Are more Republicans dying of COVID-19 than Democrats?
According to NPR, counties where more than 60% of residents voted for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the 2020 election have nearly triple the death rate of counties whose majority voted for Biden. Counties that voted for Trump at an even higher rate experienced an even higher death toll.
This difference is attributable to the partisan disparity in vaccination rates. Counties that heavily voted for Trump are far less vaccinated than those where most voted for Biden. Recent polls indicate that one's political party is the strongest predictor of whether they are vaccinated, with unvaccinated persons being three times as likely to lean Republican than Democrat.
Misinformation is likely to blame for this. A Kaiser report found that Republicans are "much more likely" to believe COVID-19 misinformation, with authors identifying a correlation to consuming conservative media.