Do Republican Counties have Higher Covid Death Rates than Democratic Counties?
Some seem to think so. A recent paper by Jacob Wallace, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, and Jason L. Schwartz appears to backup this claim up with some numbers exclusively of their own. “Excess Covid Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” NBER, © 2022 by Jacob Wallace, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, and Jason L. Schwartz
“Political affiliation has emerged as a potential risk factor for COVID-19, amid evidence that Republican-leaning counties have had higher COVID-19 death rates than Democrat- leaning counties and evidence of a link between political party affiliation and vaccination views. This study constructs an individual-level dataset with political affiliation and excess death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. As done via a linkage of 2017 voter registration in Ohio and Florida to mortality data from 2018 to 2021. We estimate higher excess death rates for registered Republicans when compared to registered Democrats. Almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available in our study states.
Overall, excess death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points (pp), or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats. Post- vaccines. The excess death rate gap between Republicans and Democrats widened from 1.6 pp (22% of the Democrat excess death rate) to 10.4 pp (153% of the Democrat excess death rate). The gap in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats concentrates in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available.”
Charles Gaba; “This morning a group of researchers published a working paper at the National Bureau of Economic Research delving deeply into excess death rates among Republicans vs. Democrats during the COVID-19 pandemic. Charles Gaba, ACAsignups.net“
Again, taking from the recent paper by Jacob Wallace, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, and Jason L. Schwartz © 2022
“Excess Covid Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” NBER, © 2022 by Jacob Wallace, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, and Jason L. Schwartz
Enough said for now. The rest of the dialogue can be captured at “Excess Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” NBER. I believe one would wonder why political interests would deliberately mislead people. A dead constituent is one less vote.
“New NBER study confirms pretty much everything I (& others) have been saying for the past year & a half,” | ACA Signups, Charles Gaba.
Additional reference and ideological thought.
“Excess Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” NBER, Jacob Wallace, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Jason L. Schwartz
“‘Joe Rogan Is Getting This Completely Wrong,’ Says The Scientist Who Conducted The Vaccine Study,” (forbes.com), Andrea Morris