According to the Centers for Disease Control, individuals with pre-existing medical conditions are at greater risk of severe illness from Covid-19. We have known that from the start of the pandemic. But now a new study suggests that there was at least a correlation between political affiliation and Covid deaths in two states.
A study by Yale researchers published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that “well-documented differences in vaccination attitudes (between Republican and Democratic voters)… may have been a factor in the severity of the pandemic in Florida and Ohio.”
The researchers evaluated over 538,000 deaths of individuals aged 25 and older in Florida and Ohio between March 2020 and December 2021 and determined the excess mortality rate during the pandemic. They found the excess mortality was “significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after vaccines were available to all adults.”
After May 1, 2021, when vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43 percent higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters. The death rate differences were larger in counties with lower vaccination rates.
The researchers caution that the study has limitations. For example, political party affiliation may be “proxy for other risk factors… such as rates of underlying medical conditions, race and ethnicity.” Also, the study was only of deaths in Florida and Ohio, so the results cannot be generalized to other states.
Multiple studies have found differing opinions between Republicans and Democrats over Covid vaccines and pandemic preventive measures. For example, a Gallup Poll conducted in September 2021 found that 40 percent of Republicans did not plan to get vaccinated while just three percent of Democrats said they would not get the shot.
A nationwide survey by the University of South Florida published earlier this year found that only half (49 percent) of Republicans were “very confident” or “somewhat confident” in the Covid vaccines, while 88 percent of Democrats believed the vaccines were safe.
The Yale researchers said these well documented differences in attitudes between Republicans and Democrats over the vaccine “became a substantial factor” in the difference in the mortality rate during the worst of the pandemic.
Professor Stephen Neely, who conducted the USF survey, told the Washington Post, the results of the Yale research show how partisanship caused more Covid deaths. “It’s one of the most telling metrics I’ve seen in how the politicization of the pandemic played out in the real world,” Neely told the Post.
As I said, the study results are limited. The researchers looked at aggregate numbers in the two states and not individual vaccination statistics. The results clearly do not mean that an individual was at a greater risk just because they were a Republican.
But the research does suggest that the messaging during the height of the pandemic, where Republicans were more likely than Democrats to distrust government and medical advice about Covid, contributed to unnecessary deaths in Florida and Ohio.