The 85% death rate from the H5N1 bird flu making headlines proves a basic truth shared with mankind by none other than Mark Twain.
He said that there are liars, dam liars and statisticians.
In countries like Cambodia, in rural agrarian cultures, many who get sick do not get health care. They self medicate, self treat and heal with out becoming a statistic.
When someone is really sick, of course if the government finds out, they will be hospitalized and ultimately fit into a statistic.
These statistics are manipulated, either by design or by the nature of how they are created.
Before you continue on with my ramblings, check out the studies that found a treatment that works in 2006 for specifically H5N1.
Could this Really Be A Bird Flu Cure? Note: this is only for those who are proactive about their health and choose to be educated consumers rather than having society dictate their health care. Also, if you like to spend a lot on health care, this may not be for you. It is a relatively cheap treatment.
Finally, it is a somewhat natural cure if it could be called that. However, if you want to go even more natural, consider the raw food diet. It works the same.
I have worked with doctors who would transfer patients into their hospitals even though there was little chance of saving the patient. Why, I asked? These doctors all said that the patients had absolutely no chance where they were. At least they would have a chance with our care. The reason for asking why was because of the concern of statistics and what they would say about the hospital.
Surprisingly, they saved many patients lives, ones who were deemed as having little or no chance.
One such case was reported in Time Magazines, Hero’s Of Medicine issue over 20 years ago. When the discharging hospital called to find out if the patient was dead, they were surprised to find not only had he survived, he was soon to be discharged.
Of course this changed the statistics. One hospital had one less death and another just upped it save rate for the then new modality. But wait, it was a good statistic as the man with a blood count of 1.8 (normal is 13-15) lived and walked out of the hospital.
So, rather than worrying about statistics, worry about whether the sun will rise tomorrow. Worry about whether or not we will have a spring followed by summer. Worry about whether school will have a summer break or if they will all of a sudden make students go to class year round.
But do not worry about the price of tea in China or the statistics that may make the headlines. After all, there are three kinds of liars.