sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
This study by Yale suggests that unvaccinated people have a higher excess death rate than vaccinated people.
EXCESS DEATH RATES FOR REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
September 2022
snip
This sharp contrast in the excess death rate gap before and after vaccines were available suggests that vaccine take-up likely played an important role. Data on vaccine take-up by party is limited and unavailable in our dataset, but there is evidence of differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake based on political party affiliation [13, 10, 7]. Using county-level vaccination rates, we find evidence that vaccination contributes to explaining differences in excess deaths by political party affiliation, even after controlling for location and age differences.
snip
Overall, our results suggest that political party affiliation only became a substantial risk factor in Ohio and Florida after vaccines were widely available. Lack of individual-level vaccination status limits our ability to draw broad conclusions, but the results suggest that the well-documented differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republicans and Democrats [10, 7, 8, 13] have already had serious consequences for the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the United States. If these differences in vaccination by political party affiliation persist, then the higher excess death rate among Republicans is likely to continue through the subsequent stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.nber.org/system/files/wo...512/w30512.pdf
EXCESS DEATH RATES FOR REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
September 2022
snip
This sharp contrast in the excess death rate gap before and after vaccines were available suggests that vaccine take-up likely played an important role. Data on vaccine take-up by party is limited and unavailable in our dataset, but there is evidence of differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake based on political party affiliation [13, 10, 7]. Using county-level vaccination rates, we find evidence that vaccination contributes to explaining differences in excess deaths by political party affiliation, even after controlling for location and age differences.
snip
Overall, our results suggest that political party affiliation only became a substantial risk factor in Ohio and Florida after vaccines were widely available. Lack of individual-level vaccination status limits our ability to draw broad conclusions, but the results suggest that the well-documented differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republicans and Democrats [10, 7, 8, 13] have already had serious consequences for the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the United States. If these differences in vaccination by political party affiliation persist, then the higher excess death rate among Republicans is likely to continue through the subsequent stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.nber.org/system/files/wo...512/w30512.pdf