Due to a new, highly infectious variant, called Omicron XBB.1.5, which accounted for 41% of infections in December – and up to 75% in the north-east of the country – Covid is making a comeback in force in the US, where the death toll rose 44% – to 3,907 – between January 4 and 11 compared to the previous seven days. The number of hospitalizations rose from a weekly rate of 31,000 at the end of November to 46,000 in the first days of January. Although experts cannot yet see the end of the wave, the United States has so far recorded 1.1 million deaths from the virus since its emergence in early 2020. According to figures from the Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource center, 81.5% of Americans are now fully vaccinated, with differences ranging from 91.5% for residents of Washington, DC, to 52.8% for residents of Wyoming.
“Baby Trump”. The divide is very clearly political. Focusing on Ohio (11.8 million people, 41,200 Covid deaths) and Florida (21 million people, 84,000 deaths), where vaccination rates are 69.6% and 71.1%, respectively, researchers from the National Bureau of Economic Research published a study last fall showing that in recent years, the Covid death rate has been higher in counties dominated by Republican Party voters than in those with a Democratic majority.
The gap, which reached up to ten points before the arrival of vaccines on the market in early 2021, increased to twenty points afterwards, proof of the influence of anti-masks and anti-vax in these two states dominated by the Grand Old Party. The Republican Party holds all the keys in Ohio, including the governorship, and a majority in the local legislature. The situation is the same in Florida, governed by Ron DeSantis, a “baby Trump” who is against all health restrictions from the start.
