I came here to write essentially the same thing. I am a 3rd generation Democrat and became totally turned off by wild but accepted claims like Republicans not wearing masks perpetuated the pandemic. I no longer read the New York Times either as comment sections is filled up with this kind of rhetoric. So smug.
Every day, there is another nail in the coffin to public trust of Lancet/NEJM/JAMA/FDA/CDC/Govt. Even as kids are dying by the thousands, no one seems to care. The only thing these morons/evil people care about is scoring hits against the GOP. Because...follow the science! This will go down as the biggest medical failure and I don't know that there's a way to come back.
This isn't science, this is someone sitting around in a room playing with statistical software and generating bullshit papers with population games. This should not qualify for publication. Full stop. It undermines real science with real results that point to things in the real world. Instead, this is the scientific equivalent of Buzzfeed clickbait.
YES! I said “clickbait” as well bc I can just see the veins on the necks of certain folks popping out as they point to it, wide eyed, spitting, “See? Told you!”
I cannot count the number of Democrats I know who believe that PBS and NPR are politically "neutral", or that, even if they do lean left, they are "reliable" sources of information. Yet they carry this obviously slanted and scientifically illiterate article, published no less in one of the most prestigious medical journals. This is not the world of science or journalism I could count on when I was a young scientist in the 1970s. This.....must....stop.
Are they trying to show that believing in Republican political ideology (whatever that is) made people more vulnerable to Covid? Or are they trying to show that more Republicans died because they had lower vaccination rate? Assuming the latter, why not simply study death rate as a function of vaccination status? Why bring a meaningless confounding variable (political affiliation) into the simple and direct relationship between vaccination status and death?
It is frightening and shocking what doctors in high-level positions at prestigious institutions are now accepting as "data"! The fact that a dean at Yale would seriously consider this worth re-tweeting shows she did not do anything more than read the title. Wow.
I was always disturbed by the many physicians who were furious at any person/patient who wasn't wearing a mask or refused to get vaccinated and felt they could determine the political party and the moral character of that person simply by those two "indicators". My take on it was that we were simply seeing human nature at work - no group of humans has ever accepted anything doctors recommend 100%. There are ALWAYS patients who just don't want to do what we are strongly "recommending" to them. And pandemic response was no different. People had all kinds of reasons why they made the choices they did - some of it may have been political leaning, but nowhere near all of it was. We all (eventually) knew the various things we could do to keep ourselves less likely to get Covid - and you could just do those things and not worry so much about what everyone else was doing! It made the whole situation much less stressful.
I was very concerned by how many docs bought into the dehumanizing rhetoric in regard to "the unvaxxed" or the "anti masker" - anytime you try to turn a group of humans into the "other" and make them out to be amoral, ignorant, "murderers" - you can see how that would morph into terrible things that have happened in the past and we'd think would never happen again. (at one point there was talk of rounding all the antivaxers up and putting them in a "camp" of some type, etc)
Doctors need to see all patients as "humans", with various fears, biases, thoughts, feelings, reasons for why they do things. And not fall into this divisive climate currently ongoing. Shame on the medical professionals who created this fake "study" and shame on those who propagate the sensational title.
Is it even possible to have a scientific paper that is truly about science when it is measuring political patterns? But let's supposing the premise were supportable, that those who got vaccinated less were mostly Republicans and they died of COVID more often. I don't think it's supported by the evidence, but if it were, we must ask why more Republicans didn't get the vaccine. The Democrats would have it that Republicans are hapless idiots who refuse to listen to good advice or to science or to honest politicians who want to help them. Republicans might argue that the Dems were mostly in power when the vaccine was being promoted -- it's clear they failed to persuade the Republicans to take the helpful vaccine, even when it was developed by Trump. It should have been a shoe-in. Why not call it the "Trump-vaccine". No, if the vaccine was truly protective (which all scientists and even Rochelle Walensky have long since admitted was false) the Dems could be tagged for failing to persuade the Republicans of its effectiveness. Wonder how the free Krispy Kreme Donuts, lottery tickets, lap dances, dancing syringe people, and Big Bird songs could have failed to inspire more confidence? Time for the Dems to have a talk with their P.R. people.
