Republicans are getting seriously ill -- and even dying -- as 'some sort of distorted political stance': op-ed

Despite Joe Biden's pre-election pledge to be a president to unify both blue and red states, 9 months into his presidency, red states and blue states "have widely diverged on what should be the least political of issues: Vaccination rates for Covid-19," writes CNN's Chris Cillizza.

Cillizza cites new data that shows that over 92 percent of self-identified Democrats say they've had at least one dose of one of the three vaccines for COVID-19, as opposed to just 56 percent of Republicans.

"That's a stunning data point that tells a very clear story: there are Republicans who are getting seriously ill -- and even dying -- as some sort of distorted political stance," Cillizza writes, adding that while there's no single person to blame, Donald Trump and Fox News bear most of the blame.

"The result of all of this misinformation and politicization of Covid-19 is stark," Cillizza writes. "The 12 states with the highest case rate for every 100,000 people are all run by Republican governors. The 13 states with the highest hospitalization rate per 100,000 residents are all run by Republican governors. The 15 states with the highest percentage of deaths per 100,000 are all run by Republican governors."

Read the full analysis over at CNN.