gREAT rEPLACING THEMSELVES:

In one study, researchers concluded that people living in more-conservative parts of the United States disproportionately bore the burden of illness and death linked to COVID-19. The other, which looked at health outcomes more broadly, found that the more conservative a state's policies, the shorter the lives of working-age people.

The reasons are many, but, increasingly, it is state -- and not just federal -- policies that have begun to shape the economic, family, environmental, and behavioral circumstances that affect people's well-being. Some states have expanded their social safety nets, raising minimum wages and offering earned income tax credits while using excise taxes to discourage behaviors -- such as smoking -- that have deleterious health consequences. Other states have moved in the opposite direction.

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