the South is one of the poorest regions in America. Wages in states such as Mississippi are notoriously low. According to 2019 figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly wage in Issaquena County, Miss. was $473. The south is also home to several low-wage industries such as chicken plants and hog farms. However, many Southerners voted for Trump because he promised to return jobs that have been outsourced to even lower-wage countries such as China and India. (He hasn’t.)

How are people on these wages supposed to cope with the cost of a hospital visit? Additionally, many low-wage workers simply can’t afford to quit their jobs, so they’ll keep working and risk getting infected.

Low-wage workers, in a politically conservative environment, primed to disregard science is the perfect environment for the growth and spread of COVID-19. The coronavirus is getting ready to devastate the South.

A White House insider told The Guardian: “The Trump organism is simply collapsing. He’s killing his own supporters.”