Thousands of Americans Died as a Result of GOP Leadership
A new paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed how state-level policies have a real influence on public health outcomes. The author compared conservative states like Florida, where governors pushed back against medical consensus and common sense in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to states who implemented public health measures to blunt the spread of the virus, including heavily promoting vaccines.
The results are unsurprising to anyone who’s paid attention. Conservative states who, in the past, have opposed common sense health measures like expanding Medicaid have worse health outcomes than states that prioritize public health. But it’s clear the disparate responses to the coronavirus crisis have exacerbated the issue.
Excess death rates in Florida and Georgia were much higher than states like New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts in 2021. During the Delta surge in the second half of 2021, Florida experienced more than triple the amount of excess deaths as New York, despite both states having similar population counts.
The data is clear, and has been clear: vaccines work. Public mitigation efforts work. And if governors in states like Florida and Texas had focused on promoting vaccinations rather than themselves and their own political futures, they could’ve saved thousands of lives.
KEY EXCERPTS:
- “The COVID-19 pandemic removed any doubt that state policies can affect health outcomes. East Coast states (eg, New York, New Jersey) that responded to the first wave of the pandemic in the spring of 2020 with strict protective measures achieved relatively quick control of community spread within as much as 8 weeks, and they blunted subsequent surges by reinstating those policies.”
- “In contrast, states that had spent decades opposing public health provisions were among the most resistant to COVID-19 guidelines and took active measures to resist restrictions. Some elected officials made a political issue out of challenging scientific evidence, embracing dubious theories, and labeling public health safeguards as infringements on personal freedom. Conservative governors used preemption to reverse efforts by mayors and school districts to control local transmission rates.”
- “In 2021, excess deaths were disproportionately concentrated in states where resistance to COVID-19 vaccination was prevalent. For example, excess death rates in Florida and Georgia (more than 200 deaths per 100 000) were much higher than in states with largely vaccinated populations such as New York (112 per 100 000), New Jersey (73 deaths per 100 000), and Massachusetts (50 per 100 000). States that resisted public health protections experienced higher numbers of excess deaths during the Delta variant surge in the fall of 2021. Between August and December 2021, Florida experienced more than triple the number of excess deaths (29 252) as New York (8786), despite both states having similar population counts (21.7 million and 19.3 million, respectively).”
- “States are laboratories for experimentation, but fragmented health policy has consequences. While other countries mounted a national response to COVID-19, the US was hobbled by 50 response plans and, to date, has lost more than 1 million lives. Although state governments have the right to set their own path and policies, the public should decide whether life expectancy should be part of the experiment.”
Read the whole article here.