1) Either people living in these States have weak immunity and therefore are likely to develop COVID-19 coronavirus or tuberculosis, or both; and/or

2) The fact most cases of lung pathology occur along the southern border and New York City, where immigrants enter the country, typically with dormant or latent cases of TB.  TB may be an uninvestigated co-morbidity that is causing many deaths attributed to COVID-19 coronavirus.

In the next graphic (below) the top chart indicates mortality from pneumonia and influenza only for 2016-2020 with a dramatic up-spike (red line) in early 2020.  The bottom chart displays data for total deaths from COVID-19 coronavirus in addition to pneumonia and influenza for Oct. 2015-April 2020 with a sharp increase in the third and fourth months of 2020 (red line).  When both charts are compared, it is obvious that the reported increase in deaths is largely due to pneumonia or influenza, not COVID-19.