An alarming new study just came out from the National Bureau of Economic Research–a private, politically nonpartisan, and non-profit research organization. The study is entitled “Excess Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” It shows that mostly on the basis of voter registration and death records that after COVID-19 vaccinations were available in the summer of 2021 the COVID-19 death rate among Republicans was soon twice that of Democrats and even noticeably more than twice when well into the winter of 2021-2022.
If true, the Trump anti-vaxxers were not only literally killing themselves, but killing the success of the Republican Party in elections to follow. The researchers didn’t limit their study to those data sources above, but included other sources, such as the Social Security Administration and funeral homes.
The researchers discovered that death rates from COVID-19 among registered Republicans and Democrats were the same from early 2020, when those death rates began, until the summer of 2021, when the vaccines were available. From then on the death rates spiked upwards among Republicans compared to Democrats.
Republicans kept being against social distancing, wearing masks, and even taking COVID-19 vaccines offered by Pfizer and Moderna, whereas Democrats did not. President Trump had been for a while an instigator of this opposition until he finally got the vaccine himself. Yet even after that it took him a while to advocate for getting vaccine.
The researchers admit that their study has some flaws. But they don’t seem to me to detract from their conclusions much. For example, they were only able to get voter registration data from two state: Ohio and Florida, though these are quite populous.
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