COVID Deaths Disproportionally Devastated The Most Republican Parts Of The Country
As the United States marks another grim milestone in the pandemic — one million lives lost — Americans are forced to grapple with how we got here. Partisan posturing by Republicans has led to a divide between red and blue America when it comes to outcomes from COVID-19. The data is clear: people in Republican areas continue to face the most extreme consequences of COVID-19 infection, simply because Republicans remain laser focused on political wins, not saving people. This cannot stand. Millions of Americans put their faith and trust in the people they elected and were duped by power grabbing Republican politicians who preferred pandering to the most extreme parts of their base, rather than protecting the lives and livelihoods of their constituents. It is time these reckless leaders are held to account for their shameless partisan behavior in the face of a dire public health emergency.
Republican’s About-Face On Pandemic Politics
The Impact Of Republican Politicization of The Pandemic Was Swift And Deadly. At the start of 2020, COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths were concentrated in urban, blue-leaning areas, while more conservative and rural parts of the nation saw delayed effects of the pandemic. The impact of Republican leaders politicizing the pandemic was swift. After initially recognizing COVID as a public health emergency, most Republican leaders quickly pivoted, fighting common sense mitigation efforts, undercutting the authority and power of public health experts, downplaying the dangers of contracting COVID, and spreading misinformation about vaccines. The death rate is now significantly higher in the most politically conservative parts of the country.
Health Outcomes In Republican Areas
Vaccination Status Tied Directly To Political Party. Despite the fact that nearly every Republican member of Congress and governor has been vaccinated against COVID, the party has weaponized vaccination as a way to score political points. Vaccinated Republican leaders have become increasingly belligerent about COVID prevention measures, particularly vaccination, while jockeying to obtain early vaccines for themselves, their families, and their top donors. While Republican politicians are vaccinated and protected, the vaccine misinformation they spread is causing their constituents to suffer the consequences. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that in addition to Republicans making up a disproportionate share of the unvaccinated population, political affiliation is a more accurate predictor of vaccination status than any other factor, including education level, age, or race.
The Redder The County, The Higher The COVID Mortality Rate. A 2022 Pew Research analysis found significantly higher COVID death rates in areas that voted Republican in 2020 and determined the cause was likely limited mitigation tactics, low vaccination rates, and other factors that correlated directly with political party affiliation at the local level. In late 2021 and early 2022, COVID mortality rates in the most pro-Trump counties were a staggering 180 percent of what they were in the most pro-Biden counties. As the Delta variant raged across the country in the fall of 2021, the death rate for counties with low vaccination rates were six times higher than in counties where 70 percent or more of adults were vaccinated. During the Omicron surge of 2021 and 2022, the death rate for counties with low vaccination rates were double the amount of counties where 80 percent or more of individuals were vaccinated.
Lives Lost. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis uncovered the staggering cost of Republican’s vaccine misinformation campaign. Since COVID vaccines became widely accessible in June 2021, more than 234,000 Americans have died from COVID, because they were unvaccinated — nearly a quarter of all COVID deaths in the U.S.
Long-Term Implications
Republicans Have Learned Nothing. Nearly a quarter of a million preventable deaths should have been a wake up call to Republicans. It hasn’t been. Despite the extreme consequences of refusing to pass additional federal COVID relief, Republicans continue to drag their feet and make shortsighted and illogical arguments against this life and death funding, calling the current vaccination program “wasteful.” The Commonwealth Fund found that COVID vaccinations saved the federal government $900 billion in health care costs by preventing 66 million COVID infections, 17 million hospitalizations, and 2.2 million deaths since vaccination became widely accessible.
Republican Timing Could Not Be Worse. Health experts warn a fall surge could infect more than 100 million Americans. The White House has warned that if COVID funding is not passed, access to the next-generation of vaccines, specifically designed to fight the latest variants, will be restricted to only the most high-risk individuals. Vaccines are not the only critical tool on the line. Without funding, domestic COVID test manufacturers will be forced to close their production lines, making Americans dependent on foreign tests and Americans will no longer be able to access lifesaving therapeutics, proven to reduce hospitalization and death by nearly 90 percent.