Natural selection. I'm delighted. Fewer Republicans who vote.
And yes, anti-vaccine rhetoric is to blame.
• COVID cases and deaths are higher in more Republican counties.
• Republicans are more likely to believe misinformation about vaccines.
• Republicans are substantially less likely to get vaccinated.
• Researchers have found that exposure to conservative media, particularly Fox News, made people more vaccine hesitant.
The graphs made me smile:
It's good to know and perhaps helpful to some, but I'm not surprised. I think it's okay to feel relief when your assumptions are validated, especially when it's life-saving. This is just acknowledging the flip side, which there has to be, otherwise it wouldn't have been an issue.
No idea why people think this is funny. It's tragic. Ir also means that those of us living in Red counties that are liberals are more likely to die because these maskless, unvaccinated idiots are all around us.
If you had your vaccinations you are "ALMOST 100%" guaranteed you won't have to worry about it. I am 70 and have severe respiratory issues and cought only a very mild case about two months ago...fever of 101.5 for 24 hours...and felt like laryngitis for a week and a half. My oldlest boy was stubborn and didn't get ANY of the vaccines and he would have died if my daughter(who is a BSRN and lived down the road from him) hadn't intervened. Bet you dollars to donuts he doesn't do it again.
@phoenixone1 Not everyone's experience is the same, nor is it predictable. Glad that yours was a mild case.
@MizJ that's why I said almost...I probably should have written it as "ALMOST 100%". But thanks for pointing that out...I will edit it. I understand everyone is different. Comorbity and that individuals immune systems ability to fight it comes into play. But the point I was trying to make is simply ... The Vaccines and Boosters is your best defense and the results have been spectacular to say the least.
It also depended on which variant you contacted also...my oldest boy who was unvaccinated cought "The FIRST COVID. STRAIN"...that was the real killer...the second, third and fourth have been #1 weakened in symptoms #2 have become MORE EASILY TRANSMITTED. Hopefully they won't become nasty again. My youngest son and I caught the 3rd variant which was WAY milder.
@phoenixone1 There is no way of knowing whether a new variant will evade vaccines and/or current treatments just as there is no way of knowing how sick one will become or if long covid will result as it's an odds game. In the US over a million people are dead, and counting. Ignorant people that transmit the virus to others can kill them and I find nothing funny about that.
@MizJ I can certainly understand your feelings. Namaste
Maybe "thinning out the herd" isn't such a bad thing from time to time.
I've been waiting for a study like this one to come out. It's still early days; there will be more. I'm betting they will confirm these findings. Parenthetically, it's also great to see Darwin's theory confirmed once again.