Two separate studies confirm it’s been dangerous to live among Trump supporters during the pandemic.
An analysis by National Public Radio (NPR) of Covid-19 death rates showed people in counties that voted over 60% for Trump in 2020 were 2.26 times as likely to die from the virus as people in counties voting over 60% for Biden, and those in counties with a higher level of Trump votes were even more likely to meet their Maker.
The NPR study used data beginning with May 2021, when vaccines became widely available, and found a strong correlation between death rates and vaccination rates. NPR noted that “Republican lawmakers, activists and media personalities” not only urged people “not to get the vaccine, but often spread frightening disinformation about the vaccines.” In other words, GOP opinion leaders were killing off their own supporters.
A separate study by Brown university found that states which voted most heavily for Trump, such as West Virginia and Wyoming, had the highest rates of preventable Covid-19 deaths while states that voted heavily for Biden, such as Massachusetts and Vermont, were among the lowest.
At the beginning of the pandemic, blue-leaning urban areas suffered worst (for the obvious reason that the virus could spread faster and more easily where people are densely packed together), but once vaccines began protecting people who accepted them from serious illness and death, the red-leaning more rural areas quickly overtook the cities in death rates.
A Harvard epidemiologist suggested (without mentioning dead Republicans by name) that, “It’s part of the long-term damage that happens when you have politicians relentlessly trying to … turn it into a political football.”
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Photo below: They can’t spell, either
