Right-wing party membership correlates to COVID-19 spread
Der Spiegel reports that sociologist Christoph Richter, working with the Research Institute for Social Cohesion, has proven what we all probably could have guessed. In areas where the right-populist Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party had the most support in 2017, COVID-19 infections rose the fastest in 2020:
The researchers’ calculations are so precise that they can quantify the correlation to within a single decimal place. "If the AfD gained one percentage point more in a district, then the incidence there was higher there by an average of 2.2 percentage points in the phase of the first wave when numbers rose," says Christoph Richter, a sociologist who studies right-wing extremism at the Jena Institute for Democracy and Civil Society. Mathematically, that means: If the party received one in 10 votes in one district and twice as many in another, the level of infection in the two regions differed on average by a healthy 22 percent.
Impressive work, and it's important to support our assumptions with actual science. It's also a good reminder to get your booster if you're going to be going to any far-right populist political rallies this holiday season.
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SOURCE: Der Spiegel