Higher Covid Death Rates in Trump States

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I was reading the usual MedPage Today articles. One commenter discusses the State of Florida under Governor DeSantis having a high Covid Death Rate. Fourteen of 15 states favored Trump in the election and have the highest Covid Death Rates.

The article:

“Florida’s Surgeon General Sends a Dangerous Message” | MedPage Today, Thresia B. Gambon, MD, MBA, MPH March 15, 2022. More on that MedPage Today article later.

I will pursue an area which MedPage Today Commenter Samuel Chase refers to in his initial comment and come back to this article at a later date..

The CoViD proof of Desantis’s State CoViD policies is in the CoViD puddin.

Commenter Samuel Chase, I assume is a doctor as he has access to the comment’s section and mentions the WaPo article. “Opinion | Ron DeSantis oversees the state’s high covid death rates. How does he sleep at night?” The Washington Post, Dana Milbank March 14, 2022

. . . an inescapable conclusion: Living in states run by a Republican governor is dangerous to your health.

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consultant Doug Haddix reported;

Since July 1 when the lifesaving vaccine was widely available, the 14 states with the highest death rates were all run by Republican governors.

This includes Florida (at about 153 deaths per 100,000 residents), Ohio (142 deaths per 100,000), Arizona (138) and Georgia (134). Contrast this with the deep-blue District of Columbia (only 27 deaths per 100,000) and California (58 per 100,000).

Opinion | Ron DeSantis oversees high covid death rates. How does he sleep at night? – The Washington Post

This is like a “wow” for me

These states even beat out Michigan where I used to live. The population was resisting any semblance of safe practices. Some restaurants stayed open and were fined heavily. Also, the extreme nut jobs flourish in Michigan. Some attempted to kidnap the Dem Governor, chatting about it openly, and were spying on her home. The state Repub legislature encourages them.

My new state of AZ is #3 on the list. We stay separate and go out in the open to stores during the day M-F or later at night.

The other “wow?”

for me being where did this data come from? Other than the CDC and the link which shows another site which you have to log into to get any info. I did not have to look too far.

WaPo’s Dana Milbank was citing Charles Gaba of ACASignups.net and has been for some time now. Charles is in Michigan. We have talked from time to time via comments on his posts. I read Charles and sometimes quote his site stats too. Charles does healthcare data like NDd and RJS doing their specialties.

Dana Milbank; Amongst the most populous states and since vaccines were widely available. Florida residents were;

“nearly seven times as likely to die from covid-19 as residents of D.C., nearly three times as likely to die as residents of California and 2½ times as likely to die as residents of New York. With Florida’s population of about 22 million, that’s a lot of unnecessary deaths. “

It’s likely no coincidence Florida, under DeSantis, has had the highest covid-19 death rate among the most-populous states and is in the top five of all states. Other factors, including climate, health-care infrastructure, and the age and underlying health of the population, don’t fully account for it. Maine, with an even older population than Florida’s, had a death rate just over half as high. Also, Florida’s vaccination rate appears to be overstated thanks to vaccine tourism.

Opinion | Ron DeSantis oversees high covid death rates. How does he sleep at night? – The Washington Post

Now we are getting to the good stuff . . . data-wise.

Derived from sampling 10% of the Reddest counties and 10 percent of the Bluest counties. Note the numbers of counties. Gaba’s latest county-level chart by trump vs Biden voter data confirms earlier patterns:

The Red/Blue State COVID death rate specified by Counties and Politics | ACA Signups (click on the picture to enlarge)

It is not difficult to notice, trump voters surpassed Biden voters on January 20 in catching Covid.

More of Dana Milbank and Charles Gaba;

Since May, people in the most pro-Trump tenth of U.S. counties had a death rate more than three times as high as those in the most anti-Trump tenth. The number of overall cases, however, was only 1.3 times as high, indicating that vaccines were preventing death.

Every week, it seems, brings fresh confirmation of the basic truths about the pandemic that have long been obvious to all except those consuming the disinformation of the Trumpy right: Vaccines work. Masks work. Conspiracy theories don’t.

Opinion | Ron DeSantis oversees high covid death rates. How does he sleep at night? – The Washington Post

Coincidence?

Charles Gaba notes the reddest 10 percent death rates started to increase on Inauguration Day. If you go to ACASignups site, Charles does another graph at 20% which shows a smoothing out of the differences with the “actual crossover being three weeks later” for counties. At 30% the crossover is in November 2020.

One thing I want to note on the county depiction. Please note the heavy concentration of county population. Fewer Blue counties to reach the same level of population as the Red counties.

Using another of Charles’s graphs, we will break this out by state and add a little explanation to make my point on trump state death rate. This depicts the point Dana is making clearly. Fourteen of the first 15 states have Republican Governors. The lone Blue state has a Democrat Governor. The Republican controlled House and Senate legislature having been that way since 1990 and on and off between 1984 and 1990.

COVID death rate by state level | ACA Signups (click on the picture to enlarge like a 65 inch TV)

Some Other Points to be made

• The number one Covid death rate state /100,000 is Joe Manchin’s state of West Virginia. Who can forget Joe lecturing some kayakers from the high deck of his “Almost Heaven” houseboat to them below? Vox article “Congress is on the brink of an immense health policy failure” explains how the failure of this bill passage is leaving many of the vulnerable high and dry. “Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has rendered the current version of the Build Back Better Act dead. The current Congress will not pass any long-term provisions to cover more people, make health care more affordable, or better prepare the nation for the next pandemic.”
• Michigan is the first purple state going for Biden in 2020 having a high Covid death rate. Michigan Senate and House have been Repub since 1984 and 1990. Gerrymandering is performing well for Republicans even with a Democratic Governor, etc. The Repubs have been fighting Governor Whitmer’s efforts to bring the Covid epidemic under control.
• Another purple state with a high Covid death rate and a Republican Governor (Ducey) this time is Arizona. Both Senators signed on to a pledge not to impact Medicare Advantage which is overcharging for senior healthcare. I need to get to Kelly.
• August – October 2021; “SARS-CoV-2 Incidence in K–12 School Districts with Mask-Required Versus Mask-Optional Policies – Arkansas | MMWR (cdc.gov). Shocker here, “Masks are effective at limiting transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.” Who would have known? “Public school districts in Arkansas with full or partial mask requirements had lower incidences of COVID-19 among students and staff members than did districts without mask requirements.”

States rejecting shots are prone to higher death rates based upon lies. innuendo, supposition, conjecture and false info.

Masking

March 8, 2022; a new CDC study emerges. Nobody believes in masks, right? “SARS-CoV-2 Incidence in K–12 School Districts with Mask-Required Versus Mask-Optional Policies — Arkansas,” August – October 2021 | MMWR (cdc.gov)

School districts with universal mask requirements had a 23% lower incidence of COVID-19 among staff members and students compared with districts without mask requirements.

We all know masking does not work.

Dana Millbank quoting Jonathan Swift;

“Falsehood flies and truth comes limping after it.”

The richest and most capable nation in the world lags behind many other countries. Many of the politicians lie to their constituents.