'Bogus' Poll Should Not Be Published

August 28, 2021

Dear Editor,

The Santa Monica Pulse poll conducted by the hotel union watchdog group Eyes on Local 11 is so bogus it should never be published ("Slim Majority of Santa Monica Residents Oppose Vaccine Mandates, According to Monthly Poll," August 27, 2021).

Any results from a survey of self-selected individuals are invalid by definition. According to Pew Research:

“The key to survey research is to have a random sample so that every person has a chance of having their views captured. The kinds of people who might volunteer for our polls are likely to be very different from the average American -- at the very least they would probably be more politically interested and engaged, which would not be a true representation of the general population.”

Clearly a majority of Santa Monica residents does NOT oppose vaccination; at least 81.7 percent of residents of ZIP code 90403 are fully vaccinated (see vaccine data by zip code).

I say “at least” because as a participant in the Pfizer study, I am not counted in the County and State databases; only Pfizer has my vaccination data. Same for Johnson & Johnson; my daughter is a participant in their study and is also not included in the official data.

People like the anti-vaxxers coming to Santa Monica tomorrow (8/29) are going to cite phony research like this to further rile up their followers. It is irresponsible of you to publish such polls.

Judy Hopkins
M.S. Biostatistics, UCLA

The spread of Covid-19 is based on two factors: 1. How dense the population is and 2. How dense the population is.

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August 28, 2021

Dear Editor

"Slim Majority of Santa Monica Residents Oppose Vaccine Mandates, According to Monthly Poll"

This headline is false. The "slim majority" was of a self-selected group of people who opted-in to receive communications from a politically-conservative group. That should be made clear in the headline.

The headline is deceptive, and does not report this so-called "poll" correctly.

Sincerely,

Dan Jansenson