One thing I'm discovering is that a lot of people genuinely do not know how bad COVID hit their region or state the first time around.

I think the reporting on places that weren't NY or maybe CA have just not been particularly great.

And people are proud of their state for wrestling this thing under control.

Good!

We should be proud of our states. We should be glad when we've made it out the other side.

Some states didn't do it that way, they avoided that first wave. They don't deserve disdain.

We've got this sense that, b/c we feel our state did a good job managing this disease, that we forgot how hard it hit.

People don't get that even mid-level first wave states ended up with something like 50 deaths per 100K

And that's not 50% worse than Texas, that's 500% worse

TX just simply didn't get a first wave. Maybe that was due to good policy or maybe they just got lucky.

But now that they are having a first wave, it does not make them bad, incompetent, or evil.

Either blame everyone by the same measure or give up the blame game.