OT: Americans love their guns

[Dave Brueck]

On Thursday 28 August 2003 12:40 pm, Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters wrote:
> |The odds of getting killed that way are roughly the same as the odds
> |that you'll die from aspirin or similar drugs
>
> No... this one is just way off.  According to above URL form:
>
>   2000, United States
>   Adverse effects - Drugs Deaths and Rates per 100,000
>   All Races, Both Sexes, All Ages
>   ICD-10 Codes: Y40-Y59,Y88.0
>
>   Number of Deaths  Population  Crude Rate  Age-Adjusted Rate**
>       255           275,264,999     0.09    0.09

Aren't statistics fun? :)

Think about it: even intuitively, 255 is *way* too low for a population of 275 
million (that's essentially zero - in a population that size 255 people 
probably die in sneezing-releated incidents every year) - I don't think that 
statistic represents what you think it represents.

Compare, for example, an article from the Journal of the American Medical 
Association:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/279/15/1200

Even just considering *hospitalized* people, there were 100,000 deaths due to 
adverse effects of drugs.