From the blog
Voting for Trump Worse Than Smoking
Light smokers are 2-3 times more likely to get lung cancer, stomach cancer, and coronary artery disease than are people who don’t smoke. People who live in counties that voted most strongly for Trump are 3.3 times more likely to have died
Light smokers are 2-3 times more likely to get lung cancer, stomach cancer, and coronary artery disease than are people who don’t smoke.
People who live in counties that voted most strongly for Trump are 3.3 times more likely to have died of COVID-19 than those in counties that voted the other way.
The relationship between Trump’s percentage of the vote and COVID deaths is almost linear.
The reasons are clear. The relationship between political preference and COVID-19 immunization rates mirrors the death rates.
One could, of course, quibble with the statistics. These cancer rates are for light smokers. Death rates for heavy smokers are much higher. But death rates are likely much higher among actual Trump voters than for voters in counties that favored Trump.
Believing Trump's lies is bad for your health.
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About the author
John D. Lantos is a pediatrician and bioethicist writing on AI in medicine, neonatal intensive care, and end-of-life decisions. His essays appear in JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, the Hastings Center Report, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Aeon. Read more about John.