The deadliest month of the pandemic in a single state came in New York in April 2020. There, at the pandemic’s outset, a combination of ignorance about the coronavirus and a failure to move quickly enough to combat it led to more than 1 out of every 1,000 residents of the state dying. New York’s neighbors were hit hard, too; New Jersey lost 7 out of every 10,000 residents and Connecticut lost 6.

       Then the pandemic moved west. The Dakotas saw a surge in cases and deaths powered in part, it seems, by the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. That surge peaked in January, when nearly 100,000 people died nationwide. But by then we had vaccines and, as they slowly rolled out, new cases and deaths dropped. Until June, at least, when the delta variant began to spread and the pandemic’s fourth surge began.

       What we saw during the fourth surge was a correlation between vaccinations and deaths. The most-vaccinated fifth of counties — generally the counties most favorable to Joe Biden in 2020 — saw 17 deaths per 100,000 from July through September. The least-vaccinated fifth saw 28 deaths per 100,000. The fifth of counties that were second-least vaccinated saw a cumulative death toll of about 47 per 100,000. If we just split counties into two groups, most and least vaccinated, the most-vaccinated half lost 26 people per 100,000 during the fourth wave. The least-vaccinated half lost 46.

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       The question that follows — that lingers, really — is the extent to which politics drove vaccination patterns and, therefore, deaths. (Analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 90,000 people died this summer who might have lived had they been vaccinated.) We know that vaccinations correlate to politics, but to what extent is politics responsible for those rates?

       New polling from Grinnell College, conducted by the firm Selzer, offers new insights. The pollsters asked about vaccines in a slightly different context than we’ve seen before, asking respondents to evaluate the extent to which they thought Americans had an “absolute” freedom to do things such as reject government mandates for vaccines. This question was coupled with other similar tests such as whether Americans should be “absolutely free” to smoke wherever they wanted, to carry firearms where they wanted or to smoke marijuana even if it was illegal.

       The widest partisan divides on the belief that Americans were absolutely free to engage in the actions generally fell on predictable partisan lines. Democrats were much more willing to say people should be absolutely free to get an abortion within the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, for example, while Republicans were much more likely to support the freedom of individuals to carry a firearm. But that question of vaccine mandates was among the most partisan, with Republicans seeing opposition to government mandates as an absolute right by a 44-point larger margin than Democrats.

       Eight in 10 Republicans said that people should be absolutely free to refuse a vaccine required by the government, a larger percentage than on any question besides one about free speech and another about accruing wealth. Republicans are more likely to see rejection of vaccine requirements as an absolute freedom than they are the ability to cite religious exemptions in opposing regulations or they are to embrace the open carrying of firearms.

       What’s particularly interesting, though, is where views on the vaccine question itself mirrored the partisan splits and where they didn’t. The polling firm’s Ann Selzer provided The Washington Post with responses to each question divided by those who did and didn’t believe people had a right to reject vaccines. On most questions, the partisan views and the views on vaccination aligned neatly.

       We’d expect this, given the correlation between party and views of vaccine mandates. It’s also important to note the distinction between opposing mandates and opposing vaccinations. Republicans demonstrably support getting vaccines more than they reject government mandates for them, given vaccination rates. And we might as well add that there is no government mandate for the coronavirus vaccine outside of government employees; a rule proposed by President Biden would require large employers to test unvaccinated employees each week.

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       It’s nonetheless striking that vaccine mandates are as politically polarizing as abortion. It’s also striking that there are few questions on which views of the right to reject vaccines diverges much from the partisan split. Even on questions such as seat belt use — once the subject of its own fight over mandates — the difference in views between those who do and don’t view it as valid to reject vaccine mandates align with partisan differences.

       More evidence that the vaccination fight is intertwined with politics. Unfortunately, it’s also intertwined with deaths from covid-19.