Yasmin Tayag at the Atlantic has a stark piece about the COVID death gap between Republicans and Democrats, with the biggest takeaway being how that gap INCREASED after the arrival of vaccines. She cites Strangeabbott's early banning of all vaccine mandates here in Tex-ass early on, or now, Florida Man DeSatan's vaccine investigations committee, as among the most dire examples of this.
The numbers? By political affiliation, a death cap of 1.6 percentage points (not percent) pre-vax, to 10.4 percent now. This is a self-genocide.
And, it occurs as 2021 life expectancy has declined again, to a 26-year low. And, as that's not just due to COVID, but also due to "white working class" woes that Trump and Trumpism were supposed to address like drug and alcohol problems. (Cirrhosis and chronic liver disease, as one joint cause, are now in the top 10 causes of death.)
Interestingly, re the racism of many such "white working class" people (not all, but many, and no apologies to the spirit of the late Leo Lincourt) Black and Hispanic men did NOT have such declines — probably because they've already been hardened to life's woes felling all Whites, and more Black and Hispanic women.
Back to the first link — Tayag says that behind COVID, but again on issues largely related to public health, the red-blue life expectancy gap goes back to the 1990s. She mentions tobacco taxes (tho they're high enough in red Tex-ass), gun issues (aye) rejection of Medicare expansion under Obamacare and more.
Sidebar: I'm fine with this for one reason, or rather, two closely related ones. The "young-eating" should happen, ideally, close to but before age 65, for one thing, or age 66 and change, for another thing.
But, not much younger. Pay into Medicare and Social Security, but feel free to die off before you use them. Helps solvency.
Sidebar two: For the other half of tribalists, a friendly reminder that average daily cases, while having a small recent bump, remain relatively low, and average daily deaths remain low.
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