Thanks to this study and other scientific propaganda, we are rapidly losing the trust of our patients and much of the public. I am a pharmacist and I specifically remember when the COVID-19 “vaccine” was called the “Trump Shot” and every Republican was requesting it this way. Democrats were not going to get the shot because they felt it was associated with Trump. Then… after the MANDATES, it became the Democrats promoting the shot and the Republicans didn’t want to get it. People are bombarded with scientific propaganda like this study all day, every day. Someone made a comment that this study warranted publication because it was “interesting”. Interesting “studies” belong in Newsweek or In-Style magazine, not in scientific journals that are supposed to be answering important medical questions. I think more and more people are going to substacks such as Sensible Medicine for unbiased information. Granted, you can choose a substack that that confirms your bias. As they said in Indiana Jones, “You must choose, but choose wisely”.
I think you and Vinay are way too harsh on this. As far as I can see the methods and stats are robust. They have found an association between political party and excess mortality which is interesting. It varies by time and so seems to me unlikely to just associate with confounding. One very interesting aspect is the catch up phenomenon which I suspect would be evident in Democrats after the study period but that's a reason to do more of this kind of research rather than less. Life would be pretty dull if only RCTs were ever published!
Not sure you read the paper. I can assure anybody that the methodology was awful. The association may or may not be valid. It was a small study that missed a lot of areas, none of which differs much from the typical 50/50 divide. To my mind the introduction of a political ideology was to affirm a lot of the popular press.
The tragedy here is not that same bad scientist did a bad study but that this paper even got past the editors and sent out for review. And then how referees could possibly have accepted this paper in good faith. All of Vinay's points in his Substack are so obvious that it really defies belief how this paper ever got published. The reason the paper got published, of course, is simple: the result reflects the views of academia. But those biases are so obvious and so inane it really is beyond belief. The unfortunate result is that nobody will believe anything anymore coming out of academic medicine or public health or the FDA or the CD or, for that matter, the NIH.
My question is, why did the study even happen? Was someone bored? You don't just look at an H&P and face sheet in the hospital and see the patient's political party. That took some investigation. 🤷🏻♀️
I’ve said before, I’m so grateful that the bulk of surgeries for my myriad health issues are behind me. My favorite slogan has just become an absolute must when it comes to my health and care...”Don’t get sick...”
My frustration and concern is that there seems to be no other place to get CME. These institutions hold the keys to us maintaining licensure. I am a neurologist and have seen similar sentiments in the AAN and AES (epilepsy) societies including flagrant partisan lectures and expert panels that are obviously serving more for their political pursuits than serving our patients. If we unsubscribe how do we get CME or access to education we need? Meanwhile I'm already having difficulty having patients trust the institution of medicine causing noncompliance or just not seeking help with serious medical conditions. Articles like this will continue to reinforce these patients sentiments. This is terrible
Thanks for the comments. This study deserves “a swift and devastating takedown”.....it only serves to deepen divide. As to our journals they echo left views because their editors are from left academia. This in and of it self has injected significant bias. It is up to us to stop it by stopping the submission of papers to them, canceling subscriptions and doing critical reviews of the articles.
Was this the study that looked at county breakdown based on political affiliations?
A few years ago there was a similar garbage study which looked at Covid fatality rates broken down by political affiliation by county and came to similar flawed conclusions.
If you looked at TOTAL deaths instead of county by county per capita death rates, you found the OPPOSITE result (thank you NYC) more total deaths there.
This study is garbage, and promoting or publishing it is unprofessional.
Truly we have, in my opinion, hit a tipping point in medicine and medical research. There has to be some sort of revolution of thought and true science or we will continue down this tragic path of being disparaged and worse lose our patients and the public’s trust. That will truly be a tragedy.
1. “JAMA-IM is my favorite journal because it routinely published studies that challenged the power centers of medicine.”
