Letter: Follow the science

The data recently reported from the National Bureau of Economic Research was skewed. Masking and social distancing have been the best ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The authors of the study based their data on three variables: the economy, education and mortality. What they did not take into consideration in their study was the most important factor in the spread of COVID-19: population density.

Five of their top 10 “best states” to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic were states with the population density in the lowest 10 of the 50 states: Montana, Democratic governor (48th in population density); South Dakota, Republican governor (46th); Idaho, R (44th); Nebraska, R (43rd); and Utah, R (41st).

Five of their top 10 “worst states” to deal with COVID-19 were states with the population density in the highest 10 of the 50 states: Washington, D.C. (1st - because of population density, though not a state); New Jersey, Democratic governor (1st most dense state); Connecticut, D (4th); Maryland, R (5th); and New York D (7th).

So, while 8 out of 10 of their “best” states for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic had Republican governors and only 1 of their “worst” states had a Republican governor, the study missed the most important factor in the spread of COVID-19 and its ensuing death count – population density.

John Polkinghorne, an English theoretical physicist, theologian and Anglican priest, who was professor of mathematical physics at Cambridge University and who died on March 9, 2021, at the age of 90, wrote that it is intelligibility not objectivity that is the key to reality.

Follow the science.

Donna Davis

Woodstock