Covid cases and death rates higher in Republican-led states – study

El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office staff roll bodies that are in bags labeled “Covid” from refrigerated trailers into the morgue office in El Paso, Texas, November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Ivan Pierre Aguirre

Republican-led states had higher Covid-19 case rates and death rates than Democrat-led states, in the second half of 2020, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

States with Democratic governors had higher case and death rates in the early months of the pandemic, but trends reversed in the summer, according to CNN’s report on the AJPM findings.

At their peak differences, case rates and deaths rates in Republican-led states were about 1.8 times higher than those in Democrat-led states. https://covidtracking.com

“Governors’ party affiliation may have contributed to a range of policy decisions that, together, influenced the spread of the virus,” Sara Benjamin-Neelon, senior study author and professor at Johns Hopkins University, said in a news release.

“These findings underscore the need for state policy actions that are guided by public health considerations rather than by partisan politics.”

Other studies have found that Republican governors were slower to adopt mask mandates and stay-at-home orders and that stay-at-home orders typically lasted longer under Democratic governors, according to CNN.

However, the new study’s authors caution that their findings do not imply that political affiliation of a state leader was a cause of Covid-19 case or death incidence.