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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/foxs-flagship-straight-news-show-promotes-bogus-covid-study-boost-republican">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/foxs-flagship-straight-news-show-promotes-bogus-covid-study-boost-republican</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fox’s flagship “straight news” show promotes bogus COVID study to boost Republican policies</font></div><p class="subtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing apparatchiks want you to believe red states outperformed blue states during the pandemic — after they literally rewrote the death statistics</font></p><p class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.3rem; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="bylinelabel" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 0.5rem;">WRITTEN BY</span> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/author/eric-kleefeld" hreflang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">ERIC KLEEFELD</a></font></p><div class="dateline--group" style="box-sizing: border-box; align-items: center; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"><p class="dateline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="datelinelabel" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 0.5rem;">PUBLISHED</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <time datetime="2022-04-13T12:20:08-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;">04/13/22</time></span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">murdoch media outlets are promoting an economic report declaring that Republican-led states did better than their Democratic-led counterparts in the COVID-19 pandemic. But the supposed “study” is simply an engineered conclusion produced by a political front group, which gives extra credit to Republican policies to not implement public health guidance or restrict normal life. And on top of that, it manipulates the typically higher death rates in red states by artificially adjusting them downward, while dishonestly fabricating higher death statistics in blue states.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report, with the grandiose title “<a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2022/04/12/committee-to-unleash-prosperity-Which-States-Handled-the-Covid-Pandemic-Best-04-11-2022.pdf?VersionId=zNuPepgqj.9OlNT2iyzHbV4zWBGwXDnP" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">A Final Report Card on the States’ Response to COVID-19</a>,” is the brainchild of right-wing pundit Stephen Moore, along with conservative political organizer Phil Kerpen and libertarian University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan. (Both Moore and Mulligan served as political appointees in the Trump administration</b>.) The report was released through the<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Committee to Unleash Prosperity,</b> a conservative group advocating the discredited principles of “supply-side” economics that has also promoted “<a href="https://archive.ph/Ufzs1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">pro-growth and liberty-based responses to COVID-19</a>.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The report, which is not peer-reviewed, also includes a note on the first page thanking Dr. Jay Bhattacharya “for his review of this study and his instructive advice.” Bhattacharya is a Stanford medical professor associated with the right-wing <a href="https://www.hoover.org/profiles/jay-bhattacharya" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Hoover Institution</a>, who has also <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2021/03/18/what-they-are-saying-renowned-doctors-and-epidemiologists-praise-floridas-covid-19-approach-during-public-health-roundtable/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">informally advised</a> Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) — a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024 — and has appeared multiple times on Fox News and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/dishonest-doctors-who-were-fox-news-most-frequent-medical-guests-2021-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">undermined the COVID-19 vaccines</a> and public vaccination campaigns.<b> Bhattacharya also co-authored the “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-death-cult-embraces-declaration-calling-herd-immunity" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Great Barrington Declaration</a>,” a reckless libertarian proposal for loosening public health measures in the midst of the pandemic to achieve global “herd immunity.</b></span><b>”</b></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox’s <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Special Report</span> covered this rigged “study” as if it were straight news</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The study was touted on Monday’s edition of Fox’s flagship “straight” news program, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Special Report with Bret Baier</em>. A chyron on screen claimed, “Red states fare better on economic and health outcomes.” But as a close examination of the study reveals — briefly alluded to by Fox News correspondent Jonathan Serrie — this conclusion exists only after the authors made some creative adjustments “for age, obesity, and diabetes</font><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">.”</b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Video Citation From the April 11, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The </b></font><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">study was also promoted in stories on <a href="https://archive.ph/t2ktt" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox’s website</a>, as well as in the editorial pages of the network’s corporate cousins: the <a href="https://archive.ph/hv2Ni" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">New York Post</a> and <a href="https://archive.ph/RSxW0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">The Wall Street Journal</a>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">F</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">oxNews.com and the New York Post both mentioned the metric of “age-adjusted death rates,” while the Journal was a bit more forthcoming in noting that the study also made adjustments for “the prevalence of obesity and diabetes (leading co-morbidities for Covid deaths).”</span></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The reports in these three Murdoch publications all pointed to the report’s praise of Florida as supposedly one of the best-performing states — a possible sign of Bhattacharya’s influence on both Florida’s policies and this report’s verdict. B<b>y contrast, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/14/covid-death-rates-republican-states-disparity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">run through numbers</a> from health care analyst Charles Gaba, which found that Florida is actually one of the worst-performing states in COVID-19 death statistics, even accounting for the state’s older population.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Moore also appeared on Monday morning’s edition of <a href="https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/status/1513589398171959300" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox Business’ <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Varney & Co.</em></a>, during which he claimed, “<b>The big takeaway is that the lockdown strategy was pretty much a total failure. … States that remained open did not have higher death rates from the virus than states that completely shut down</b>.” Serrie later mentioned Moore’s study again, on Tuesday morning’s edition of <b><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3986947" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">America’s Newsroom</span></a>.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Moore has built a career as <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/cnn-just-hired-worst-economist-world" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">possibly the worst economist</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/worst-economist-world-says-trumps-tax-cuts-will-do-impossible" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">in the media</a>, making <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/heritage-foundation/conservative-medias-favorite-economist-caught-distorting-facts-about-taxes-and" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">serially wrong</a> pronouncements and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-favorite-economist-has-new-bogus-calculation" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">false calculations</a> in service of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/what-media-need-know-about-trump-economic-policy-advisers-steve-moore-and-larry-kudlow" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">his political agendas</a>. </b>In March 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Moore to the Federal Reserve Board, only for Moore to eventually <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/02/trump-says-stephen-moore-is-withdrawing-from-consideration-for-fed-1298561" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">withdraw from consideration</a> due to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/stephen-moore/stephen-moore-previously-attacked-gop-senators-he-now-needs-his-fed-bid" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">multiple controversies</a> over his past political comments.