I started to refer to getting the vax as getting my "Trump-bump" after seeing so many on my Facebook feed report that they got their "Fauchi-ouchie." Amazing how the part that Trump played in getting this vax to the public was universally dropped from the public discussions.
On top of that, how is "Republican" and "Democrat" a category? Most people I know lean one way or the other but a smaller percentage are die hard left and right. Republican seems a default term for "not us," which higher-educated people/aka "the Democrats" should know better to think about critically
Downright embarrassing to be a “prestigious journal” these days. I got vaccinated. I voted for neither Trump nor Biden (if you must know, I wrote in Sydney, my beloved chihuahua). I got Covid. I didn’t die. Wonder what JAMA might say about that? That I like French fries?
Thanks for this information, however, it only further supports my fears that we are quickly moving into a dark ages era, where facts and goodwill mean nothing and idiocy is regarded as something to aspire to. If not for my faith that God will use all of this for His purposes, it would be even more difficult to witness this craziness.
How was the decision even made to begin this study? "Hey, everybody, you know how stupid and dumb and dead Repukelicans are? How about we do a study proving it?"
I'm just a mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, conservative internist from the South (according to the National Medical Party; aka the Animal Farm swine leaders). But...I'm smart enough to know good toilet paper when I see it. That's why JAMA has replaced the Sears, Roebuck, & Co catalog in my outhouse.
These are the sorts of reasons I am no longer Democrat and wonder how people choose to identify with this kind of behavior/ thinking.
At some point, ya gotta draw the line.
I came here to write essentially the same thing. I am a 3rd generation Democrat and became totally turned off by wild but accepted claims like Republicans not wearing masks perpetuated the pandemic. I no longer read the New York Times either as comment sections is filled up with this kind of rhetoric. So smug.
Every day, there is another nail in the coffin to public trust of Lancet/NEJM/JAMA/FDA/CDC/Govt. Even as kids are dying by the thousands, no one seems to care. The only thing these morons/evil people care about is scoring hits against the GOP. Because...follow the science! This will go down as the biggest medical failure and I don't know that there's a way to come back.
This isn't science, this is someone sitting around in a room playing with statistical software and generating bullshit papers with population games. This should not qualify for publication. Full stop. It undermines real science with real results that point to things in the real world. Instead, this is the scientific equivalent of Buzzfeed clickbait.
That’s why statistics as a discipline is known as the whore of science.
YES! I said “clickbait” as well bc I can just see the veins on the necks of certain folks popping out as they point to it, wide eyed, spitting, “See? Told you!”
I cannot count the number of Democrats I know who believe that PBS and NPR are politically "neutral", or that, even if they do lean left, they are "reliable" sources of information. Yet they carry this obviously slanted and scientifically illiterate article, published no less in one of the most prestigious medical journals. This is not the world of science or journalism I could count on when I was a young scientist in the 1970s. This.....must....stop.
Are they trying to show that believing in Republican political ideology (whatever that is) made people more vulnerable to Covid? Or are they trying to show that more Republicans died because they had lower vaccination rate? Assuming the latter, why not simply study death rate as a function of vaccination status? Why bring a meaningless confounding variable (political affiliation) into the simple and direct relationship between vaccination status and death?
Good point. Just makes it that much more bizarre that this study was conceived and funded.
It is frightening and shocking what doctors in high-level positions at prestigious institutions are now accepting as "data"! The fact that a dean at Yale would seriously consider this worth re-tweeting shows she did not do anything more than read the title. Wow.
I was always disturbed by the many physicians who were furious at any person/patient who wasn't wearing a mask or refused to get vaccinated and felt they could determine the political party and the moral character of that person simply by those two "indicators". My take on it was that we were simply seeing human nature at work - no group of humans has ever accepted anything doctors recommend 100%. There are ALWAYS patients who just don't want to do what we are strongly "recommending" to them. And pandemic response was no different. People had all kinds of reasons why they made the choices they did - some of it may have been political leaning, but nowhere near all of it was. We all (eventually) knew the various things we could do to keep ourselves less likely to get Covid - and you could just do those things and not worry so much about what everyone else was doing! It made the whole situation much less stressful.
