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The politicization of COVID-19 vaccines may have led to a higher excess death rate among Republicans in Ohio and Florida during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study found. According to the study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, registered Republicans had a higher rate of excess deaths than Democrats after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in May 2021. (Weixel, 7/24)

Registered Republicans experienced a "significantly higher" rate of excess deaths than Democrats in Florida and Ohio in the months after COVID-19 vaccines were made widely available, a new study has found. The Yale researchers note in their study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine Monday, the findings "suggest that well-documented differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been a factor in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic." (Falconer, 7/24)

After May of 2021, roughly 1 month after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available, the gap between Republicans and Democrats further widened, to 7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0 to 9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis, or a 43% difference, the authors said. The difference was seen in Florida, but was most pronounced in Ohio. (Soucheray, 7/24)

Millions of people are set to lose Covid-19 pandemic-era benefits this fall. The expiration of these programs, which were created by Congress in the early years of the pandemic, will strip away economic assistance that millions of Americans have received for years and still rely on. (Lobosco and Luhby, 7/25)

We still don’t know how the pandemic started. Here's what we do know — and why it matters. (Quammen, 7/25)

“I think there’s this real feeling here in the U.S. that disease is something that comes from elsewhere,” said Ann Linder, an associate director at the animal law and policy program at Harvard Law School. But there is real risk in our own backyards — and barnyards. Since 2011, there have been more confirmed human cases of swine flu in the United States than anywhere else in the world. (That may be because other nations are doing less testing and surveillance, and many cases here and abroad are likely to go undetected, experts say.) Most have been linked to agricultural shows and fairs. “They have become kind of hot spots,” Ms. Linder said. (Anthes, 7/25)