I think the premise of beginning in June, was because by that point, every major country in the world had a robust COVID plan in place. So any increased infection rate would be due to poor plan implementation, not due to lack of knowledge on how to stem the spread. The graph then goes on to demonstrate that the blue states were more effective at implementing (or continuing) their COVID plans (recognizing KB's comment that the coastal liberal big cities were the petri dishes where Lessons Were Learned early on, so didn't see infection spikes later), while the red states ignored best practices and demonstrated successful tactics around the world, and infections spiked. Yes, it is a political piece. But I do believe they were transparent with their goals and motives, and demonstrated their hypothesis with well-sourced data.