‘Place concern for humanity above partisan grandstanding’

Dear state Rep. Harry Arora,

As Vice President Al Gore once observed, it is difficult to combat simplistic lies with complex truths.

Regarding your Sept. 24 email about Gov. Ned Lamont’s extension of the COVID-19 related public health emergency, and your survey on public opinion on this decision. I am deeply troubled by your email, for the way you present information relevant to the question, for the way you conduct the survey, and — most importantly — for your motivation for sending the email in the first place.

To the last point first: Public health policy during a plague should be based on science, not public opinion. Our president and our governor understand this. Tragically, the Republican party apparently does not.

To the second point: If you do want an objective measure of public opinion, do not precede your survey with a lengthy communique presenting your own opinion about the matter. Any freshman student of research and evaluation could tell you this.

Lastly — your email provides misleading information. I clicked through to one of your “reference” links. It did not take me to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reference, as one might think. Rather, I found a Twitter page from conservative journalist Phil Kerpen (@kerpen). Someone who talks about “hypertesting” (really?) and the supposed “anycause-of-death-after-positive-test” definition for attribution to COVID.

Kerpen presents tables, attributed to the CDC through reference to “sources” in links. One of these URLs (which had to be manually re-typed) led to a long and nuanced CDC article which, in its summary, concludes that “These findings support the accuracy of COVID-19 mortality surveillance in the United States.” The opposite of the message that Arora and Kerpen are hoping to convey.

We will never be rid of this plague until we are ready to place concern for humanity above partisan grandstanding.

If you do want an objective measure of public opinion, do not precede your survey with a lengthy communique presenting your own opinion about the matter. Any freshman student of research and evaluation could tell you this.