https://thegauntlet.substack.com/p/the-blind-spot
"The day after the 2022 Midterms, I heard
almost every possible
interpretation of the surprising results. The Democrats had done much better
than expected and feared, and youth voter turnout was unusually high. On cable
news and twitter, data analysts and pundits picked apart dozens of explanations
and contributing factors, from the ultimately-flat Crime Wave narrative to the
nationwide gratitude for student debt forgiveness. There was, however, one word
I didn’t hear on CNN or twitter: COVID-19.
COVID has killed 1.1 million Americans in roughly 1,000 days, or an average of
1,100 Americans dying daily for 2 years and 10 months. Of those 1,100 daily
average deaths, 93.2% were among people over the age of 50. Older Americans are
well known for the high voter turnout, as well as their conservative bent.
It’s glaringly obvious that an extra 1,000 deaths of individuals over 50 every
single day for nearly 3 years would have an effect on the electorate- but not a
single analysis even
mentioned pandemic deaths. This is frankly, very odd.
I’ve worked in campaign data, and political statisticians tend to want to take
every possible variable into account; from voters’ shopping preferences, to
their racial background, to their likelihood to listen to K-pop, to their hair
color and first car model. Yet here we have a very, very large variable,
receiving no attention or weight whatsoever.
Even assuming an ideological commitment to pretending COVID ended, no mention
of 2020 or 2021 deaths? No mention of, arguably, the biggest historical tragedy
of modern times? COVID deaths weren’t considered as a possible cause of the
shifting electorate, then dismissed after statistical analysis; they were quite
simply erased from collective memory.
Coverage that pointedly omitted mention of an ongoing mass death event had an
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind feel to it, as pundits debated the
efficacy of Republican messaging without mentioning their years-long
anti-vaccination stance that led to disproportionate death among their voters.
Blonde women on TV laughed and argued with guest pundits nitpicking any and
every factor that played into the electoral results without touching the
dreaded p*nd*m*c third rail. Even when “lockdowns” were brought into the
conversation about DeSantis in Florida, no one seemed to recall what those
lockdowns had been in relation to.
This pandemic erasure is hardly an anomaly; it can be seen in reporting about
hospitals, travel, illness, schools, celebrity deaths; just about everything."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: January 5, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-76808802
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
