I still utilize information I learned in the class and book (which I still have) all these years later. One of the best classes to took in business school.
Posted on 05/26/2020 8:06:03 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
A book published 66 years ago and still in print is an essential reference for understanding most of the data that you see about the pandemic afflicting the world today. Written by Darrell Huff and illustrated by Irving Geis, How to Lie With Statistics is both sardonic and a serious lesson in the abuse of math for propaganda. Whether or not it was studied by our Trump-hating media anxious to make the U.S. look bad, some of its lessons are being employed.
A few days ago, we learned that the mortality rate from the coronavirus is lower than touted by the "experts." Much lower. As in, similar to the season flu.
Now, thanks (again) to Matt Margolis at PJ Media, we see that the United States has a comparatively low mortality rate. But downstate New York has the worst.
Curiously, when the media hounded Trump for weeks about testing, they kept screaming about "per capita" testing rates compared to South Korea. But now you hear not a word about "per capita" rates when it comes to mortality.
Why?
The first list uses data from May 24 and shows total deaths of the ten hardest-hit countries. As you can see, using raw numbers, the United States appears to have fared the worst as countries are ranked in descending order.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
See why the US Covid19 Statistics are actually not as high as the Media has told us.
Then the article describes why the hidden lies in our Statistics presented in the media make the USA look worse and that the media is trying to blame President Trump.
Figures never lie, but liars figure.
The article is worth the read.
What are we going to do with all the charts and graphs with plenty of squiggle, arrows, and vertical lines indicating EXPONENTIAL growth, and oh, let's not forget the millions, yes MILLIONS! of deaths that will be occurring by the latest mid Month of May, June if not!
Many years ago when I was attending University the Stats textbook we were required to use had on the opening page of the textbook the following phrase; There are Lies, There are Damned Lies, then There are Statistics.
The implication being without ethics statistics can be far worse than Lies or Damned Lies. The text stressed that Ethics Is Required for statistics to be accurate.
Dr Kate Hutchinson, Washington state department of Health statistics manager admitted including 5 gunshot deaths to their SARS-CoV 2 totals
How can we trust any of the rest of the numbers?
I still utilize information I learned in the class and book (which I still have) all these years later. One of the best classes to took in business school.
2 months ago, or so, the data clearly supported an estimate of between .1% and 1% for The Coronavirus mortality rate. That estimate was reported and was posted here on good old FR.
It now looks like the number will be about .3% to .4%. And that has been pretty clear for at least a month.
So yes, the DEMSM are trying to convince us that it is much worse. But the data never did. Choose your sources with care.
If you look at filtered, real deaths with cause of death being Covid19 and apply to the entire population, it will be less than .1% nationally.
NYC numbers are grossly padded chasing Federal dollars. And they literally killed old people in Nursing homes.
Texas is at .3% deaths per known cases. How large is the asymptomatic Covid19 cases in the population? Some studies have shown more than 50% (not known in US). If that is true, and I think it is, the rate is incredibly low.
The real deaths by the virus (not faked on death certificate) are grossly overstated.
The way the statistics are handled makes none of the analysis credible.
Texas is trying to be honest with the numbers. NYC is shure not. It is a political agenda for them.
Cooking the Books on COVID-19 Deaths
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/cooking_the_books_on_covid19_deaths.html
FR Comments: https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3848533/posts
Yes, pure fraud.
Agree. I had Business Statistics in college prior to 1970.
You are correct.
Yes, and many more.
Yes, I graduated with a Business degree in 1970. I took Business Statistics too. I totally understand and agree.
I spent 40 years in the wholesale distribution business, I know about a lot of tricks with stats. I worked for 2 privately held companies, both were totally honest. But totally smart.
I graduated in 1982. Ethics was not just taught it was stressed. From what I understand it is no longer. What is taught today is the ends justifies the means. This is not just a guess or speculation. I have this first hand from my youngest son who graduates this year.
He has had to bite his tongue daily in nearly every class in order to graduate.
Yes, I was aware of how things had changed. Values today are not deep rooted. Faith is often missing. Honor is almost non-existent.
Agreed. This is the finest book on statistics ever written. Lots of books tell you how to perform statistical calculations - this one explains the pitfalls in clear, simple terms. An honest statistician is wary of the pitfalls, wanting to produce accurate data. A dishonest person uses the numbers to say what they want said. Whenever you see a statistic quoted in the media, you must ask yourself how the numbers can be twisted to support their agenda, because they always are.
Pick any 10 journalists and ask them to solve 2 + 2 and you’ll get 10 different answers.
Journalists are very stupid.
And the MSM have been deceiving the public with these statistics in at least one more way, too.
They have not been talking about the EUROPEAN UNION, or “Europe” as a whole, just individual European countries, and we know their populations are small compared to the U.S.
Deaths in the European Union/Europe from COVID-19 as of May 25, 2020:
Between 160,000 and 170,000 (depending on the source, and counting the UK. But even w/o it, the preliminary totals are still way more than that of the U.S.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_response_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102288/coronavirus-deaths-development-europe/
“As of 25 May 2020, there have been 1,361,100 confirmed cases and 161,063 deaths reported in the EU/EEA and the UK[1].”
—”European Union response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_response_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic
questions about the German study mentioned below came up on Fox today, think it was on Ingraham Angle.
21 May: Daily Mail: Leading Cambridge University expert says risk for children catching COVID-19 is ‘unbelievably low’ and teachers are not at greater danger amid row over plans to reopen schools
•Eminent statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter said data showed extremely low risk
•Rubbished claims kids were super-spreaders, saying science did not back it up
•Boris Johnson has faced ferocious backlash for plan to reopen schools on June 1
by Connor Boyd
...Professor Spiegelhalter pointed out that just one out of 7million children aged four to 14 in England and Wales has died from COVID-19...
Spiegelhalter also condemned a German pre-published study that suggested children carry the same viral load of COVID-19 as adults.
Because youngsters get much more mild symptoms, the results raised fears children could become super-spreaders.
However the statistician said the data clearly had been misinterpreted because it actually showed children have just a quarter of the viral load of adults.
He added: ‘One of the big problems with this epidemic is that claims are being rushed out. Peer -review [when other scientists scrutinise research] has just disappeared from scientific analyses and yet they get a lot of media coverage.
‘It is widely claimed that children have got the same viral load as adults, from a German study.
‘If you look at that study it shows that is clearly not the case, children have about a quarter of the viral load according to the study. It’s a very poor statistical analysis.’...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8340341/Leading-Cambridge-University-expert-says-risk-children-catching-COVID-19-unbelievably-low.html
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