March (& likely FINAL) Update: COVID Death Rates by Partisan Lean & Vaccination Rate (w/Bivalent Booster data)

NOTE: With the news that the Johns Hopkins University COVID Tracking project & other reliable data sources are shutting down on March 10th, this may be the last update to this project, although I may be able to find alternatives for county-level COVID deaths. As of this writing, 69.3% of the total U.S. population has completed their primary COVID-19 vaccination series (including 94.3% of those 65+), but a mere 16.2% of the total population has also gotten their updated bivalent booster shot. Even among seniors it's only at 41.4% nationally. The bivalent booster has only been approved for all adults since the end of August 2022, but that's still pretty bad 6 months later: By comparison, a full 58% of the U.S. population had gotten their 2nd vaccination dose by the end of October 2021 (the exact same 6 months after the primary series was approved for all U.S. adults). Since we're so far removed from May 2021, and since the primary vaccination series effectiveness wears off after some time, I've also added both the partisan lean and vaccination rate breakout since August 31, 2022...the day that the FDA authorized the bivalent booster for all U.S. adults. As always, here's my methodology: County-level 2020 Population data via U.S.