Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates. Misinformation is to blame

[Wingnut]

Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That's according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/12/05/1059828993/data-vaccine-misinformation-trump-counties-covid-death-rate

[Wingnut]

The analysis only looked at the geographic location of COVID-19 deaths. The exact political views of each person taken by the disease remains unknowable. But the strength of the association, combined with polling information about vaccination, strongly suggests that Republicans are being disproportionately affected.

So...the the strength of this analysis is based on bullshit.

[LegalAmerican]

B.S. 

[Smokin Joe]

B.S.

I agree. The analysis is based on deaths per 100K. A lot of rural counties voted Trump, but take Slope County, ND, with a whopping 732 residents in the last census. a single death would plot as 137/100,000, which makes for some pretty distorted plots. Keep in mind the actual number of deaths might be a small fraction of the rate per 100,000, which would be less distorted in urban areas of 100,000 or more.

It isn't that the rates are incorrect, it is that the picture they give is out of whack with the actual numbers.

Deaths per 1,000 or even 10,000 would show less distortion.