WALL STREET JOURNAL: Arizona and the Media Panic: When will reporters acknowledge lower coronavirus mortality in the Sun Belt?

via WSJ:

It’s not easy to gain necessary perspective from the article, but the story does link to a page featuring various statistics related to the virus. According to the Post’s data, per capita Covid-19 deaths in Florida, Texas and Arizona remain far below the levels in New York and New Jersey. In fact the Post website shows that per capita deaths in both New York and New Jersey are more than 10 times the number in Texas.

These encouraging data out of the Sun Belt suggest at least a few possibilities, along with many others. One possibility is that many more people in the Northeast had the virus in the spring than we realized, so the mortality rate is lower than many feared. Another is that doctors have learned to offer better treatment. Another is that Sun Belt governors have learned to prioritize the protection of the vulnerable elderly, rather than forcing them to live in nursing homes with Covid patients, as in the New York example.

Or maybe there are characteristics of the New York City area that made it uniquely vulnerable. Regardless, the good news is that, despite the absence of a vaccine, the virus is lately killing fewer people.

Speaking of good news, the Post story does actually contain some. “The rate of new, positive coronavirus cases has slightly declined in Arizona in recent days,” begins paragraph 41.

Much like democracy, sometimes the news can seem to die and be buried in the final throes of an extensive commentary.

Related: Andrew Cuomo’s Coronavirus Response Has Been a Failure: The media’s fawning interviews obscure the New York governor’s record. All the talk of Texas, Arizona, and Florida is just covering fire for a Democrat grandee who’s screwed the pooch.

h/t Glenn