Avoidable Fatalities in “Tipping Point” States: Impact of Presidential Actions and Policies on States October 30, 2020 The avoidable death count from COVID-19 continues to rise. Using simple comparative mortality rates we have expanded the prior national comparative study to look at how we can also estimate the number of lives that might have been avoided if these states had the same benefits from national leadership as the neighboring province of Ontario, Canada. Overall, these avoidable deaths will only continue to rise in the absence of leadership and substantive assistance from the Administration. The continued failures to pass additional stimulus funding by Congress and the White House may also be punished by those voting in the 2020 election. Additionally: This week, during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, President Trump said he might withhold future disaster funding for the Keystone State as retribution for the Governor’s aggressive coronavirus restrictions as the pandemic surges. Regardless of whether or not he follows through with this, disaster relief funding often has significant electoral repercussions, and President Trump may very well find himself on the wrong side of the data. Recently, Michigan was threatened with funding cut-offs if it sent absentee ballots to every voter. Trump also threatened to withhold COVID-19 assistance to states with sanctuary cities. Further, the lack of funding to support the millions who have been pushed into poverty as a result of this pandemic and ongoing threats to withhold federal disaster relief funds to push partisan agendas also set a dangerous precedent in the politicization of disaster spending and escalates the brinksmanship in disaster funding that is growing in the absence of cohesive national leadership on these issues. Irwin Redlener, MD Senior Advisor, Founding Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) Sean Hansen, MPA Staff Associate III Jeff Schlegelmilch, MPH MBA Faculty Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Faculty of Climate, Columbia Climate School Recovery
