Classic "lies, damn lies, and statistics". I need to start collecting examples of conclusions drawn from incomplete and / or poorly explained statistics. I di

Classic "lies, damn lies, and statistics". I need to start collecting examples of conclusions drawn from incomplete and / or poorly explained statistics. I did three levels of statistics, and found it boring because I struggled to find how it would be useful in my future career. I'm eternally annoyed at myself for not paying enough attention, I love stats now. One interesting (and divisive) example for statistics was way early in the COVID timeline the talk about reaching herd immunity through "just letting it propagate" as per the narrative around Sweden's approach. The required herd immunity figure was something like 60%[0] at the lowest end. In the US daily new infections peaked in January 2021 at 305,000[1], and the US population is around 330 million[2] (with 60% being 198 million). At that maximum rate of new daily infections, it would take 649 days (1.77 years) to reach herd immunity. The average daily new infection rate from the 21st of March 2020 to the 15th of November 2021 is ~79,500. At that rate it would take 2,490 days (6.8 years) to reach herd immunity. In both of the above scenarios, with a fatality rate of 1%, there would be 1.98 million deaths during the time span. Other numbers that would be interesting in context: - Number of hospital beds - Number of ventilators, how quickly they can be manufactured, how long they're dedicated to an individual case (and bonus points for recovery rates of those who needed to use a ventilator) - Medical oxygen usage rate and availability (India had an issue with running out of medical grade oxygen[3], although it may not be as much of an issue for more countries with more advanced infrastructure) Thank fuck for medical technology and vaccine development (the age we live in!) [0]: https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comments-about-herd-immunity/ https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-comments-about-her... [1]: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/#graph-cases-daily https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/#graph-... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta... [3]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/29/explainer-why-is-getting-medical-oxygen-for-covid-patients-in-some-countries-so-difficult https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/29/explainer-why-...