Established, Proven: More Republicans Died From COVID Than Normal People

I don’t know many Republicans, but the ones I do know were vaccinated and boosted and none of them died. When you look at the counties with the fewest fully vaccinated people, they correlate very strongly with other data showing that they are, overwhelmingly, counties filled with Republicans. Let me give you a few example. Keeping in mind that 68% of Americans— including Republicans— are fully vaccinated, these are counties with abysmally low vaccination rates (less than 30%) along with the percentage of people who voted for Trump in 2020:

• Slope Co., North Dakota- 11% vaccinated, 89% Trump

• McPherson Co., Nebraska- 15% vaccinated, % Trump

• Holmes Co., Ohio- 18% vaccinated, 83.2% Trump

• Loving Co., Texas- 18% vaccinated, 90.9% Trump

• McCone Co., Montana- 18% vaccinated, 84.7% Trump

• Cameron Parish, Louisiana- 18% vaccinated, 90.7% Trump

• Harding Co., South Dakota- 19% vaccinated, 92.0% Trump

• Garfield Co., Montana- 20% vaccinated, 94.0% Trump

• Arthur Co., Nebraska- 20% vaccinated, 91.2% Trump

• King Co., Texas- 21% vaccinated, 95.0% Trump

• Moore Co., Tennessee- 22% vaccinated, 81.6% Trump

• Winston Co., Alabama- 22% vaccinated, 90.3% Trump

• Grant Co., Nebraska- 22% vaccinated, 93.3% Trump

• Logan Co., Nebraska- 22% vaccinated, 90.4% Trump

• Gaines Co., Texas- 22% vaccinated, 89.3% Trump

• Billings Co., North Dakota- 22% vaccinated, 85.2% Trump

• Long Co., Georgia- 22% vaccinated, 62.3% Trump

• Crowley Co., Colorado- 22% vaccinated, 72.6% Trump

• McKenzie Co., North Dakota- 23% vaccinated, 82.7% Trump

• Powder River Co., Montana- 23% vaccinated, 85.4% Trump

• LaGrange Co., Indiana- 23% vaccinated, 76.3% Trump

• Grant Co., North Dakota- 24% vaccinated, 82.9% Trump

• Story Co., Nevada- 24% vaccinated, 66.3% Trump

• Douglas Co., Missouri- 25% vaccinated, 83.2% Trump

• Newton Co., Texas- 25% vaccinated, 80.1% Trump

• Thomas Co., Nebraska- 25% vaccinated, 88.3% Trump

• Dunn Co., North Dakota- 26% vaccinated, 83.4% Trump

• Dewey Co., Oklahoma- 26% vaccinated, 90.0% Trump

• Oliver Co., North Dakota- 26% vaccinated, 86.1% Trump

• Sioux Co., Nebraska- 26% vaccinated, 87.8% Trump

• Hayes Co., Nebraska- 26% vaccinated, 92.2% Trump

• Charlton Co., Georgia- 26% vaccinated, 74.8% Trump

• Brantley Co., Georgia- 27% vaccinated, 90.2% Trump

• Blaine Co., Nebraska- 27% vaccinated, 88.3% Trump

• Scotland Co., Missouri- 27% vaccinated, 77.2% Trump

• Bent Co, Colorado- 27% vaccinated, 66.1% Trump

• Newton Co., Missouri- 27% vaccinated, 76.6% Trump

• Wheeler Co., Georgia- 27% vaccinated, 69.3% Trump

• Schuyler Co., Missouri- 27% vaccinated, 79.2% Trump

• Lanier Co., Georgia- 28% vaccinated, 70.2% Trump

• Eureka Co., Nevada- 28% vaccinated, 88.0% Trump

• Motley Co., Texas- 28% vaccinated, 92.6% Trump

• Reynolds Co., Missouri- 28% vaccinated, 82.0% Trump

• Cleburne Co., Alabama- 29% vaccinated, 89.7% Trump

• Wibaux Co., Montana- 29% vaccinated, 86.3% Trump

• Neosho Co., Kansas- 29% vaccinated, 72.3% Trump

• Frontier Co., Nebraska- 29% vaccinated, 85.0% Trump

• Stanton Co., Nebraska- 29% vaccinated, 80.9% Trump

• Nance Co., Nebraska- 29% vaccinated, 78.4% Trump

• Heard Co., Georgia- 29% vaccinated, 83.8% Trump

• Ralls Co., Missouri- 29% vaccinated, 76.8% Trump

I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that not even one single county that voted for Biden is anywhere near the bottom of the COVID barrel, but even red states with Democratic governors did relatively well in the pandemic. No Kentucky on this list, for example and just one Louisiana parish.

The National Bureau of Economic Research released a paper a few weeks ago entitled Excess Death Rates For Republicans And Democrats During The COVID-19 Pandemic. The authors, Jacob Wallace, Jason Schwartz and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, wrote that “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 via a linkage of 2017 voter registration in Ohio and Florida to mortality data from 2018 to 2021. We estimate substantially higher excess death rates for registered Republicans when compared to registered Democrats, with almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available in our study states. Overall, the 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 is concentrated in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available.”

Other notable findings and observations:

• Prior research has also established differences in vaccination attitudes and social distancing based on political party affiliation.

• In the Covid Pre-Vaccine period, the association between excess death rates and county-level vaccination rates are nearly identical for Democrats and Republicans.

• In the Covid Post-Vaccine period, there is a clear visual difference between Democrats and Republicans, with higher excess death rates for Republicans in counties with lower vaccination rates. By comparison, the difference in excess deaths between Republicans and Democrats is nearly zero in counties with the highest vaccination rates.

• Registered Republicans in Florida and Ohio had higher excess death rates than registered Democrats, driven by a large mortality gap in the period after all adults were eligible for vaccines.

• If these differences in vaccination by political party affiliation persist, then the higher excess death rate among Republicans is likely to continue through the subsequent stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.