Since the start of the pandemic of COVID republicans have viewed with skepticism the protective measures, masking, social isolation and vaccination. In a recent JAMA article there is a limited accounting of the butcher’s bill.
Medicynical Note: When new diseases emerge it takes time to develop data on the best ways to prevent them. Looking for political advantage and not wanting to inconvenience businesses, republicans, rather than adopting best practices, opposed them—forgoing masking, isolation and vaccination.
Instead, they recommended use of unproven medications (hydroxychloroquin and Ivermectin for example). Republicans believed they were miracle treatments despite there being no evidence of efficacy.
In this JAMA study the epidemiologists concluded: “Our study found evidence of higher excess mortality for Republican voters compared with Democratic voters in Florida and Ohio after, but not before, COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults in the US. These differences in excess death rates were larger in counties with lower vaccination rates.”
Medicynic 