The impact of social, demographic, and political factors on public health : exploring COVID-19 outcomes using publicly available data

Author / Creator

Curtis, Craig, active 2022, author

Available as

Online

Summary

When the COVID-19 virus first arrived in the United States in early 2020, there were clear political and regional differences in the nation's response and the prospects for widespread death and ser...

When the COVID-19 virus first arrived in the United States in early 2020, there were clear political and regional differences in the nation's response and the prospects for widespread death and serious illness were sobering. However, the potential for a learning experience was a silver lining in this particularly ominous cloud. Part of the response from both government and interested private organizations was to publish data about COVID-19 on the web, available to everyone. This report traces an effort to collect and analyze these data at the county level in the United States. Employing these data, one is able to analyze the relationships of demographic, political, attitudinal, and behavioral compliance data to COVID-19 illnesses, hospital usage, and deaths. The patterns that emerge from this analysis suggest that regional political culture and local demographics played substantial roles in determining the severity of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, this project also lays out a blueprint for faculty and students at all levels of the higher education system to engage in experiential learning while doing meaningful research on significant policy problems.

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