‘Obsessive partisanship’: Pew Research blasted for misleading tweet casting Dem districts as doing better on Covid-19 deaths
The Pew Research Center is being criticized on social media for appearing to spin a graphic depicting deaths from the coronavirus outbreak in favor of Democrats – despite the actual data painting a very different picture.
“Covid-19 deaths have declined in Democratic congressional districts since mid-April, but remained relatively steady in districts controlled by Republicans,” the research body tweeted on Wednesday.
While the statement was technically true, it didn’t quite match up with the data presented. According to Pew, and based on numbers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Democratic districts have actually seen a decline in Covid-19 deaths since mid-April, while numbers in Republican districts have stayed relatively steady – but coronavirus fatalities in Dem districts are still more than double those in opposing districts.
COVID-19 deaths have declined in Democratic congressional districts since mid-April, but remained relatively steady in districts controlled by Republicans. https://t.co/NnUcKYt67wpic.twitter.com/R3mdZ1l8c4
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) May 27, 2020
New deaths reported in Democrat-controlled areas have fallen from 7.4 to 4.1 in the last month – based on a rolling average of seven days – while Republican districts have seen the average for new deaths drop from 2.0 to 1.7.
https://www.rt.com/usa/489922-pew-research-dem-districts-coronavirus-deaths/