</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Committee to Unleash Prosperity rewrites death numbers in red states with a fake statistic: “Metabolic-health adjustment”</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In order to arrive at the favored conclusion, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity report actually looked at more than just health outcomes. The group’s <a href="https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/final-report-card-on-state-responses-to-covid-19/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">press release</a> explains that it used three metrics for its findings — COVID-19 deaths, economic performance, and school openings — and declared they were “equally weighted” in the analysis</span>. <b>The result is that the question of saving lives accounts for only one-third of the calculation. The study also essentially just rehashes in pseudo-scientific form Moore’s long-standing contention that saving lives in the pandemic might not be “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/stephen-moore/fox-news-stephen-moore-questions-if-californias-steps-prevent-spread-coronavirus-are" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">worth trillions of dollars of losses</a>” and that simply allowing the virus to spread was “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-business-panel-says-economic-shutdown-worse-virus-praises-uk-strategy" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">a better strategy</a>” than enduring the economic costs of lockdowns.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The concept of age-adjusted deaths across populations is a tricky issue. While it is a <a href="https://www.ccpr.ucla.edu/2020/06/01/patrick-heuveline-and-michael-tzen-have-published-an-article-on-medrxiv-that-proposes-three-indicators-to-compare-covid-19-mortality-with-overall-mortality-and-across-populations/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">legitimate line of inquiry</a>, Fox News has exploited it ever since <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-anchor-florida-coronavirus-deaths-were-elderly-people-who-traveled-so-when" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">the start of the pandemic</a> to create a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-says-covid-was-overhyped-because-over-4-month-period-majority-those" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">nonchalant response</a> to COVID-19 deaths among the elderly</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Looking at this metric from a <a href="https://www.bioinformaticscro.com/blog/states-ranked-by-age-adjusted-covid-deaths/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">neutral source</a> does show some interesting effects, but the ranks of worst-performing states would still be Republican-led ones such as Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Moore and his compatriots at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity have gone even further, however,<b> by setting up a new metric in the fine print of their supposed study. They call it an adjustment for “metabolic health” in different populations — “the pre-pandemic prevalence of obesity and diabetes.</b>” But what it really amounts to is a manipulation of the statistics to declare that higher death tolls should be discounted in populations that were less healthy to begin with, and to<b> act as if public health responses can be separated from the overall health of the public.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/31/covid-deaths-diet-diseases-nutrition-america-517076" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Much of the discourse</a> around the role of obesity in COVID-19 deaths has framed it as “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(21)00143-6/fulltext" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">another ongoing pandemic</a>,” and the role of diabetes has been addressed in media as a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/health/diabetes-covid-deaths.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">public health train wreck</a>” and evidence of “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-diabetes-covid/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">America’s diabetes crisis</a>.” <b>But the Committee to Unleash Prosperity instead treats these deaths as somehow a mitigating factor in the public health responses of the states most affected. It’s almost as if, by the standards of Moore and his co-authors, the deaths of unhealthy people are not a problem at all.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As a result of this <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3986943" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">statistical chicanery</a>, death rates in the South and some other Republican-led states were magically revised downward, while deaths were “adjusted” drastically higher in many Democratic states — skewing the data to make blue states look like the worst offenders.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“NV, NY, NJ, and DC were the four states with the highest metabolic-adjusted mortality, even though none is in the top four without the adjustment,” the <a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2022/04/12/committee-to-unleash-prosperity-Which-States-Handled-the-Covid-Pandemic-Best-04-11-2022.pdf?VersionId=zNuPepgqj.9OlNT2iyzHbV4zWBGwXDnP#page=13" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">report says</a> — as if that were a good thing for the authors’ credibility — because those four places all have obesity and diabetes rates that are below the national average. By contrast, in the real-world statistics they began with, the <a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2022/04/12/committee-to-unleash-prosperity-Which-States-Handled-the-Covid-Pandemic-Best-04-11-2022.pdf?VersionId=zNuPepgqj.9OlNT2iyzHbV4zWBGwXDnP#page=12" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">worst contenders were all red states</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fox News has waged a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-has-pushed-covid-propaganda-two-years-cost-has-been-staggering" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">two-year propaganda campaign</a> against public health, in which it has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-latest-vaccine-lie-covid-vaccine-makes-you-more-likely-contract-covid-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">lied about COVID-19 vaccines</a>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-mentioned-ivermectin-nearly-300-times-then-ignored-new-study-finding-drug-ineffective" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">promoted fake cures</a>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-death-cult-embraces-declaration-calling-herd-immunity" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">encouraged the spread of the virus</a>, and turned people defying public health measures into <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-anti-vaccine-culture-war-heroes-numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">culture war heroes</a> even as their actions have <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-wanted-viewers-hear-anti-vax-troopers-story-until-he-died-covid" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">gotten them killed</a></b>. Fox also clearly does not believe any of what it preaches — see its own <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-tells-viewers-fight-back-against-equivalent-fox-news-own-covid-19" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">corporate vaccination and testing policies</a> — but the network nevertheless pursues this framing because it is “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/foxs-antivax-programming-moral-abomination-least-its-great-ratings" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">great for ratings</a>.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who knows, perhaps the network will be able to come up with a study showing that watching Fox News is good for surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, once the analysts can adjust for the comorbidities associated with watching Fox News.</font></p></div></div></div><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><span class="caps" /></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div>