Covid, Politics and Death

[MeDotOrg]

From NPR

Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That's according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic.

NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.78 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.

In October, the reddest tenth of the country saw death rates that were six times higher than the bluest tenth, according to Charles Gaba, an independent health care analyst who's been tracking partisanship trends during the pandemic and helped to review NPR's methodology. Those numbers have dropped slightly in recent weeks, Gaba says: "It's back down to around 5.5 times higher."

The saddest thing is that living a lifestyle that makes Covid infection more likely gets you nothing.

[Res Ipsa]

From NPR

Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That's according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic.

NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.78 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.

In October, the reddest tenth of the country saw death rates that were six times higher than the bluest tenth, according to Charles Gaba, an independent health care analyst who's been tracking partisanship trends during the pandemic and helped to review NPR's methodology. Those numbers have dropped slightly in recent weeks, Gaba says: "It's back down to around 5.5 times higher."

The saddest thing is that living a lifestyle that makes Covid infection more likely gets you nothing.

Gaba has done a nice job tracking this issue. I think Cultellus at some point posted a gif of his graphs changing over time. When the vaccines were first released, there was little difference. As time passed, the difference has become pretty dramatic.

[K Graham]

The new talking point in Right Wing media is that Biden should resign for having more COVID deaths than Trump. I'm surprised ajax hasn't brought it up.

Of course, the argument rests on a faulty premise. There were roughly 500,000 COVID deaths by the time Biden took over. There are now 800,000, which means Trump oversaw almost twice as many deaths. And this doesn't include the 100k+ we don't know about because early testing wasn't available in a timely manner.

Also, the bulk of 2021 deaths happened in the first two months.

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[Res Ipsa]

The new talking point in Right Wing media is that Biden should resign for having more COVID deaths than Trump. I'm surprised ajax hasn't brought it up.

Of course, the argument rests on a faulty premise. There were roughly 500,000 COVID deaths by the time Biden took over. There are now 800,000, which means Trump oversaw almost twice as many deaths. And this doesn't include the 100k+ we don't know about because early testing wasn't available in a timely manner.

Also, the bulk of 2021 deaths happened in the first two months.

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Ajax did bring it up. I don't know which thread. It's a dumb argument for a couple of reasons. But those who make it don't care.

[K Graham]

The new talking point in Right Wing media is that Biden should resign for having more COVID deaths than Trump. I'm surprised ajax hasn't brought it up.

Of course, the argument rests on a faulty premise. There were roughly 500,000 COVID deaths by the time Biden took over. There are now 800,000, which means Trump oversaw almost twice as many deaths. And this doesn't include the 100k+ we don't know about because early testing wasn't available in a timely manner.

Also, the bulk of 2021 deaths happened in the first two months.

fff.jpg

Ajax did bring it up. I don't know which thread. It's a dumb argument for a couple of reasons. But those who make it don't care.

The craziness and hypocrisy from these people just astounds me. I mean we're talking about people who spent literally every day since the start of the pandemic fighting against all mitigation measures (social distancing, masks, mandates, etc) and then downplaying the half million Americans who'd died from it. And now that Biden is President, suddenly they want to use the death toll as a justification to disqualify him. Even worse, the only reason deaths are 300,000 under Biden's watch is because Republicans have been fighting tooth and nail to make sure fewer people vaccinate. Recall the round of applause from CPAC over the summer after it was announced Biden wouldn't be meeting his vaccination goal before the 4th of July. And Right Wing media has been running around the clock segments attacking Fauci, calling him a Nazi, lying about deaths caused by the vaccine, etc. They also threaten to shut down the government over proposed mandates. This is quite literally a problem of their own making, and they want to blame Biden??