Republican-voting counties in 2016 were more likely to flout COVID regulations and catch the virus.
As The Back Page cringes in anticipation of the electoral event of the year, we’ve spotted a study that hits us right in the confirmation bias.
Researchers from a number of prestigious universities analysed the geotracking data of 15 million American smartphones per day and linked it with 2016 voting results on a county-by-county basis.
They found that US counties that voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton exhibited 14% less physical distancing between March and May this year.
Sure enough, those same counties had higher rates of COVID-19 infection and fatality.
“Does an international crisis threatening substantial loss of life and prolonged economic hardship bring people together in a bipartisan manner?” the researchers asked themselves.
No, their results answered.
“Contrary to our predictions, the observed partisan gap strengthened over time and remained when stay-at-home orders were active,” the researchers wrote.
Trump-leaning counties could have curbed their infection and fatality growth rates if they had distanced to the same degree as Clinton-leaning counties, they posit.
“Such findings provide evidence that partisanship in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic may have had meaningful – and severe – health-related consequences.”
They also found worse outcomes in counties that watched more Fox News, which has consistently played down the threat.
The findings corresponded with polls that showed Democrats were more worried about the virus than Republicans and more likely to practise social distancing.
And they add to research suggesting Trump rallies contributed tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases to the US’s shocking total, fast approaching 10 million.
God bless America.
If you see something stupid, say something stupid … send your hanging chads to felicity@medicalrepublic.com.au.
