From the website MedicalEconomics:
“Excess deaths” – the percent increase in deaths above expected deaths due to seasonality, geographic location, political party affiliation and age – were similar for Republicans and Democrats in 2018 and early 2020. Both groups had a similar large spike in excess death in winter 2020-2021.
“However, in the summer of 2021 – after vaccines were widely available – the Republican excess death rate rose to nearly double that of Democrats, and this gap widened further in the winter of 2021,” the study said.
From March 2020 to December 2021, a time overlapping with the COVID-19 pandemic, average excess death rates were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats. That grew to a 95% difference when measured from March 2020 to March 2021, and a 153% difference after April 5, 2021, “when all adults were eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in Florida and Ohio,” the study said.
“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,” the study said.