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<p>A new study reviewing COVID-19 deaths shows that a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats died from the illness after vaccines became available last year.</p>
<p>Researchers looked 600,000 death records in Ohio and Florida and connected them to voter registration records to confirm party affiliations. Other studies had looked at COVID-19 death rates in counties with higher Republican Party registration, but this study connected individual patients' official voter registration records to confirm party affiliation.</p>
<p>The study, conducted by Yale University School of Medicine, looked at deaths both before and after vaccines became available. The findings showed that COVID-19 deaths among Republicans were only 1.6% higher than among Democrats before the vaccines, but jumped to more than 10.6% higher after vaccines were widely available beginning in April 2021.</p>
<p>Overall, the excess death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points, or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats.</p>
<p>One of the lead researchers, Yale School of Medicine's Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, says the study does not prove partisan attitudes toward vaccines caused the increase in deaths, but that the study provides "pretty good evidence" that low vaccine take-up rates among Republicans correlate with higher death rates and should give policy-makers clues on how to better reach out to the community during public health crises.</p>
<p>"It gives you a sense of where you should be looking and who you should be targeting if you want to solve some of these problems,” Goldsmith-Pinkham said.</p>
<p>Protests against vaccine requirements became a political hot-button issue with many Republican politicians, including Donald Trump, opposing mandatory vaccinations.</p>
<p>Several high-profile vaccine opponents, including conservative radio show hosts Phil Valentine, Dick Farrell, Dr. Jimmy DeYoung Sr., and Tod Tucker, died of complications caused by COVID-19 after repeatedly opposing vaccines and spreading misinformation about the pandemic.</p>
<p>The full study can be downloaded here. <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w30512/w30512.pdf">Yale COVID-19 Study</a>.</p>
