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Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S.

INTRODUCTION: The response to the COVID-19 pandemic became increasingly politicized in the U.S., and the political affiliation of state leaders may contribute to policies affecting the spread of the disease. This study examines the differences in COVID-19 infection, death, and testing by governor pa...

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Autores principales: Neelon, Brian, Mutiso, Fedelis, Mueller, Noel T., Pearce, John L., Benjamin-Neelon, Sara E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8217134/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33775513
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.01.034
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author Neelon, Brian
Mutiso, Fedelis
Mueller, Noel T.
Pearce, John L.
Benjamin-Neelon, Sara E.
author_facet Neelon, Brian
Mutiso, Fedelis
Mueller, Noel T.
Pearce, John L.
Benjamin-Neelon, Sara E.
author_sort Neelon, Brian
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: The response to the COVID-19 pandemic became increasingly politicized in the U.S., and the political affiliation of state leaders may contribute to policies affecting the spread of the disease. This study examines the differences in COVID-19 infection, death, and testing by governor party affiliation across the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. METHODS: A longitudinal analysis was conducted in December 2020 examining COVID-19 incidence, death, testing, and test positivity rates from March 15, 2020 through December 15, 2020. A Bayesian negative binomial model was fit to estimate the daily risk ratios and posterior intervals comparing rates by gubernatorial party affiliation. The analyses adjusted for state population density, rurality, Census region, age, race, ethnicity, poverty, number of physicians, obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, smoking, and presidential voting in 2020. RESULTS: From March 2020 to early June 2020, Republican-led states had lower COVID-19 incidence rates than Democratic-led states. On June 3, 2020, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had a higher incidence (risk ratio=1.10, 95% posterior interval=1.01, 1.18). This trend persisted through early December 2020. For death rates, Republican-led states had lower rates early in the pandemic but higher rates from July 4, 2020 (risk ratio=1.18, 95% posterior interval=1.02, 1.31) through mid-December 2020. Republican-led states had higher test positivity rates starting on May 30, 2020 (risk ratio=1.70, 95% posterior interval=1.66, 1.73) and lower testing rates by September 30, 2020 (risk ratio=0.95, 95% posterior interval=0.90, 0.98). CONCLUSIONS: Gubernatorial party affiliation may drive policy decisions that impact COVID-19 infections and deaths across the U.S. Future policy decisions should be guided by public health considerations rather than by political ideology.
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spelling pubmed-82171342021-07-01 Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S. Neelon, Brian Mutiso, Fedelis Mueller, Noel T. Pearce, John L. Benjamin-Neelon, Sara E. Am J Prev Med Research Brief INTRODUCTION: The response to the COVID-19 pandemic became increasingly politicized in the U.S., and the political affiliation of state leaders may contribute to policies affecting the spread of the disease. This study examines the differences in COVID-19 infection, death, and testing by governor party affiliation across the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. METHODS: A longitudinal analysis was conducted in December 2020 examining COVID-19 incidence, death, testing, and test positivity rates from March 15, 2020 through December 15, 2020. A Bayesian negative binomial model was fit to estimate the daily risk ratios and posterior intervals comparing rates by gubernatorial party affiliation. The analyses adjusted for state population density, rurality, Census region, age, race, ethnicity, poverty, number of physicians, obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, smoking, and presidential voting in 2020. RESULTS: From March 2020 to early June 2020, Republican-led states had lower COVID-19 incidence rates than Democratic-led states. On June 3, 2020, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had a higher incidence (risk ratio=1.10, 95% posterior interval=1.01, 1.18). This trend persisted through early December 2020. For death rates, Republican-led states had lower rates early in the pandemic but higher rates from July 4, 2020 (risk ratio=1.18, 95% posterior interval=1.02, 1.31) through mid-December 2020. Republican-led states had higher test positivity rates starting on May 30, 2020 (risk ratio=1.70, 95% posterior interval=1.66, 1.73) and lower testing rates by September 30, 2020 (risk ratio=0.95, 95% posterior interval=0.90, 0.98). CONCLUSIONS: Gubernatorial party affiliation may drive policy decisions that impact COVID-19 infections and deaths across the U.S. Future policy decisions should be guided by public health considerations rather than by political ideology. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. 2021-07 2021-03-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8217134/ /pubmed/33775513 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.01.034 Text en © 2021 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Research Brief
Neelon, Brian
Mutiso, Fedelis
Mueller, Noel T.
Pearce, John L.
Benjamin-Neelon, Sara E.
Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S.
title Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S.
title_full Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S.
title_fullStr Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S.
title_full_unstemmed Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S.
title_short Associations Between Governor Political Affiliation and COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Testing in the U.S.
title_sort associations between governor political affiliation and covid-19 cases, deaths, and testing in the u.s.
topic Research Brief
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8217134/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33775513
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.01.034
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