JAMA: Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic

[robosmith]

Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic

 

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Question  Was political party affiliation a risk factor associated with excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida and Ohio?

Findings  In this cohort study evaluating 538 159 deaths in individuals aged 25 years and older in Florida and Ohio between March 2020 and December 2021, excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before. These differences were concentrated in counties with lower vaccination rates, and primarily noted in voters residing in Ohio.

Meaning  The differences in excess mortality by political party affiliation after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been a factor in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US.

AKA, Republican vaccine hesitancy was DEADLY. 

[robosmith]

The uneven toll of the coronavirus pandemic

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A new scientific paper out this week shows a larger increase in excess deaths among Republicans after the Covid vaccine became widely available.

The official health emergency over Covid may be over, but the effects still linger. And this week the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, published a study that supported a theory many had suspected: The pandemic didn’t hit all Americans the same — and Republicans, who lagged behind in accepting the Covid vaccine, paid a steeper price. 

In the piece, researchers from Yale wrote that they examined 538,000 deaths of people 25 and older in Florida and Ohio between March 2020 and December 2021, and they found larger increases in excess deaths in that period among Republicans, particularly after the Covid vaccine was introduced.

Overall, researchers found registered Republicans saw a 15% higher increase in excess deaths (that is, deaths beyond what would normally be expected) than Democrats over the period studied. Much of that was driven by the time period after April 1, 2021, when the Covid vaccine was readily available. In the period between April 2021 and December 31, 2021, registered Republicans saw a 43% higher increase in excess deaths than Democrats did in Ohio and Florida. Much of the difference seems to have been driven by Ohio.

 

While researchers could not directly tie the increased Republican deaths to vaccine hesitancy, the data showed a clear correlation. The gap in excess death rates was larger in counties with lower vaccination rates, the researchers said. And readers will remember how many Republicans said they were uneasy about the vaccine and were skeptical about getting jabbed.

To test the theory laid out in the paper further, Data Download looked at deaths over the same time periods and used county-level 2020 presidential election results as a proxy for whether a county leaned Democratic or Republican. The data showed a similar pattern, especially where the post-vaccine period was concerned.

 

The combination of national county-level election results with county-level Covid death data from the data research group USAFacts shows the post-vaccine period in the study was harder on counties that voted for Donald Trump than on those that voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

Move EVIDENCE that the vaccines were effective for those who took them and resulted in HIGHER death rates for those who did not.