As was noted in "Aiming for Dictatorship With A Dying Base," Republicans' urge to make political points at the expense of their credulous, skewing- older base is costing those voters -- sometimes their lives. The mixed messages on vaccinations that their base has gotten from the likes of the Malignant Loser and Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis is just another quantifiable example of the sociopathy at the heart of the Republican Party:
Yale University researchers found that registered Republicans had a higher rate of excess deaths than Democrats in the months following when vaccines became available for all adults in April 2021. The study does not directly attribute the deaths to covid-19. Instead, excess mortality refers to the overall rate of deaths exceeding what would be expected from historical trends.
The study examined the deaths of 538,139 people 25 years and older in Florida and Ohio, between January 2018 and December 2021, with researchers linking them to party registration records. Researchers found the excess death rate for Republicans and Democrats was about the same at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Both parties experienced a sharp but similar increase in excess deaths the following winter. But after April 2021, the gap in excess death rates emerged, with the rate for Republicans 7.7 percentage points higher than the rate for Democrats. For Republicans, that translated into a 43 percent increase in excess deaths. [snip]
The release of the Yale study comes as the vaccine rollout and policies under President Biden have faced criticism by some Republicans, including members of the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) pushed the rollout of vaccines early in the pandemic. But as he prepared to mount a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis displayed increased hostility toward vaccines, petitioning for a state grand jury to investigate supposed wrongdoing related to vaccines. Florida’s health department even issued a “health alert” on mRNA vaccine safety, which drew sharp rebukes.
Public health officials fear mixed messaging on coronavirus vaccines by Republicans is shaping attitudes toward the vaccine in dangerous ways.
In a nationwide survey published in March by the University of South Florida, only 49 percent of Republicans said they were “very” or “somewhat confident” that coronavirus vaccines are safe, contrasted with 88 percent of Democrats. Stephen R. Neely, a professor at USF’s School of Public Affairs who conducted the survey, said the Yale study was important because it highlighted how sharply partisanship over coronavirus vaccine safety and efficacy has led to unnecessary deaths.
“It’s one of the most telling metrics I’ve seen in how the politicization of the pandemic has played out in the real world,” Neely said. (our emphasis)
We have mixed feelings insofar as Republican base mortality. But, in the big picture, vaccine idiocy drives up death rates and the cost of health care for all of us, while Republican charlatans like Bootsie -- who know better -- usually escape the consequences of their lies and misdirections. If the Republican base wants to deny itself health care, forego vaccinations, stockpile guns, work itself into nonsensical rages, and vote against their economic best interests, that's a hell of a way to own the libs. Unfortunately, though, we all share in the adverse effects of their bad decisions.
BONUS: Another take on the "all circus, no bread" politics of the Republican Party.
(Photo: Sacramento, CA, protest in May 2020/ Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)
