Investigate the death rates of red states vs. blue during Covid to understand the Fauci-Paul battle
- hughconrad52
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
How quickly we forgot the devastation
I took the vaccines, wore a mask, followed scientists' advice, and never contracted Covid.
I was around people in the same house who contracted Covid, yet I did not.
Luck?
Perhaps, but I believe that it occurred for two reasons. I was vaccinated not just once but continue to receive the updates.
Second, I followed the advice of scientists who told us to mask up, keep social distance, avoid crowds, and take care of myself -- and most important, take the vaccine.
In looking back at the Covid years, we can realize that times were difficult, but that if we followed the science, we had a decent chance of not falling victim to the disease.
However, studies now indicate what people -- and in which states -- suffered the most from Covid. These are the ones in which people avoided taking the vaccine and those that argued against masking or doing other efforts to mitigate the disease.
By looking at the differences between the “red (conservative/republican) states vs. the blue (democratic) one, researchers discovered some consistencies.
Research
Science Direct is an online database that hosts millions of peer-reviewed research articles, books, and papers. They are a very credible source of scientific information.
They studied many aspects of how Covid rates differed throughout the United States. These included variables such as how people in states reacted to the disease and what strategies were undertaken to mitigate the disease. They discovered that in 2020, the difference in Covid deaths in red or blue states did not vary a great deal. Later, however, that changed,
[Research] indicates that in the first year of the pandemic there was no difference in the number of deaths between red and blue states. However, by 2021 blue states significantly reduced the number of deaths per 100 k ( = -29.74, t = -2.398, p = 0.011) relative to red states. A plausible explanation for this reduction is that blue states had both fewer cases per 100 k and higher vaccination rates relative to red states.
The main objective of the current study was to investigate whether the dominant political affiliation and governance of a state determines the behavioral and political mitigation efforts to fight COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021, and whether these political regulations are associated with COVID-19 deaths.
In terms of COVID-19 related deaths, red and blue states in 2020 did not differ significantly. COVID-19 deaths in 2021, however, were significantly less in blue compared to red states.
C. Dominik Guss et al, “The Politics of Covid-19,” ScienceDirect.com, December 15, 2023
Why did the change occur? First, the vaccine was the major determinant of a reduction in death rates.
Then, they listed mitigation factors that existed in 2020 as opposed to 2021. The truth is that red states resisted the mandates, including vaccinations,
Regarding COVID-19 cases in 2020, more lockdown days and more mask mandate days were significantly associated with fewer COVID-19 cases. These findings are supported by studies that observed the decreased trend in COVID-19 infections occurring after mitigation measures are implemented, such as social distancing and restricting large gatherings and such as face mask mandates. Specifically, for mask mandates in the year 2020, similar results were found - that for states that had high adherence to mask wearing, COVID-19 rates were low.
ScienceDirect
Further studies confirm this
The Science Direct study was reinforced with further research. ABC News conducted a study about a year after the vaccine had been introduced,
It has been nearly a year since the COVID-19 vaccines became available to every American adult last April, after initially being offered to health workers and older populations, when supplies were still limited.
However, vaccination rates differ markedly between states that voted for former President Donald Trump, compared to those that voted for President Joe Biden, paralleling the partisan lines that have divided the country.
Data sourced from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the 10 states with the highest vaccination rates all voted for Biden in 2020, while nine of the 10 states with the lowest vaccination rates voted for Trump. The lone exception was Georgia, which narrowly went for Biden by less than a quarter of a percentage point.
Further, cumulative death data from the C.D.C., from over the last 10 months, illustrates the implications of political polarization of the COVID-19 vaccines.
An ABC News analysis of federal data found that on average, the death rates in states that voted for Trump were more than 38% higher than in states that voted for Biden, post widespread vaccine availability.
In addition, in the 10 states with the lowest percentage of full vaccinations, death rates were almost twice as high as that of states with the highest vaccination rates, the analysis found.
Arielle Mitropoulos, “For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19
death rates persists 2 years later," ABC News, March 28, 2022
This demonstrates that the refusal of those in the red states to take the vaccine and do other mitigation led to higher death rates.
Science Direct conclusion
While the duration of the pandemic and its outcomes are only now becoming clear, this study shows an apparent association between mitigation efforts and lesser negative outcomes due to COVID-19. Despite the hesitancy of many, this work’s key conclusion is that mass-behavioral changes prescribed through legislation do provide mass-scale dividends in areas that promote these strategies.
In highlighting the political divide between COVID-19 legislative and mitigation efforts, researchers do not intend to proselytize one ideology to another but to expand on the notion that differences between dominant political affiliations are equally relevant to consider…
Focusing on effectively implementing mitigation strategies across ideologies should be paramount if communities are to address disease-based threats with minimal loss and aversive outcomes.
Science Direct
As for Sen. Rand Paul’s state, almost 40 percent of the people in Kentucky refused to take the vaccine, according to numbers from John Hopkins University.
However, the positive part of this is that 2.67 million people were fully vaccinated in a state with a population of 4.5 million. That means that many in Kentucky ignored Paul’s diatribes and took the vaccine.
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