NBC News is facing slack for touting a dubious study that claims more Republicans than Democrats died during the COVID pandemic.
The premise, according to NBC News, is that because Democrats were more accepting of the coronavirus vaccine, fewer of them died.
NBC’s Chuck Todd introduced the study to the network’s audience during Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”
Listen:
“This week a scientific study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed what many had suspected: Republicans who lagged behind in accepting the efficacy of the COVID vaccine paid a steeper price,” he began.
“Researchers from Yale examined 538,000 deaths of people 25 and older in Florida and Ohio from April 2020 to December 2021, and they found that the excess death rate … was 15 percent higher for registered Republicans than for Democrats,” he added.
But, he continued, the difference skyrocketed after the release of the COVID vaccine.
“After the vaccine became available in April of 2021 to a majority of the population, the death rate among Republicans was 43 percent higher,” Todd explained.
And there you have it, right? Not exactly, according to hematologist-oncologist and health researcher Vinay Prasad. In a Substack post published Saturday, he sought to debunk the entire study.
He published the post in response specifically to NPR touting the same study:
NPR says new paper shows the ‘perils of mixing partisan politics with medical advice’
The irony is the paper itself shows how how politics has invaded the academy.
We publish AWFUL research if it supports the liberal narrative. My takehttps://t.co/PdpWjQs5hu pic.twitter.com/xkOMiN6Alv
— Vinay Prasad MD MPH (@VPrasadMDMPH) July 29, 2023
He began the post by explaining the study’s methodology.
“It linked a small proportion of people living in Florida and Ohio to their 2017 voter registration. Among 30 million people in these states, 500k were able to be linked. The authors compared excess deaths in these groups. They find it was similar pre-pandemic, and even in early pandemic, but separate post vaccine availability. Their conclusion: Republicans were too stupid to get vaccinated and died as a result,” he said.
But there are a vast number of problems with this methodology, Prasad argued.
For example, the study based its definition of a Trump supporter on the results of the 2017 election. But what about “people who turned on Trump in 2020”?
And then there’s this: “Just 500k people were linked, out of 30 million. This is a huge selection bias. The authors have no evidence the finding is generalizable to millions and millions they could not link, and did not study.”
Also, the researchers didn’t adjust for age.
“They don’t seem to adjust for age as a discrete value but use age ranges. A 25-year-old and 64 year old are in the same range. A 66-year-old is the same as a 74-year-old? Do they get the same adjustment?” Prasad wrote.
“Is this even possible? If so, it is insane. If Republican voters are more likely to be 57 than 27 or 74 than 66, that is a big difference with respect to COVID outcomes that is essentially unadjusted for,” he added.
Prasad also slammed the researchers for having reached these conclusions without access to the participants’ official vaccine records.
“How are you going to make such an allegation without individual vaccine records to prove that it is indeed vaccination that resulted in the increase in death?” he asked in confusion.
According to him, the researchers also didn’t adjust for “BMI, socioeconomic status, race, gender, education or other medical conditions.”
Did Todd point out any of these discrepancies during Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press?” Nope.
Incidentally, some Twitter users responded to the show’s clip being posted on Twitter by also pointing out flaws with it:
This is dumb because the Republican base is much older than the Democratic base.
— Charise (@ChariseSanders6) July 30, 2023
I’m unvaccinated, alive , and happy with my decision. Ask me again in a year if you’re still around.
— Decker Conley (@deckerconley67) July 30, 2023
Just don’t count ANY other variables.
Science is always about persuasion and consensus, right fellow scientists?
— John Shoemaker (@RealJohnShoe) July 30, 2023
Researchers funded when their results show benefits of pharma products.
Trump counties typically are less affluent and have lower access to quality healthcare.
Numbers say what you want them to say.
— (@Jorlev_11) July 30, 2023
Todd meanwhile continued the segment by revealing that NBC News conducted its own follow-up study.
“We looked at deaths over the same time periods and used county-level 2020 presidential election results as a proxy for whether a county leaned Democrat or Republican. Here’s what we found: The post-vaccine period in the study was harder on counties that voted for Donald Trump than those that voted for Joe Biden in 2020,” he said.
“Biden counties experienced more deaths from COVID before the vaccine became widely available than Trump counties did. About 325,000 versus 218,000, respectively. More people live in Biden counties, and they’re more densely populated. But after the vaccine became widely available … the numbers flipped,” he added.
Notice how he didn’t mention that Trump counties probably contain older people.
“There were about 104,000 COVID deaths in Biden counties, about 24 percent of the total COVID deaths through December 2021. Compare that to the more than 135,000 deaths in Trump counties after the vaccine, 38 percent of the total COVID deaths during that time,” he continued.
“These numbers could actually matter in the 2024 election. Remember, these are the three closest states, Arizona decided by just over 10,000 votes, Georgia just under 12,000 votes, Wisconsin just over 20,000 votes. And the COVID post-vaccine patterns in these three states look very similar to what the Journal of the American Medical Association found,” he concluded.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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