Numerous polls suggest that COVID-19 is a profoundly partisan issue in the United States. Using the geotracking data of 15 million smartphones per day, we found that US counties that voted for Donald Trump (Republican) over Hillary Clinton (Democrat) in the 2016 presidential election exhibited 14% less physical distancing between March and May 2020. Partisanship was more strongly associated with physical distancing than numerous other factors, including counties’ COVID-19 cases, population density, median income, and racial and age demographics. Contrary to our predictions, the observed partisan gap strengthened over time and remained when stay-at-home orders were active. Additionally, county-level consumption of conservative media (Fox News) was related to reduced physical distancing. Finally, the observed partisan differences in distancing were associated with subsequently higher COVID-19 infection and fatality growth rates in pro-Trump counties. Taken together, these data suggest that US citizens’ responses to COVID-19 are subject to a deep—and consequential—partisan divide.

许多民意调查表明，COVID-19在美国是一个严重的党派问题。使用每天1500万智能手机的地理位置跟踪数据，我们发现，在2016年总统大选中，唐纳德·特朗普（共和党）对希拉里·克林顿（民主党）的投票中，美国各县的实际距离减少了14％。党派关系更多与身体距离遥远相关的因素比许多其他因素密切相关，包括县的COVID-19病例，人口密度，中位数收入以及种族和年龄人口统计数据。与我们的预测相反，观察到的党派差距随着时间的推移而加剧，并在留守家庭订单活跃时保持不变。此外，县级对保守媒体的消费（福克斯新闻）与身体距离的减少有关。最后，在亲特朗普县，观察到的党派距离差异与随后更高的COVID-19感染率和死亡率增长有关。综合来看，这些数据表明，美国公民对COVID-19的回应受到党派之间深刻的，随之而来的分歧的影响。