Want to Live Longer? Move to a Red State

Statistical and anecdotal evidence suggest that if you are elderly and want to survive Covid-19, you should move to a red state.  Here in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has imposed few restrictions, yet somehow we are not dropping like flies. The Sunshine State in fact is well down the list of places where the pandemic is alleged to be winning, but it is surely not because we are tightly locked down and masked 24/7. To the contrary, everyone who lives and works here is free to do pretty much as he pleases, subject to the test of common sense.  I suspect there are millions of us who wear masks not because we are persuaded that the science behind them is correct, for it is muddled at best, but to be polite and to humor those who think a loosely attached, cotton face cone purchased from CVS could somehow shield one from Covid’s submicroscopic, infinitely clever airborne spores. Life goes on hereabouts in any event. Outdoor concerts and street fairs, though not explicitly forbidden, are few and far between not because we are afraid of outdoor crowds, but because promoters fear they’ll lose money on such events.

A Witch-Hunt

In my gated community, the three golf courses are more crowded than ever, and nearly all amenities are open, including dining rooms, fitness center, salon, neighborhood swimming pools, pickleball and tennis courts. Not everyone chooses to use them, however, and some neighbors, including one of my oldest friends, are so paranoid that they will not even touch a ping-pong ball or billiard cue that has been handled by someone else. Science tells us that Covid does not transmit very well on surfaces; but better not to touch anything at all, some evidently believe, than risk dying from contact with a contaminated ping-pong ball.

The average age of residents at Hunters Run exceeds 70, and so there are some sensible in-house restrictions that everyone follows. One of them is a quarantine regimen that requires all visitors from out of state, even family, to get tested twice for Covid, the second time 72 hours after getting here. Although I’m skeptical myself that the tests are useful other than as a placebo, I have followed the rule myself because I don’t want to risk being at the epicenter of some contact-tracing witch hunt that stigmatizes family and friends.

I feel sorry for my New York and California friends and siblings because lockdowns there have turned great urban centers, notably San Francisco and New York City, into economic and cultural dead zones. Still worse is that they have made people who live in those places deathly afraid of a virus that few of us who dwell in the vast red spaces of America’s political map worry about.  Because many of us will choose not to be vaccinated, at least not right away, the Pfizer/Moderna rollout is guaranteed to produce an edict to the effect that if you have been inoculated, you get to proclaim it to the world with a brightly colored armband.  Cuomo will be the first to display his, and, unmitigated asshole that he is, he will flaunt a waterproof version that can be worn in the shower.  In deep-blue states where Fauci and Bill Gates are wildly popular, they may take the additional step of providing digital implants to speed sheeple who have had their shots through ubiquitous checkpoints bearing the Windows logo. Red-state denizens can take heart, since such excesses are certain to spark a popular uprising or even a civil war. That’s assuming, of course, that a Boris Johnson-style, Tier 4 lockdown hasn’t done so before then.

  • Mark Sircus December 22, 2020, 6:40 am

    I guess it is true that the world is now divided between the sane and the insane. There is the mainstream narrative and all its cheerleaders, and then there are truth-seekers. Rick, you are spot on and I am glad my 90-year-old mom lives in Florida, although I am super-glad I moved to Brazil 30 years ago. Even the Nazis were not able to cause as much harm as Fauci, Gates and gang. It’s a world-wide takedown, and it should not be forgiven. Punishments for the [conspirators] should be severe.

  • Rich December 21, 2020, 8:27 am

    Bravo Rick

    Liberty is indeed a powerful affirmation of life and happiness

    When science gives little support for lockdowns and masks, we look elsewhere to understand the oligarchic fascination

    Not too far from you Turning Point USA gave a powerful Declaration of Independence 2020 with a disparaging note from GOOGL/YouTube

    https://youtu.be/VJ1in0r92WY?t=1127

    We shall see if Sebastian Gorka’s 6 Jan 2021 Electoral Epiphany works in Congress

    Meantime this market is very extended, more than I have seen in a lifetime

    Regards All

  • David Klim December 21, 2020, 7:26 am

    Rick,
    Such a polarizing and selfish article would be laughable if it weren’t so sadly uneducated and full of bias. Glad from your little community you are able to surmise the situation and boil it down to red and blue. WOW!!

    ” I have followed the rule myself because I don’t want to risk being at the epicenter of some contact-tracing witch hunt that stigmatizes family and friends”.
    Not ” I am not worried about myself , but I follow safety protocol because I know there are those that are vulnerable (Who exactly we don’t always know) that could be infected by someone showing no symptoms.

    Leave your little utopia and visit a hospital that is nearing capacity nearby and tell all the patients you have a red pill to take and then “everything is great” and “we have already rounded the corner” and “there are a few cases and soon it will disappear, like magic”. I’m sure they will say we are glad we are in a red state so our suffering and loss is not real.

    Try to think of someone other than yourself that you care about (if possible) and imagine that the action or inaction of others affects them, and could possibly harm them, cause suffering or worse. I worked construction for 30 years and had to wear inconvenient safety gear (depending on the company policy) in uncomfortable conditions but we did it. Many “Red” Americans are selfish babies who imagine they are tough.

    David

    &&&&&&&&

    You have ignored the factual details I’ve presented, the better to train your laser-focused self-righteousness on my supposed lack of sensitivity and tough-guy pose. Ad hominem aside, David, there really IS a red/blue divide where Covid paranoia is concerned, and I can only surmise that it is rooted in the differences between the way liberals and conservatives view the world. Liberals, of which you would appear to be one, have their heads so far up their asses that I do not even attempt to address their misguided concerns. The people for whom I write have had it up to here with Covid hysteria, and they don’t fancy being subjugated any further to the psuedo-scientific whim of lockdown nazis. RA

    • RedWillDanaher December 23, 2020, 2:51 pm

      DK, yet another know-it-all Boxcar Zombie. Not worth your time Rick.

  • Ross Gladstone December 21, 2020, 6:06 am

    as always, you are spot on.
    we were told to wear arm bands, we had to show papers, we got tattooed numbers in our arms. I remember, I will never forget, never again.
    if you act like a nazi, then you are a nazi.

  • Richard Wendel December 20, 2020, 9:46 pm

    EXCELLENT!