Coronavirus in the Red States

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2020

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Coronavirus outbreaks continue in various patterns around the United States, even as some state governors press ahead with lifting lockdowns. Particularly in rural states, support for getting back to normal has intensified, as some Americans feel their liberties are being trodden on by an overzealous public health regime. For epidemiologists such as Tara Smith, professor at the Emerging Infections Laboratory at Kent State University, this is a worrying trend as many rural areas are yet to fully experience the impact of coronavirus. And the medical and cultural anthropologist Martha Lincoln of San Francisco State University fears coronavirus strategies may have been consigned to the culture wars that have been raging between the left and right in the US for decades. But Florida political consultant and Republican Chris Ingram says there needs to be a balance in the response to COVID-19 and that some parts of the media and public health authorities have lost perspective.

Producer: Frey Lindsay.

(Picture: A protester holds a placard during an anti-lockdown protest in Michigan April 18th, 2020. Picture credit: Getty Images.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Coming up, Red State Rebellions,
0:09.3	how some Republican-led U.S. states are declaring victory over COVID-19. It's absolutely
0:15.1	asinine. Some of the restrictions that were placed. It was a government overreach and we need to be more mindful of this
0:23.8	media-induced mentality of this is going to kill us all when clearly it's not. Has America's
0:29.8	political divide blinded people to the risks of this disease? I have a cousin who is working in a
0:35.8	nursing home in a rural area. She's lost something like
0:38.8	25 patients to coronavirus over the last two months or so. And I think that's unfortunately
0:45.1	what it is going to take for some people to grasp the magnitude of this outbreak. That's all to
0:50.2	come in Business Daily from the BBC.
1:01.8	Wow. all to come in Business Daily from the BBC. It hasn't been a straightforward pandemic for the United States.
1:06.5	Even as the coronavirus death toll speeds past 100,000, many, especially in the southern and
1:13.1	Midwestern states of the country, have been protesting what they see as the cruel and unconstitutional
1:19.2	constraints placed on them by health officials.
1:22.6	Open Texas. Open Texas. Open Texas.
1:28.7	Yes, a noisy minority, a demanding freedom from the yoke of stay-at-home orders.
1:34.9	And many states are obliging.
1:37.1	They're easing the restrictions.
1:39.4	And judging by some of the local news reports like this one in Florida, the post-corona party is just getting started.
1:46.0	After several weeks of being stuck inside,
1:48.6	thousands have flocks here to Bolivavala
1:50.2	to make them most of their time while out.
1:53.3	Been in quarantine and like, I need to get out and party.
	...

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