What does that mean lean right fiscally? Traditionally, I believe that means less government spending, but at least in the US, government spending doesn't seem to change significantly under conservative control. In fact, the spending just shifts from people-in-need to people-that-already-have (social programs vs corporate handouts).

Not talking about Afghanistan at work seems reasonable.

I'm not sure what COVID statistics would mean much; the science behind COVID is pretty settled and there's a solid, highly-regarded (including internationally, at least until Trump) government agency that oversees that in the US (CDC); I don't see where discussing those numbers would even be valuable unless the company were flaunting COVID and the workers wanted action. I suppose when you say COVID stats, you might be referring to total nonsense stats, in which case I would agree those should be excluded from company chat.