Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Note: The CDC lists ~323,000 New Jersey residents (8.1% of the total fully vaccinated) whose county of residence is unknown.
Huh. I'll have to double-check, but I believe New Jersey is the first state out of the 30 I've generated graphs for so far where the vaccination rate isn't higher in the more blue-leaning counties than the red-leaning ones. Of course, it's only an extremely slight tilt, and this is a blue state so even in the reddest county (Ocean), Trump still only received 63.5% of the vote, but it's still worth noting. NJ also has an unusually high percentage of vaccinated residents whose county of residence is unknown (over 8% of the total) which could be a factor as well.
New Jersey also happens to be the U.S. state with the highest cumulative COVID-19 death toll. I have no idea if that has anything to do with anything, but figured I should throw it out there.
The Israel/Palestine situation is, as folks know, an ugly mess. Like so many other American Jews, I'm horrified by the draconian actions of the Netanyahu Administration in Israel. Emotions are high and the rise of both Islamophobia and Antisemitism here in the United States sure as hell doesn't help matters.
Last night I posted something on Twitter which was simultaneously incredibly stupid and potentially harmful to someone's career (it turns out it won't be, but I didn't know that at the time). Then I made things worse by inadvertently blocking the same person (I didn't realize I had done so until someone ripped on me for doing so); I immediately unblocked them and apologized for that...as well as apologizing profusely and repeatedly for the original screwup...but...yeah, too late.
It was one of those things where the more you try to explain/apologize the worse you make things.
I don't know whether the subject of my original tweet has accepted my apology or not as of yet (they haven't responded to it one way or the other as of this writing). I do know that at least a couple of people who I respect quite a bit have either rightly slammed me or, in at least one case, outright blocked me.
As you might imagine, I was also dogpiled by a bunch of people tearing me apart over both the original (since deleted) tweet, the block, and the rest of it.
Anyway, I screwed up royally, then compounded the screwup, and feel like crap at the moment, as I should.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Now that I've developed a standardized format/layout & methodology for tracking both state- and county-level COVID vaccination levels by partisan lean (which can also be easily applied to other variables like education level, median income, population density, ethnicity, etc), I've started moving beyond my home state of Michigan.
Note: The CDC lists ~413,000 Massachusetts residents (12.3% of the total fully vaccinated) whose county of residence is unknown.
For Massachusetts, it's important to note several things: First, every county in the state voted for Joe Biden by a wide margin (Bristol is the closest thing the state has to a "swing district").
Second, there's very little variance in vaccination rates between them as of today...with two weird exceptions: Barnstable and Dukes/Nantucket...in which, according to the CDC, only 4% and 2% of residents have been vaccinated to date, which makes zero sense whatsoever.
I know that Dukes & Nantucket are often merged for purposes of county-level data, and have a far lower combined population than the rest of the state, so I assume there's some unusual "county classification" going on there, or that the residents are reported as residing elsewhere or something. I don't know what the deal is with Barnstable, however.
Combine this with the unusually high "unknown" vaccination rate (no other state I've seen so far has had more than half as many in that category) and I'm not sure what to make of Massachusetts.