JAMA last year published an article calling for doctors who spread “misinformation” (ie you, Dr Prasad, anyone else who doubted that Covid vaccines were manna from heaven) to be stripped of their licenses. They have become the power center and an authoritarian one at that…
2. As regards neutrality, when you look at bit closer, there is no neutral. A lot of the initial assumptions in a study already carry a particular worldview and so the study can be deeply corrupt even if every statistical detail is accurate. I try to explain this here, using, again, another morally monstrous widely linked JAMA study:
Where do we start? Honestly I’m stymied here. I worked my tuckas off to expose a “chain treatment” center which finally got licenses and insurance pulled in several locations around the state. Talk about misuse of science! But this is so much bigger....
Is there a way to write in to these journals? If so, then the more people who reveal that they know a journal posted a crap scientific study, the more careful they might be next time.
This study would be stupid even if it weren't for all the confounding factors the authors ignored in drawing a causal inference. Exactly what about the study is actionable, or will at least give some hint into further research that is potentially actionable? The only thing it will accomplish, as you say Dr. M, is that it will lead to further erosion of trust in science and medicine while increasing corroding divisiveness. If Republicans are stupid, these Democrats are even more stupid, which makes me sad as a liberal. :(
I agree wholeheartedly. We must call out corrupted science for what it is. I tried to leave a comment on this 2021 JAMA article calling out the apocryphal nature of its findings. My comment was rejected. I found it ironic that a study trying to prove misinformation was itself misinformation. Now we have clear evidence of scientific censorship, so this would not surprise me today, but it did then. As a scientist, the earth moved a bit below my feet. Ideology and politics are corrosive to science. When you mix them, you no longer have science, only politics.
Thanks to this study and other scientific propaganda, we are rapidly losing the trust of our patients and much of the public. I am a pharmacist and I specifically remember when the COVID-19 “vaccine” was called the “Trump Shot” and every Republican was requesting it this way. Democrats were not going to get the shot because they felt it was associated with Trump. Then… after the MANDATES, it became the Democrats promoting the shot and the Republicans didn’t want to get it. People are bombarded with scientific propaganda like this study all day, every day. Someone made a comment that this study warranted publication because it was “interesting”. Interesting “studies” belong in Newsweek or In-Style magazine, not in scientific journals that are supposed to be answering important medical questions. I think more and more people are going to substacks such as Sensible Medicine for unbiased information. Granted, you can choose a substack that that confirms your bias. As they said in Indiana Jones, “You must choose, but choose wisely”.
Who was the JAMA-IM editor at the time?
One of the editors was just named director of Public Citizen’s health research group.
I think you and Vinay are way too harsh on this. As far as I can see the methods and stats are robust. They have found an association between political party and excess mortality which is interesting. It varies by time and so seems to me unlikely to just associate with confounding. One very interesting aspect is the catch up phenomenon which I suspect would be evident in Democrats after the study period but that's a reason to do more of this kind of research rather than less. Life would be pretty dull if only RCTs were ever published!
Not sure you read the paper. I can assure anybody that the methodology was awful. The association may or may not be valid. It was a small study that missed a lot of areas, none of which differs much from the typical 50/50 divide. To my mind the introduction of a political ideology was to affirm a lot of the popular press.
The tragedy here is not that same bad scientist did a bad study but that this paper even got past the editors and sent out for review. And then how referees could possibly have accepted this paper in good faith. All of Vinay's points in his Substack are so obvious that it really defies belief how this paper ever got published. The reason the paper got published, of course, is simple: the result reflects the views of academia. But those biases are so obvious and so inane it really is beyond belief. The unfortunate result is that nobody will believe anything anymore coming out of academic medicine or public health or the FDA or the CD or, for that matter, the NIH.
My question is, why did the study even happen? Was someone bored? You don't just look at an H&P and face sheet in the hospital and see the patient's political party. That took some investigation. 🤷🏻♀️
It is kind of creepy.
I’ve said before, I’m so grateful that the bulk of surgeries for my myriad health issues are behind me. My favorite slogan has just become an absolute must when it comes to my health and care...”Don’t get sick...”
