Two of the most visible right-wing, conservative political movements in the U.S. right now -- "Defeat the Mandates" and the "ReAwaken America" tour -- have extensive involvement from physicians who have been flagged for spreading medical misinformation.
Their names often appear on the featured speakers' list at both events: Robert Malone, MD; Peter McCullough, MD; Pierre Kory, MD; and Simone Gold, MD, JD, among others.
Even with widely available vaccines and newly effective treatments, residents of counties that went heavily for Donald Trump in the last presidential election are more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than those that live in areas that went for President Biden. That's according to a newly-updated analysis from NPR, examining how partisanship and misinformation are shaping the pandemic.
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NPR examined COVID deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which most Americans could find a vaccine if they wanted one. Those living in counties that voted 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.26 times the death rate of those that went by the same margin for Biden. Counties with a higher share of Trump votes had even higher mortality rates.
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