Why are reporters hyping a deeply flawed study supposedly proving Covid killed more Republicans because they had lower jab rates?

The paper says what media outlets want to hear about Covid, the vaccines, and the GOP. So they're ignoring a huge hole in it that essentially destroys its findings.

Last week, three Yale researchers reported Republicans had higher death rates from Covid* [SEE NOTE AT END] than Democrats after mRNA vaccines became available to everyone.

The highest gap in death rates occurred in counties with low vaccination levels, suggesting differences in jab rates caused it, the study said.

Media outlets quickly broadcast the findings, which ran in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association. “Republican deaths in Florida, Ohio linked to COVID vaccine politics,” Axios wrote. On Twitter, Chris Hayes of MSNBC claimed the study showed that “a bunch of people with big platforms [tried] to get their audiences killed.”

The paper actually was first published in non-peer-reviewed form in September 2022 - and got hefty media attention then too. News outlets do not usually report on research that’s 10 months old and already received attention, but they made an exception this time.

No surprise, as the research backs up the many, many, many stories in summer 2021 about unvaccinated middle-aged (or even younger) Republicans clogging emergency rooms and dying of Covid.

To its credit, the paper is elegantly designed and makes interesting arguments.

Just one problem. A crucial detail in its findings essentially blows up the results. The authors do not exactly hide the problematic result, but they do brush over it. Only a close reading of the paper makes it clear.

The detail suggests that the apparent connection between party affiliation and death may result from hidden epidemiological factors. At the least, it undoes any effort to suggest that young or middle-aged Republicans suffered from being unvaccinated.

(What’s the crucial detail? To find out, wait 72 hours - or subscribe now. I suggest subscribing now. This one’s good.)