COVID Vaccination Rates Vary in Trump vs. Biden Counties
Counties that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 are outpacing those that went for former President Donald Trump, a U.S. News analysis shows.
Campaign signs for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are displayed outside of the Lake Recreation Center, Nov. 3, 2020, in Peoria, Ariz.(CHRISTIAN PETERSEN/GETTY IMAGES)
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, disparities have emerged regarding who’s been infected and how severely ill people have become, as well as in how the nation has responded to the crisis overall. For example, a pronounced disparity can be seen when comparing COVID-19 vaccination rates to county-level voting results from the 2020 presidential election.
A U.S. News analysis shows that as of Jan. 26, counties where former President Donald Trump received the most votes in 2020 had an average full vaccination rate of 52%, while counties that went to President Joe Biden had an average rate of 66% – a difference of 14 percentage points.
When looking only at counties where the candidate won by a margin of 50 or more percentage points, the disparity more than doubles: The average full vaccination rate in counties that went very strongly for Biden was 30 percentage points higher than counties that went heavily for Trump.
Initially, there was no difference in COVID vaccination rates between Biden and Trump counties. But the two groups began to diverge around early April 2021, with Biden counties getting vaccinated at a more accelerated rate than Trump counties.
Notably, while health care workers and more vulnerable populations were initially targeted for vaccination after a shot was first approved in December 2020, Biden pushed states to make all adults in the U.S. eligible by April 19, 2021. In early April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance regarding domestic travel, after issuing its first guidance on activities for fully vaccinated people in early March.
Tags: vaccines, coronavirus, pandemic, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, elections, 2020 presidential election