Tale of two responses

I chose the two states purely because they made headlines in BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52311877
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-52283748

 South Dakota in the US vs Kerala in India
South Dakota: Population of 884,659 in area 199,729 km2 
Kerala:Population of 33,387,677 in area of 38,863 km

First recorded case: 30 Jan 2020 in Kerala, March 10, 2020 in SD

 Deaths: 7 out of 988 cases, 6 out of 394 cases

 Kerala, densely populated in a developing country managed better than a sparsely populated state in a developed economy.

 While there have been multiple reasons attributed for the statistics, I feel its the apathy Smithfield processing plant had for its employees, mostly "foreigners" in a right-wing state...their lives were not worth all that much. As reported in another article, the conservative states are still not willing to acknowledge the pandemic or take necessary steps to ebb the spread.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/coronavirus-hot-spots-farm-belt-189272

 Kerala on the other hand, was dealing mostly with its own "sons and daughters".  Headed by a communist government with strong local governance, Kerala has managed to minimize the spread.

 As naysayers of India like to conclude, it is probably because of the lack of testing.
Or maybe it is time to give credit when it is due. Well done Kerala.


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