Trump: Blue states are to be blamed for the coronavirus death toll.

The early surge in deaths was heavily weighted toward Democratic states but from July Republican states were reporting more deaths.

The early surge in deaths was heavily weighted toward Democratic states but from July Republican states were reporting more deaths. In Sept. US President Donald Trump blamed blue states for the coronavirus death toll during a press briefing at the White House.

He pointed to a graph that the White House first unveiled in the spring, showing two estimated ranges of possible death tolls depending on the extent of efforts to contain the virus’s spread. “This was a prediction that if we do a really good job, we’ll be at about 100,000 and — 100,000 to 240,000 deaths, and we’re below that substantially, and we’ll see what comes out,” he said. “But that would be if we did a good job. If the not-so-good job was done, you’d be between 1.5 million — I remember these numbers so well — and 2.2 million. That’s quite a difference.” “So we’re down in this territory,” Trump continued, “and that’s even though the blue states had had tremendous death rates. If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at. We’re really at a very low level. But some of the states, they were blue states and blue state-managed.”

However, while it is true that the early surge in deaths was heavily weighted toward Democrat states, but that changed later. "From March to early June 2020, Republican-led states had, on average, lower COVID-19 incidence rates compared to Democratic-led states. However, on June 8, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had higher per capita COVID-19 incidence rates (RR=1.15, 95% PI: 1.02, 1.25). This trend persisted until September 30 (RR=1.26, 95% PI: 0.96, 1.51). For death rates, Republican-led states had lower average rates early in the pandemic, but higher rates from July 13 (RR=1.22, 95% PI: 1.03,1.37) through September 30 (RR=1.74, 95% PI: 1.20, 2.24)," found a report titled 'Associations between governor political affiliation and COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States.'

The top 5 states with the highest number of death rates in the US include Massachusetts which has a Republican governor.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.