Topline
Folks dwelling in counties that voted Republican within the 2020 presidential election have been extra prone to die from Covid-19 than these dwelling in counties that voted Democrat, in keeping with a examine revealed in Well being Affairs on Monday, underscoring the consequences of a partisan response to the pandemic as officers transfer to counter one other surge in circumstances.
Republican voting counties had larger Covid loss of life charges
Key Details
Counties the place 70% or extra voted Republican had practically 73 extra Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 individuals than Democratic ones (the place lower than 30% voted Republican), in keeping with the peer reviewed evaluation of Covid-19 deaths by October 2021 and counties’ voting conduct.
The figures have in mind different elements linked to Covid-19 mortality like ethnicity, entry to healthcare, age and power ailments.
Disparate mortality charges are probably resulting from structural, coverage and behavioral variations in additional conservative counties, the researchers mentioned.
Senior writer Dylan Roby, an affiliate professor of well being, society and conduct on the College of California, Irvine, steered the county-level voting patterns probably mirrored compliance with protecting measures launched to assist curb the pandemic equivalent to masks mandates and getting vaccinated.
The disparity highlights the shortcomings of a “vaccine-only strategy to public well being,” mentioned examine writer Neil Sehgal, an assistant professor of well being coverage and administration on the College of Maryland, including that vaccine uptake accounted for simply 10% of the distinction in mortality charges between purple and blue counties.
Essential Quote
“The influence of partisanship doesn’t solely influence individuals of 1 political stripe,” Sehgal mentioned. “Not everybody who lives in a Republican county votes Republican… Even within the reddest counties, you could have individuals who aren’t capable of vote or aren’t capable of go away, and but are topic to the insurance policies and behaviors that encompass them.”
Key Background
From the very starting, Covid-19 has been a political power within the U.S. Polling has constantly proven Republicans to be extra prone to query and oppose public well being measures carried out to curb Covid-19 and fewer prone to get vaccinated. Main Republican politicians—together with governors of Florida and Texas—rejected or hesitated over confirmed public well being measures like masks and vaccines however embraced unproven therapies and favored lifting restrictions as early as doable. Former President Donald Trump downplayed the dangers of the pandemic, touted bogus therapies like bleach and exemplified the usually extremely politicized misinformation surrounding coronavirus. Total, Covid-19 has been deadlier in Republican states and fewer lethal in these leaning Democrat, with eight of the ten states with the very best per capita loss of life charges leaning Republican.
Massive Quantity
118,530. That’s the seven-day rolling common of latest day by day Covid infections within the U.S. from Friday, in keeping with data collated by Johns Hopkins College. It’s the most important surge of latest circumstances since mid February.
Additional Studying
By The Numbers: Who’s Refusing Covid Vaccinations—And Why (Forbes)
Right here Are The Republicans Most Doubtless To Refuse The Covid-19 Vaccine, Ballot Finds (Forbes)
Right here Is What One Million Covid Deaths In The U.S. Appears Like (Forbes)
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