COVID-19 Scan for Oct 04, 2022

Ohio and Florida data show more Republican excess COVID-19 deathsNew statistics from Ohio and Florida published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) show that Republicans have suffered more COVID-related excess deaths than Democrats, adding to the literature that demonstrates the link between political party affiliation, vaccination uptake, and COVID-19 mortality.To conduct the study, researchers linked voter registration data in Ohio and Florida to mortality data to assess the individual-level association between political party affiliation and excess mortality.The data show that the excess COVID-19 death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points, or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats, and it increased after vaccines became widely available.

After the introduction of vaccines, the excess death rate gap between Republicans and Democrats widened from 1.6 percentage points (22% of the Democrat excess death rate) to 10.4 percentage points (153% of the Democrat excess death rate).Previous studies have shown Republican-leaning, or "red "counties have had higher COVID-19 mortality rates than Democratic-leaning counties, but this is the first attempt to understand the excess death risk at the individual level."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," the authors concluded. "These results adjust for county-by-age differences in excess deaths during the pandemic, suggesting that there were within-age-by-county differences in excess death associated with political party affiliation."Sep 30 NBER working paperStudy: mRNA boosters extend protection