A blue state-red state vaccine divide is emerging

(Image credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

published 3 May 2021

A blue state-red state vaccine divide is emerging in the United States, warns infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez.

In several Northeastern states where more than half the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, there have been significant decreases in coronavirus infections over the last two weeks, wrote Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University's School of Public Health.

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The politics-based divide Hotez fears isn't without exceptions. For instance, South Dakota, a red state, has seen a 50 percent decline in cases over the last two weeks, per The New York Times, and has a one-dose vaccination rate of 45 percent, ranking 22nd in the U.S., per Bloomberg. But Bloomberg's tracker shows that red states are overrepresented at the lower-end of vaccination rates, which could mean it'll be a longer road to sharp and steady infection declines.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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