A CONSCIOUS POLICY DECISION TO KILL THEIR CITIZENRY:

The researchers theorized that one reason for the change is that Democrats were in charge of states where people who had the virus first arrived in the country -- but Republicans were less stringent about safeguards, which could have contributed to their states' ultimately higher incidence and death rates.

"The early trends could be explained by high Covid-19 cases and deaths among Democratic-led states that are home to initial ports of entry for the virus in early 2020," the researchers wrote. "However, the subsequent reversal in trends, particularly with respect to testing, may reflect policy differences that could have facilitated the spread of the virus."

The study, which which was published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Preventive Medicine, examined Covid-19 "incidence, death, testing, and test positivity rates from March 15 through December 15, 2020," when there were 16 million confirmed cases in the U.S. and 300,000 deaths. It focused on per-capita infection and death rates in the 26 GOP-led states and 24 Democratic-led states and Washington, D.C., and made statistical adjustments for issues such as population density.

But "policy differences" between the Republican and Democratic leaders emerged as a big factor for the reversal of the states' fortunes, the study suggests.

"The response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic became increasingly politicized in the U.S. and political affiliation of state leaders may contribute to policies affecting the spread of the disease," the study said.

It pointed to a finding in another study that "Republican governors were slower to adopt both stay-at-home orders and mandates to wear face masks. Other studies have shown that Democratic governors were more likely to issue stay-at-home orders with longer durations. Moreover, decisions by Republican governors in spring 2020 to retract policies, such as the lifting of stay-at-home orders on April 28 in Georgia, may have contributed to increased cases and deaths."

"Governors' party affiliation may have contributed to a range of policy decisions that, together, influenced the spread of the virus," the study's senior author, Dr. Sara Benjamin-Neelon the Bloomberg School's Department of Health, Behavior and Society, said in a statement. "These findings underscore the need for state policy actions that are guided by public health considerations rather than by partisan politics," she added.

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