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Branswell On Inaccurate Pandemic Death Counts

 


# 4017

 

 

Helen Branswell, ace medical reporter for The Canadian Press, takes on a subject we’ve tackled a time or two ourselves . . . our inability to accurately count individual flu deaths. 


While the CDC here in the US has released estimates of deaths from this pandemic, most countries only acknowledge confirmed cases – which are just the tip of the iceberg.

 

I’ve just posted the opening paragraphs.  Follow the link to read the article in its entirety.

 

 

 

Death tally doesn't show H1N1's true toll, experts say

November 15, 2009

Helen Branswell

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Are you confused by the H1N1 numbers? Wondering why public health officials are making such a fuss about a virus that has so far killed so few people?

 

You aren't alone.

 

After all, we're told seasonal flu kills between 4,000 to 8,000 Canadians and between 250,000 and 500,000 people worldwide each year. Yet as of late last week, seven months into this outbreak, H1N1 had killed 161 Canadians and an estimated 6,260 people around the globe.

 

Critics of Canada's pandemic response point to the discrepancy between those sets of numbers and question the full court press.

 

But the thing is, as tempting as it is to compare those two sets of figures and conclude that H1N1 is much ado about nada, you can't do it. Those two sets of numbers count different things, experts say.

 

(Continue . . .)

 

 

A few of my essays on this subject from the past few months include:

 

Recalculating The H1N1 Death Toll
When No Number Is Right
Dead Reckoning
Apples, Oranges, And Influenza Death Tolls
Numbers Don’t Tell The Whole Story
 

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