2 ms·
On the surface, a pretty good read. lots of percentages (I'm reminded of "how to lie with statistics", but not thinking the author is lying, maybe just strange)
by gardenfelder 4y ago
On the surface, a pretty good read. lots of percentages (I'm reminded of "how to lie with statistics", but not thinking the author is lying, maybe just strange).
Look at [1] where flu deaths are tallied against, well, flu deaths by age. Seems like the old farts account for more than 50% of all flu-related deaths; the author never mentioned that.
I'm thinking, right or wrong, that this piece feels like yet another anti-vaccination rant. There are just too many libertarian (damn the responsibilities) concepts lurking in the piece.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1127698/influenza-us-deaths-by-age-group/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1127698/influenza-us-dea...
- bumbledraven 4y ago> Seems like the old farts account for more than 50% of all flu-related deaths; the author never mentioned that. Table 2 in the article breaks down deaths from the flu per 100,000 people by age group. Also, the section “Old people and the flu” says: Only 4% of older people get the flu (way less than other ages), but for those who do, the rates of hospitalization and death are dramatically higher. Roughly 10% of those who get the flu end up in the hospital and 10% of the hospitalizations result in death! That's a mortality rate of 40 per 100,000… Let's understand the death rate for old people. Yes, it's forty times larger than the rate for most younger people.