The headline: America is in the middle of a third COVID wave.
The chart:
- Each line is the weekly COVID-19 rate (weekly cases per million) for each state and DC from March 6th to October 10th.
- The states are colored according to the 2016 election result. Red states voted for Trump, with dark-red states having the largest Trump vote percentage. Blue states voted for Clinton, with dark-blue states having the largest Clinton vote percentage.
- Three
waves of COVID are apparent::
- WAVE #1 (mid-March to end of May): The Northeast typified by NY, NJ, MA, RI, CT, DC, and LA’s New Orleans spike.
- WAVE #2 (mid-June to mid-August): The South typified by AR, FL, LA, MS, SC, TX, GA, and NV.
- WAVE #3 (early-September to present): Mid/Mountain-West typified by ND, SD, MT, WI, NE, UT, ID, IA, and WY.
- The first wave is dominated by Blue States. The 12 “best” states currently are Blue.
- The second and third waves are dominated by Red states. The 16 “worst” states currently are Red.
- The first wave occurred when testing rates were low. The real rates were likely much higher.
- The second and third waves occurred when testing rates were relatively steady (see https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/testing/individual-states).
- Several states in the third wave are demonstrating rates potentially much higher than the second wave (though perhaps not the first wave if the true numbers were known).
The data: COVID-19 data were collected from USAFacts (https://usafacts.org/visualizations/coronavirus-covid-19-spread-map/). Election data were collected and compiled by Charted Territory.
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