How politics impacted Ohio's COVID-19 deaths

What they did: Yale researchers examined 538,159 deaths in individuals aged 25 years and older in Ohio and Florida from March 2020 to December 2021.

What they found: The excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than among Democratic voters.

• The differences were concentrated in counties with lower vaccination rates.
• Party affiliation only became a substantial factor after vaccines were made available to all adults in the U.S.

By the numbers: Just over 60% of Ohioans have completed the primary series of the COVID vaccine, per the Ohio Department of Health.

• In many rural counties, the vaccination rate is well below 50%.

Flashback: As the face of Ohio's COVID-19 response, Gov. Mike DeWine heavily promoted vaccines.

• He made waves as one of the first governors to institute a lottery incentive, along with a scholarship offshoot for students.

Yes, but: Republican lawmakers, who represent most of Ohio's rural areas, tried to block the vaccine lottery and introduced other bills to prohibit vaccine mandates.

• Even before the COVID vaccine was made available, the Ohio House Health Committee chairman told an anti-vaccine group he needed "energy to stop this vaccine s--t that's coming."
• One legislator rallied against a hospital's vaccination requirement for caregivers and called vaccines "poison."

Threat level: Statehouse committee hearings were particular sources of vaccine misinformation.

• A lawmaker incorrectly suggested during one such hearing that COVID vaccines kill children.
• An Ohio doctor went viral for baselessly theorizing to policymakers that vaccines could be connected to 5G towers, as did a nurse who tried (and failed) to demonstrate that vaccines cause magnetism.

More recently, DeWine vetoed a state budget provision that would have allowed college students to decline mandatory vaccines for medical, religious or personal reasons.

• Activists proposed a constitutional amendment last year to ban vaccine mandates statewide.