A study limited to COVID deaths in Florida and Ohio suggests that the “excess” of Grim Reaper deaths, when stratified by political party, was more among Republicans than Democrats.
Let’s start with the disclaimers. More importantly, “surplus” deaths, i. e. a higher-than-expected number, are based on the assumption that the baseline death used for the excess was accurate. This speculation can never be proven. Second, the examination looked at only two states and knew the causes of only 83. 5% of cases.
The researchers collected weekly mortality data from January 2018 to December 2021 for other people over the age of 25. They linked this mortality data to voter registration rolls in Florida and Ohio as of 2017 (the only two states with old voting records).
Excess deaths were calculated at the county point with a baseline from January 2018 to December 31, 2019 and reflects the difference between deaths in the baseline era and from January 2020 to December 2021. The review accounted for more than 500,000 deaths in those two states over the entire era.
“The Republican electorate had higher excess death rates than the Democratic electorate, as indicated by a giant mortality hole in the later era, but not before, all adults were eligible for vaccines in Florida and Ohio. With changes in age and residence differences between the Republican and Democratic electorate, our findings recommend that, among Americans on same-age teams living in the same states, there were significant differences in death rates higher than the COVID-19 pandemic related to political party affiliation.
There are several probabilities to explain this discrepancy. It is possible, though highly unlikely, that Republicans have an increased underlying biological susceptibility. The political party is more likely to serve as a “big tent” for underlying medical conditions, socioeconomic status, and health insurance. It is also very likely that the behavior of Republicans, more explicitly ignoring public health measures, whether pharmacological or not, was also a vital factor.
[1] There is confusion between age and party affiliation. According to a 2020 Pew voter survey, other people 65 and older are more likely to be Republicans (25% vs. 23%).
Source: Excess Death Rates for Registered Republican and Democratic Electorate in Florida and Ohio the COVID-19 Pandemic JAMA Internal Medicine DOI: 10. 1001/jamainternmed. 2023. 1154
See the thread.
Director of Medicine
Charles Dinerstein, M. D. , MBA, FACS is Director of Medicine at the American Council on Science and Health. He has over 25 years of experience as a vascular surgeon.