USU study finds connection between COVID-19 rates and political views
A new study from a group based at Utah State University found a connection between political views and the COVID-19 case rates.
As an organization, the Western Rural Development Center’s goal is to assist rural development. There are four regional development centers that cover all 50 states and to assist economic development efforts. The western center covers 13 states in the west, including Utah.
Don Albrecht, the executive director of WRDC, was originally interested in the possibility of people moving to rural areas as a result of the pandemic, since more people were able to work remotely, and the danger of the virus seemed to be lessened in the rural communities. However, this turned out not to be the case.
Albrecht said both case rates and death rates started increasing much faster in rural areas than they were in urban areas. “In cities people are crowded together, it’s harder to social distance, they use mass transit, all of these kinds of stuff,” Albrecht said. “You should be safer, and so the question was why, why, why are there more cases and deaths in rural America.”
After eliminating variables like ethnicity, education level and poverty, the study found politics to be the best indicator of a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Counties where Donald Trump led in the 2020 election were also experiencing higher rates of COVID-19.
Michael Lyons, a professor in the Department of Political Science, wasn’t surprised by the findings.
“Here I am at my age, I never lived through anything like this before,” Lyons said. “And people resist change, they resist breaking their habits. And you know, rural people and conservative people resist change more than liberal people do. So, I’m not saying any of this is justified, but it’s not a shock either.”
The WRDC study ended in March in order to eliminate the vaccine as a potential variable. According to Albrecht, they are currently collecting data on vaccinations as part of a follow up study.
“What the preliminary data shows is not surprisingly that political views are influencing who gets vaccinated, and where a lot of people get vaccinated, they are safer from the virus,” Albrecht said.
Since the vaccine became widely available, and especially since mandates began, some people have resisted getting vaccinated.
“Why the anti-vaccination movement grew so much at this particular time is a bit unclear to me,” Lyons said. “The Trump presidency probably had something to do with it. But ultimately, Trump got vaccinated, and most of those top political leaders, I think, have been vaccinated. So why their followers haven’t gone with them and gotten vaccinated, at least in a lot of cases, is a little bit confusing to me.”
USU student Meg Smedley agreed, “I think Trump and our current president have a lot of influence on what happens, but there are also some things they can’t control.”
From his research, Albrecht has found much of the spread of COVID-19 can be controlled if people will follow the science and listen to experts.
Albrecht didn’t doubt pro-Trump counties were hit harder from COVID-19 because they, largely, didn’t take the pandemic seriously.“There are consequences if you don’t follow the advice of health and medical experts who have spent their entire lives studying this kind of stuff and they know what they’re talking about better than the rest of us,” he said. “I’m hoping this will contribute to what a lot of other people are saying, be careful and listen to the experts and follow their advice.”
Maggie.Erekson@usu.edu