While Gov. Lujan Grisham continues to campaign as if abortion is the only issue on the ballot this November, there are numerous important issues that voters should consider as they head to the polls. One of those is the Gov.’s handling of COVID.
On her campaign website (below) Lujan Grisham claims that New Mexico had “lower case numbers and fewer deaths than Arizona and Texas.” She is correct about Arizona which (according to the World o Meters COVID tracking site) has the 2nd-highest COVID death rate. New Mexico has the 5th-highest rate. Texas, on the other hand, has the 29th-highest death rate (and a lower infection rate as well), see chart below.
Is MLG lying? Is she simply relying on the fact that New Mexico has a MUCH smaller population than Texas and thus has a smaller number of infections? It is hard to say for sure, but clearly New Mexico did not perform as well as Texas on COVID or particularly well in general under her leadership.
Repeating this again: it is critically important to look at total excess deaths, *not* just COVID-related ones. That tells you the impact of lockdown policies implemented here, and the general sense of fear, anxiety and terror “spread” by this administration. New Mexico was 50th in excess deaths per capita. Arizona was worse, but Texas and Florida were better. Florida was *much* better, and they opened up the most.
Will no one challenge this extremely myopic view of the “effectiveness” of NM COVID measures? What about the horrible impact on education from the lockdowns, which will take years to recover from if the poor kids ever do?
You would think the libertarian party, which is supposed to stand for personal freedom, would take up the lockdowns as an issue? The massive trampling on individual rights didn’t even accomplish the intended goal of fewer total deaths.
Addressing the original question, no the governor is not “lying” in that the quoted statistics about AZ vs NM are correct. But it is deceptive to say the least to show only that comparison and not how NM did relative to *every other state* in the country. There’s more to the country than AZ and NM. This is “cherry picking” at its worst. Of course the media will never call attention to this fact.