When geography speaks by itself

Jesús Sánchez Meleán

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I’d love if Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, could explain me aloud, the meaning of the Colorado’s map that I attach. “Alexa, what do the colors on the map mean?”, l would ask her. Her answer would be along these lines. “Darker shades of green indicate Colorado counties that have a vaccination rate of more than 61 percent. Meanwhile, the counties colored with lighter shades of green are those that do not exceed 61 percent of vaccination against Covid-19”.

An interesting answer from Alexa. My view goes straight to the central part of the map. There I find the counties painted dark green in where more than 81 percent of the population has already been vaccinated. Those counties that are safer because of the higher vaccination rate include cities such as Steamboat Springs, Vail, Aspen, Gunnison, Salida, Durango, Douglas, Jefferson, Boulder, Broomfield, Longmont, and all the cities in the Denver metropolitan area.

I go straight to the next question, Alexa “what’s the Colorado county that has the lowest percentage of vaccinated people against COVID-19? The answer is clear. “According to data from the Colorado Department of Human Health (CDPHE), as of December 1, 2021, Washington county, in northeastern Colorado does not exceed 40 percent of vaccinated against COVID-19. The county has 4,817 as revealed by the 2020 Census. Its most populated areas are Akron and Otis.” A very complete answer by Alexa.

I move now to a more complex question. “Alexa, what are the reasons that explain why is it that in the borders of the state of Colorado, from north to south in both west and east sides, there are so many counties with a vaccination rate that is lower than 60 percent? Amazon’s voice assistant takes her time to think and replies: “Sorry, I don’t know the answer to that one”. Then and only then, I can just speculate. The Colorado counties with less vaccinated against COVID-19 have more rural characteristics than the rest.

These are counties where the population is less willing to receive information that allows them to understand the risks of a contagion with COVID-19. Probably, these people have a predisposition to not get vaccinated because they think that this epidemic will end soon, and they will not be affected since they live relatively secluded from others. It’s possible that some of them subscribe to one of those theories that ensure that say that there’s no pandemic and that COVID-19 is just a “simple flu.”

It’s possible that for many of the residents of these counties the pandemic is an invention of the media and a doctor named Anthony Fauci. Point being, that these people, without them knowing it, are making America look bad out there in the world. This country has the lowest proportion of vaccinated, 59.39 percent, compared to the other six developed countries in the world. Even Chile, Argentina and Costa Rica have a higher proportion of vaccinated than the USA.

And then I formulated the last question, “Alexa, who are the representatives who were elected by the inhabitants of the counties of Colorado with the lowest proportion of vaccinated against COVID-19?” The answer was clear and straightforward. “Those counties in Colorado with the lowest rate of people vaccinated against COVID-19 are part of congressional districts 3 and 4 whose representatives are Republicans Ken Buck and Lauren Boebert,” said Alexa. I am satisfied with the answer. Geography speaks for itself.