Why it matters: Republican and Democrats experienced very different realties with the emergence of the virus.

Conservatives live in states with fewer cases and consume far more skeptical coverage of the virus threat.

Liberals, especially in big cities, experience more death and consume far more ominous coverage…

Flattening the curve “is now one of the most contentious issues in politics,” the N.Y. Times Jeremy Peters writes:

“Guns, abortion, voting rights and religious expression … have emerged as fault lines in the debate over how government is responding to the crisis.”