I was very concerned by how many docs bought into the dehumanizing rhetoric in regard to "the unvaxxed" or the "anti masker" - anytime you try to turn a group of humans into the "other" and make them out to be amoral, ignorant, "murderers" - you can see how that would morph into terrible things that have happened in the past and we'd think would never happen again. (at one point there was talk of rounding all the antivaxers up and putting them in a "camp" of some type, etc)
Doctors need to see all patients as "humans", with various fears, biases, thoughts, feelings, reasons for why they do things. And not fall into this divisive climate currently ongoing. Shame on the medical professionals who created this fake "study" and shame on those who propagate the sensational title.
♥️👏♥️👏♥️👏♥️👏♥️👏♥️👏
Articles like this one is why I decided to become a paid subscriber again. Keep it up. Please! Your voice of reason is absolutely vital.
Is it even possible to have a scientific paper that is truly about science when it is measuring political patterns? But let's supposing the premise were supportable, that those who got vaccinated less were mostly Republicans and they died of COVID more often. I don't think it's supported by the evidence, but if it were, we must ask why more Republicans didn't get the vaccine. The Democrats would have it that Republicans are hapless idiots who refuse to listen to good advice or to science or to honest politicians who want to help them. Republicans might argue that the Dems were mostly in power when the vaccine was being promoted -- it's clear they failed to persuade the Republicans to take the helpful vaccine, even when it was developed by Trump. It should have been a shoe-in. Why not call it the "Trump-vaccine". No, if the vaccine was truly protective (which all scientists and even Rochelle Walensky have long since admitted was false) the Dems could be tagged for failing to persuade the Republicans of its effectiveness. Wonder how the free Krispy Kreme Donuts, lottery tickets, lap dances, dancing syringe people, and Big Bird songs could have failed to inspire more confidence? Time for the Dems to have a talk with their P.R. people.
"Why not call it the "Trump-vaccine""
Agreed...... I'm always shocked at how quickly people were willing to advocate for the vaccine after Biden took office. It WAS Trump's vaccine.
I started to refer to getting the vax as getting my "Trump-bump" after seeing so many on my Facebook feed report that they got their "Fauchi-ouchie." Amazing how the part that Trump played in getting this vax to the public was universally dropped from the public discussions.
On top of that, how is "Republican" and "Democrat" a category? Most people I know lean one way or the other but a smaller percentage are die hard left and right. Republican seems a default term for "not us," which higher-educated people/aka "the Democrats" should know better to think about critically
Downright embarrassing to be a “prestigious journal” these days. I got vaccinated. I voted for neither Trump nor Biden (if you must know, I wrote in Sydney, my beloved chihuahua). I got Covid. I didn’t die. Wonder what JAMA might say about that? That I like French fries?
Good you don't like "French Fries" A significant source of acrylamide.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/diet/acrylamide-fact-sheet
bc ... drinks coffee from only heavily roasted beans. (Additional roasting reduces the acrylamide)
Thanks for this information, however, it only further supports my fears that we are quickly moving into a dark ages era, where facts and goodwill mean nothing and idiocy is regarded as something to aspire to. If not for my faith that God will use all of this for His purposes, it would be even more difficult to witness this craziness.
I’m with you🙏🏻🙌🏻
"... And methods have to be good. Sadly, that was not on display in this paper"
I'd really like you to critique the original Pfizer paper used for EUA, you'd be equally appalled at the methods.
Ask yourself, has there ever been a properly conducted RCT that proves vaccines work? If you find one let me know.
Reality Check : we need a leader.... who can and is able to build consensus. Right now I can see no one on the horizon.
We need to socially re: engineer ourselves out of this. Possible? I really do not know.
I've had enough social engineering for three lifetimes.
RFK Jr. actually has broad support from both Democrats and Republicans.
RFK! All the way!
How was the decision even made to begin this study? "Hey, everybody, you know how stupid and dumb and dead Repukelicans are? How about we do a study proving it?"
I'm just a mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, conservative internist from the South (according to the National Medical Party; aka the Animal Farm swine leaders). But...I'm smart enough to know good toilet paper when I see it. That's why JAMA has replaced the Sears, Roebuck, & Co catalog in my outhouse.
Correction, medicine should never be political. Unfortunately it unmistakably is.
Medicine may not be political, but healthcare sure is.
And when people think I deserve to die, I ALWAYS return the favor.
And act accordingly.