You would like to merge the two data frames by the variable state, but you have a problem. Your merge variable doesn't match up$.$ orig$\_$nyt$\_$covid$state is a string of the states name $($e$.$g$.,$ "Nebraska"$),$ whereas pop$state is the abbreviation $($e$.$g$."$NE$").$ In the same code chunk, rename pop$state such that it is pop$state$\_$abb. Note: you will need a command in a package for this rename. Thus, you will need to to use the library$()$ command for this rename. Include this library command under the knitr::opts$\_$chunk in your initial code chunk.