Coronavirus today: Quantifying COVID-19’s death toll

Another research group, from the University of Maryland and UC Irvine, examined COVID-19 deaths by county from the start of the pandemic through October 2021. They found that compared with counties that voted Democratic in the 2020 presidential election, counties that voted Republican had 73 more deaths per 100,000 residents. … “It appears that voting behavior acts as a proxy for compliance with and support for public health measures, vaccine uptake, and the likelihood of engaging in riskier behaviors (for example, unmasked social events and in-person dining) that could affect disease spread and mortality,” the researchers wrote in the June issue of Health Affairs.