COVID Still Continues to Kill Mostly Republicans

 I love my wife. I tell her she is sweet. She tells me to stop blowing smoke.

But the truth is that she is sweet. How do I know? The evidence is obvious whenever we venture outdoors, whether to Caledonia, northern Canada or just into our backyard.

The mosquitos know too. At Caledonia I may attract a single mosquito bite, likely none. Max on the other hand gets a dozen, maybe two dozen bites. Mine itches a little while and then disappears. Her bites itch for days, sometimes weeks, get red and irritated and require ointment a couple times a day. In Canada I swat at a black fly now and then. She attracts hordes of black flies. Even in our back yard when we sit by the stream, I try not to sit too close to her. It’s like there is a mosquito contest to see which one can bite Max the most. Spiders apparently feel the same way about her.

Now we all know that there are more Democrats than Republicans across the U.S. (According to Gallup the average has been 9% more Democrats than Republicans each year over the past 11 years.) Yet Republicans are dying of COVID at a rate many times the rate of Democrats.

I don’t believe that the reason is that Republicans are sweeter than Democrats and thus attract the COVID virus like Max attracts bugs that bite. Rather it turns out that people living in counties across the country that went 60% or higher for Donald Trump during the last presidential election are about three times as likely to die from COVID as those who live in counties that voted for President Biden. The higher the percentage in counties voting for Donald Trump, the higher the COVID death rates among Republicans.

Cut a different way, the most Republican portion of the country had about six times the COVID death rate than the most Democratic portion.

This is due to one of two possible scenarios. Republicans are really that much sweeter than Democrats… or something else is afoot.

Here’s a hint. It turns out that counties that went heavily for Donald Trump have much lower vaccination rates. This leads to much higher death rates from COVID.

Yes, age can be a factor. But even among older demographics, the death rate follows the vaccination rate. And the vaccination rate follows the vote share for Donald Trump.

Of course, this does not mean that voting for Donald Trump is a death wish. But it does mean that Donald Trump’s leadership on the COVID issue has led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

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Political partisanship is a strong identifier of whether someone is vaccinated. Since Donald Trump gained in popularity and became the bread-and-butter topic for Fox News and other right-wing media, many Republicans have come to mistrust official sources of information and have adopted misinformation as their new truth. So vaccinations have been painted as something other than the life-saving medicine for which they were developed.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, unvaccinated persons are three times more likely to lean Republican than Democrat. If you want to know if someone is vaccinated or not, you might simply ask them their party affiliation. Republican COVID vaccinations stand at 59%, compared to Democrats at 91%.

There are now considerably more than 82 million cases of COVID in the U.S. and the number is growing. Some have been light and limited to flu-like symptoms. Other cases caused serious illness. Fully 1 million fellow Americans have struggled mightily and died. And still other cases linger-on for years.

There are at least 30 million long-haul COVID patients in the U.S. Long-haul COVID afflicts 1 in 3 of those infected with COVID. A person’s age, prior health or even the severity of the COVID case does not matter.

Long haul COVID bites. Long-haul COVID symptoms are caused by the COVID virus that infects your lungs and ability to breathe as well as your heart, blood vessels, kidneys, brain, skin, arms, legs and other parts of the body. You can have difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, lingering cough, chest pain, fast-beating heart, brain fog, dizziness, headaches. serious mood changes, loss of taste or smell, extreme tiredness and fatigue, pain in the stomach, joints, muscles or chest, non-stop diarrhea, sleep difficulty, fever and problems with body functions that you just assume work properly until they don’t.

Quite dangerously for long-haulers, COVID causes vascular problems. The COVID virus targets the endothelium cells lining your blood vessels. This causes blood clots throughout your body and makes it hard for oxygen-rich blood to get where It needs to go.

In summary… so far more than 1 in 4 Americans have contracted COVID. Long-haul COVID patients account for a third of that number. Another 1 million are dead.

In Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the numbers are horrific. More than 40,000 citizens have contracted COVID. And 700 of our friends and neighbors have already died. Franklin County is solidly Republican, many are against vaccinations, and apparently a portion of residents are ready, willing and able to die. Of those sick, dying or dead, a disproportionate number are Republicans who refused to take a life-saving medicine.

Unfortunately, misinformation is a big deal affecting vaccination rates. According to surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 90% of Republicans are gullible and believe one or more false statements about COVID and vaccines, whereas about 10% of Democrats believe false statements about the disease. Believing that the vaccines damage fertility, contain a microchip and the government is inflating the number of COVID deaths are all lies, except to those who are predisposed to believe this misinformation.

Underestimating the severity of all this is a major reason for long-haul COVID and deaths. Many Republicans in particular still do not believe COVID is serious. The falsehood is that the chances of getting COVID are low, and, if you do become infected, the severity is minimal. Of course, that is wishful thinking, not fact.

My wife has learned to wear insect repellent, long sleeves and slacks to protect herself from insect bites. Shouldn’t you protect yourself from the ravages of this horrible disease with a simple shot in the arm?

Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, Shippensburg University Trustee, and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx software coordinates and drives communication, specifying, approval, procurement or production, reporting and activities necessary to obtaining direct mail, marketing materials and all other printing. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com