A new report from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Medical University of South Carolina found states that had Republican leadership determining public health policy suffered far greater infection and death rates over the span of the pandemic than Democratic-run states, NBC News reports.

While Democratic run states like New York, New Jersey and Connecticut saw rapid spread of the coronavirus at the outset of the pandemic, when the spread and progression of the disease was largely unknown, those states implemented public health restrictions that ultimately slowed the transmission of the disease.

Republican-led states, on the other hand, largely did not follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leading to widespread infections and subsequent fatalities.

“From March to early June, Republican-led states had lower Covid-19 incidence rates compared with Democratic-led states. On June 3, the association reversed, and Republican-led states had higher incidence,” the study found.  “For death rates, Republican-led states had lower rates early in the pandemic, but higher rates from July 4 through mid-December.”

Republicans have led the virus deniers, from Donald Trump claiming the coronavirus was no worse than the flu to members of the GOP openly flouting CDC recommendations to implement public health restrictions to stem the spread of the virus.

“Governors’ party affiliation may have contributed to a range of policy decisions that, together, influenced the spread of the virus,” says study senior author Sara Benjamin-Neelon, PhD, professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health, Behavior and Society. “These findings underscore the need for state policy actions that are guided by public health considerations rather than by partisan politics.”