A few summary paragraphs:
"By December 2021 when 800,000 Americans had died from COVID-19, a staggering 200,000 had been lost after vaccines were available. This magnitude of preventable death is hard to fathom. The CDC reported that in September 2021, the risk of dying from COVID-19 was fourteen times higher for unvaccinated Americans than for fully vaccinated Americans.
We believe that a committed federal government response led by the Trump administration could have produced a different outcome. Democrats wanted to support a strong pandemic response, and Republicans wanted to support their president. Bipartisan approaches could have increased national unity by truly encouraging Americans to pull together and rally around the flag, much like what has happened in national emergencies and crises of the past.
We are arguing in this book that Trumps leadership style, based on charismatic authority and patronage, and his pursuit of political priorities that projected an image of economic and political strength rather than problem solving and good governance played a major role in the excess deaths from covid-19. President Trump was obsessed with projecting strength to ensure his own reelection, gutting bureaucracies tasked with coordinating emergency responses, refusing to take responsibility for managing the crisis, and nurturing a cult of personality that revolved around his unchallenged authority.
As an extension of this charismatic authority and as a means to consolidate and protect his power while in office, Trump cultivated a menagerie of trusted advisers based on loyalty rather than performance, expertise, or skill. He embraced patronage and favoritism to donors, family members, and business associates at a level that was unprecedented in modern American history."
A recent study of the difference between Democrats and Republicans showed the following:
Wallace J et al (July 24, 2023) Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA intern Med. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.1154
The excess death rate among Republican voters before vaccinations were available was 15% higher than for Democrats (from not masking, social distancing, etc). But after vaccines were available in May 1, 2021, their death rate was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters.
I wish the book had discussed the role of evangelism, since the majority of Republicans believe in the Bible literally and that might make them more gullible to other lies spun in the media, the extent to which being scientifically literate made a difference, and thought more could have been said about the role of FOX, Limbaugh and other right-wing media as a substantial cause of the pandemic mishandling.
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