He may proclaim it and stage his remission, Donald Trump has not finished with the Covid-19. With less than three weeks before the presidential election, the polls seem to be increasingly favorable to his rival, Joe Biden. At the same time, the epidemic continues to progress in the states initially more favorable to the billionaire.
The President of the United States is trying to use this episode of his life to convince the Americans of his resistance. “I feel so powerful,” he recently proclaimed, relaunching his campaign, while pushing his party opponent into the ass, 77 years old.
On Tuesday, visiting the Democratic stronghold of Broward (Florida), Joe Biden retorted by assuring that “the only elderly person Trump seems to care about is himself,” he said in the middle of an assembly totally masked which contrasts with the images of the president’s meetings.
Florida holds a prominent place on Joe Biden’s chessboard: more than 22% of the population over 60 years ago, 15,000 people were swept away by the Covid-19 and, above all, it is among the famous “Swing states”, these key states likely to switch to the Democratic or Republican side at the discretion of the elections.
The virus remains one of the major points of tension in the campaign, as the fateful date of November 3 is approaching. And the latest epidemiological bulletins show that, in recent months, Covid-19 kills more in the States won by Donald Trump in 2016.
Majority of deaths in states won by Clinton in 2016
At the peak of the epidemic in the United States in April 2020, New York State and its neighbor New Jersey accounted for almost half of recorded deaths. Coastal states, more open to the world, which traditionally vote for the Democratic camp.
Three weeks before the election, the states won by Hillary Clinton four years earlier still have more deaths, 109,502, than those where Donald Trump had won, 104,635. Likewise, reported to the population, the virus seems to have affected these electoral territories at relatively close levels: 1,400 deaths recorded per 100,000 inhabitants in the pro-Trump states in 2016, against 1,387 in the camp opposite.
As of October 12, New York State remains the one that has paid the heaviest price since the start of the crisis, with nearly 33,000 people dead. Next come Texas (17,073), California (16,594), New Jersey (16,175) and Florida.
Since the summer, the epidemic has spread mainly in pro-Trump states
However, if the curves seem to converge in recent weeks, it is because the virus has above all a tendency to kill in the States initially won by Trump. A trend that has suddenly been reversed since July.
According to our calculations, since the beginning of September, 72% of deaths have been recorded in states that were initially pro-Trump. Since then, among the ten states most affected by the disease, eight have been won by the incumbent president 4 years ago.
Cavalier attitude, snubbed masks, meeting without precautions … Donald Trump himself has made Covid-19 a divisive marker of the campaign, from the start of the crisis in the spring, to his own contamination at the beginning of October.
From there to making the presidential management of the epidemic a reason for rejection at the polls? Answer on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr