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Science Quickly

Tweets Reveal Politics of COVID-19

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2020

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Political scientists analyzed congressional tweets and observed how Republicans and Democrats responded differently to the virus. Christopher Intagliata reports.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacult.

0:33.6

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Taguata.

0:39.1

The night of September 11th, President George W. Bush addressed the nation.

0:43.7

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the

0:49.3

foundation of America. The next day, Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashel, a Democrat, said Congress stood united behind

0:55.7

the President in condemning the attacks.

0:57.7

The world should know that the members of both parties, in both houses, stand united in

1:04.3

this.

1:05.4

There was a lot of inter-party unity right after 9-11.

1:08.5

The messages that the public was receiving were not inherently politicized.

1:13.2

And there was a moment in which that could have happened around COVID. And to my surprise, it didn't.

1:20.7

Skyler Kranmer is a political scientist at the Ohio State University. His team analyzed tens of

1:26.0

thousands of tweets sent out by members of Congress,

1:28.6

the idea being to determine how and when COVID-19 became a politically divided issue.

1:34.0

Kranmer says the split happened quickly. From mid-January to the end of March, Democrats sent

1:38.9

nearly twice as many tweets about COVID-19 as did Republicans. And the two parties spoke about the virus differently,

1:45.3

too. Democrats frequently used words like health, testing, and leave, as in sick leave. Republicans

1:51.8

tended to favor words like together, China, and business. The findings are in the journal Science

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