What a Shock: New Study Concludes the Obvious about COVID Case Rates
A new study conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Medical University of South Carolina has concluded the obvious – states with Republican governors had higher COVID case rates and higher death rates from COVID. In the report, study senior author Sara Benjamin-Neelon, PhD, professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Health, Behavior and Society stated,
“Governors’ party affiliation may have contributed to a range of policy decisions that, together, influenced the spread of the virus. These findings underscore the need for state policy actions that are guided by public health considerations rather than by partisan politics.”
I know this is like concluding in an academic study that gravity makes things fall down, but it’s good that they quantified in a peer reviewed study what we all knew to begin with – politicizing public health policy gets people killed.
I hope every Dem. planning to run for state office has these facts and others in hand come 2022. If Abbott or another GOPer is Governor again, shame on them and shame on us for not turning out to vote.
1I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you.
2In the past with communism it was a choice. Better dead than red.
Red state Republicans have turned it into a combo. Red AND dead.
3“politicizing public health policy gets people killed.”
The “Party of Life” proves, once again that the only life that matters is the life within the womb.
Oh, and the life of the corona virus. They’re conspiring with it to create more strains that can, eventually, do an end run around our vaccines thus seeing to it that the virus continues to thrive.
Because science doesn’t do anything worthwhile.
4Because Politics.
I read this post and looked at the report and now just saw this story on the AP site: https://apnews.com/article/public-health-health-florida-coronavirus-pandemic-ron-desantis-889df3826d4da96447b329f524c33047
What’s that about?
5Why does a research study, supported by a respected institution with the help of another and conducted by a respected, professional researcher, have to conclude “*may* have contributed…”?
6The word *may* opens the door for other conclusions and thereby compromises the final product. Either the data prove a conclusion or they don’t.
Stating that the study *may* have that conclusion renders it no more useful than my just having an opinion after reading a news story.
You certainly would not conclude a study of gravity by saying that gravity *may* make things fall down.
For months I have been trying to find information/statistics on Covid deaths and party affiliation. This leads in that direction.
7The hypocrisy, again, of the repugnantican party- give credit to trumpf for vaccines (and not anything Biden has and is doing to roll them out aggressively), but take no responsibility for the surges and deaths because of their denials and inactions (just blame China and Fauci). Do they actually believe the shit that comes out of their face holes? Repugnantican voters buy into it to their own detriment.
8Sam Marshall @ 5: I read elsewhere (but don’t have the citation here, it’s in my office) that California and New York were hit heavily early on, but their rates of infection and death are significantly lighter now. The numbers in the article you linked are for “since the pandemic began”.
The running rates shown at
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days
seem to show that Florida is doing worse than California over the past 7 days.
Disclaimer: while I really am a professor, it’s of math and computer science, not public health or of virology. So my knowledge about this is not from special training or capability.
9The Dakotas were, early on, lightly impacted, perhaps because of their dispersed and remote population. But, having militantly avoided taking precautions, they vaulted into the top 10 in rates of infection etc.
There really are differences between the prairie states and Manhattan in exposure to an infectious disease.
(And, if you go back a ways, in suicides. When the Dakotas were settled by Scandinavians who were used to spending winters in close villages — where they tended to catch leprosy, which is how it came to be called Hansen disease — they experienced remarkably high suicide rates.So much so tat in the spring, gangs of men would organize expeditions to pull the frozen corpses out of the cabins. Epidemiology is hard.)
10Gene B., that’s how science works and how scientists talk.
11The GangOfPerverts likes their citizens to die! Am I surprised
12In case you are interested in the full (pre-print) article online, go to the “American Journal of Preventive Medicine” site, and search for the senior author Sara Benjamin-Neelon (PhD). (I could give a direct link to the pre-print pdf, but don’t know if that’s cool)
There are graphs and data if you’re into such a thing…
13Joel @ 11:
That’s true. But the ‘way that scientists talk’ is one reason Republicans can get away with denying that their conclusions are true.
Changing ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ because their knowledge about how the dynamics of the phenomenon work changed meant the R’s could go on a jeering rampage and deny reality.
Scientists follow facts. Knowledge about those facts changes over time. And Republicans use that reality in order to stir up the masses and bend them to their will.
Republicans conflate the word ‘theory’ with ‘hypothesis.’ They know the difference but do it with malice and in order to confuse the issue.
Not saying scientists should change how they operate — just stating what happens as a result.
14Yup! They got blood on their Rethug hands! Brings to mind Dante’s Inferno and the level dedicated to liars.
15Dear Surly Prof,
Thanks for the qualifications disclaimer. More people should do that- like Elon “poster child for engineers needing more humanities” Musk. “I’m not a doctor and I have no actual qualifications to comment on this, but…”
If you haven’t seen it, the Cranky Uncles app is terrific for exposing techniques used to spread conspiracies. If I were still teaching I’d start every class with one of the quizzes. What’s more important for students to learn than critical thinking?
16Repugnantican voters are naturally stupid or criminal! Criminal should be considered to be the identifying character of Repugnuts!
17