My frustration and concern is that there seems to be no other place to get CME. These institutions hold the keys to us maintaining licensure. I am a neurologist and have seen similar sentiments in the AAN and AES (epilepsy) societies including flagrant partisan lectures and expert panels that are obviously serving more for their political pursuits than serving our patients. If we unsubscribe how do we get CME or access to education we need? Meanwhile I'm already having difficulty having patients trust the institution of medicine causing noncompliance or just not seeking help with serious medical conditions. Articles like this will continue to reinforce these patients sentiments. This is terrible
And then, let's stop calling them "leaders"... they are anything but. They are hollow figureheads who dishonor their profession.
Thanks for the comments. This study deserves “a swift and devastating takedown”.....it only serves to deepen divide. As to our journals they echo left views because their editors are from left academia. This in and of it self has injected significant bias. It is up to us to stop it by stopping the submission of papers to them, canceling subscriptions and doing critical reviews of the articles.
Did JAMA IM pull that study? The link doesn’t work for me.
Shoot, I did it again. Bad link. I fixed it. thanks
Only because the Democrats had already killed off the bulk of their most vulnerable in NYC.
Was this the study that looked at county breakdown based on political affiliations?
A few years ago there was a similar garbage study which looked at Covid fatality rates broken down by political affiliation by county and came to similar flawed conclusions.
If you looked at TOTAL deaths instead of county by county per capita death rates, you found the OPPOSITE result (thank you NYC) more total deaths there.
This study is garbage, and promoting or publishing it is unprofessional.
Truly we have, in my opinion, hit a tipping point in medicine and medical research. There has to be some sort of revolution of thought and true science or we will continue down this tragic path of being disparaged and worse lose our patients and the public’s trust. That will truly be a tragedy.
Great essay, but a couple quibbles:
1. “JAMA-IM is my favorite journal because it routinely published studies that challenged the power centers of medicine.”
JAMA last year published an article calling for doctors who spread “misinformation” (ie you, Dr Prasad, anyone else who doubted that Covid vaccines were manna from heaven) to be stripped of their licenses. They have become the power center and an authoritarian one at that…
https://gaty.substack.com/p/this-month-in-the-american-medical
2. As regards neutrality, when you look at bit closer, there is no neutral. A lot of the initial assumptions in a study already carry a particular worldview and so the study can be deeply corrupt even if every statistical detail is accurate. I try to explain this here, using, again, another morally monstrous widely linked JAMA study:
https://gaty.substack.com/p/this-is-science
Where do we start? Honestly I’m stymied here. I worked my tuckas off to expose a “chain treatment” center which finally got licenses and insurance pulled in several locations around the state. Talk about misuse of science! But this is so much bigger....
Is there a way to write in to these journals? If so, then the more people who reveal that they know a journal posted a crap scientific study, the more careful they might be next time.
I don’t know that they’d even bother paying attention. But if enough of us send in thoughtful comments they’d see the bugs on the windshield.
This study would be stupid even if it weren't for all the confounding factors the authors ignored in drawing a causal inference. Exactly what about the study is actionable, or will at least give some hint into further research that is potentially actionable? The only thing it will accomplish, as you say Dr. M, is that it will lead to further erosion of trust in science and medicine while increasing corroding divisiveness. If Republicans are stupid, these Democrats are even more stupid, which makes me sad as a liberal. :(
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2780748
I agree wholeheartedly. We must call out corrupted science for what it is. I tried to leave a comment on this 2021 JAMA article calling out the apocryphal nature of its findings. My comment was rejected. I found it ironic that a study trying to prove misinformation was itself misinformation. Now we have clear evidence of scientific censorship, so this would not surprise me today, but it did then. As a scientist, the earth moved a bit below my feet. Ideology and politics are corrosive to science. When you mix them, you no longer have science, only politics.
Thanks for at least trying. If a journal doesn't want to hear that it's readers know the truth, it's not a journal pursuing the truth.