A friend sent me a fascinating piece in yesterday’s Washington Post entitled “How Red-State Politics Are Shaving Years Off American Lives.” It details the credible and devastating reality that where you live has a large effect on your health and longevity—not because of geography, but because of policy.*
Thank you for your research into US mortality from Covid as well as highlighting the recent article in the Washington Post. The question posed by Medicus is spot on: "How long is it going to take for the public to realize what is happening?"
I speak to Michael frequently and we see eye-to-eye on virtually everything. He’s incredibly knowledgeable. We are discussing some work together. I thought the Q&A was fascinating and actually quite important.
Thank you for providing this compelling analysis supporting not only the value of vaccination but the argument that partisan politics in the US has supplanted science and common sense, to the detriment of public health. My question is, how long will it take for those in the US whose minds need to be changed and are *able* to be changed to become aware of this truth?
How did you control for when the various waves of COVID moved through the US prior to Delta? I notice that early states that got hit like New York and New Jersey do much better in early Delta period than even states like California.
If states had more infections prior to the vaccines, they may do better during this study period.
I notice in the graph in this Substack piece there are several outliers in early Delta and Late Delta that have 60%+ vaccine uptake but high excess mortality, are those states that were not hit during the original strain?
Very good q. There’s definitely a different pattern in some places depending in part on timing and extent of prior exposures. No one easy answer to your question, but in MA for example we had a pretty mild Delta because of very high vaccine rates and continued mitigation measures. But then Omicron was *worse for us (as we showed in our JAMA paper: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2792738
Thank you for your research into US mortality from Covid as well as highlighting the recent article in the Washington Post. The question posed by Medicus is spot on: "How long is it going to take for the public to realize what is happening?"
I just hope they realize it before the next pandemic
Those Americans who refuse to mask / vaccinate also believe that anything from a non-right-wing news source is "fake news..."
What do you make of the Oct 5th NYT newsletter by David Wallace-Wells, where he interviews Dr Michael Mina?
I speak to Michael frequently and we see eye-to-eye on virtually everything. He’s incredibly knowledgeable. We are discussing some work together. I thought the Q&A was fascinating and actually quite important.
this was a fascinating newsletter. Thanks for mentioning!
Thank you for providing this compelling analysis supporting not only the value of vaccination but the argument that partisan politics in the US has supplanted science and common sense, to the detriment of public health. My question is, how long will it take for those in the US whose minds need to be changed and are *able* to be changed to become aware of this truth?
I ask myself this often :(
How did you control for when the various waves of COVID moved through the US prior to Delta? I notice that early states that got hit like New York and New Jersey do much better in early Delta period than even states like California.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-023-08374-2/tables/1
If states had more infections prior to the vaccines, they may do better during this study period.
I notice in the graph in this Substack piece there are several outliers in early Delta and Late Delta that have 60%+ vaccine uptake but high excess mortality, are those states that were not hit during the original strain?
Very good q. There’s definitely a different pattern in some places depending in part on timing and extent of prior exposures. No one easy answer to your question, but in MA for example we had a pretty mild Delta because of very high vaccine rates and continued mitigation measures. But then Omicron was *worse for us (as we showed in our JAMA paper: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2792738