Republicans' excess death rate spiked after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, a study says

A new study finds a gap in excess deaths opened between Republicans and Democrats in 2021, after vaccine access was widened to all adults. Here, a Walgreens worker prepares vaccine shots for school staff in Dayton, Ohio, in February 2021. (Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images)

The pandemic inflicted higher rates of excess deaths on both Republicans and Democrats. But after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, Republican voters in Florida and Ohio died at a higher rate than their counterparts, according to a new study.

Researchers from Yale University who studied the pandemic's effects on those two states say that from the pandemic's start in March 2020 through December 2021, "excess mortality was significantly higher for Republican voters than Democratic voters after COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults, but not before."