Thread by @charles_gaba

The graph on the left has been getting a lot of attention the past few days.

So should the graph on the right.

acasignups.net/23/03/07/march…

For those who ask about adjusting by age (or other factors: acasignups.net/23/03/27/you-d…

They adjusted for age, gender, race, ethnicity, employment, insurance status, income, disabilities, comorbidities and a other factors as well...

...and STILL found that the single most important factor in the higher death rates was...partisanship.

I've also never understood the "Hah! GOP voters are older! Busted!" response to these studies anyway. Even if that *was* a significant factor, if you knew that your base was more vulnerable due to their age, wouldn't that make you MORE likely to encourage them to #GetVaxxed?

I mean, let's take that argument to the extreme. Let's say that 100% of Republicans were 65+ and 100% of Democrats were under 35, and as a result Republicans were dying at 100x the rate of Democrats. Can you imagine if the MAGA/FOX party line was *STILL* to be anti-vaxx??

Having said that, I looked into the "GOP voters are older" argument and found that it's not nearly as dramatic as it sounds.
pewresearch.org/religion/relig…

pewresearch.org/religion/relig…

The @pewresearch analysis mostly focuses on religion, but it also breaks out Dem/GOP voters by age bracket. Admittedly this is from 2014:

17.5% of Dem voters were 65+.
20.0% of GOP voters were 65+.

26.4% of Dem voters were 50 - 64.
28.0% of GOP voters were 50 - 65.

While those are noteworthy differences (48% GOP = 50+ vs. 43.9%), they're hardly overwhelming...and again, it still goes back to my other point: Shouldn't that make them MORE likely to #GetVaxxed, wear masks and so forth?

For example: This only ran from 6/30/21 - 10/4/21, but it has COVID death rates in the reddest counties (Trump >70%) vs the bluest counties (Trump <32%), broken out by % of population age 65+.

EVEN IN the counties w/the highest % 65+, it was still 3.8:1.
acasignups.net/21/10/06/rumor…