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Thursday, January 09, 2003But the paper did not reveal the details of the statistical analysis, nor did it provide influenza death rates for people of different ages. That, in particular, was a serious drawback, said Dr. David Freedman, a statistician at the University of California at Berkeley. "It is startling to see a paper without age-specific death rates," Freedman said, because without them it is impossible to assess the scientists' conclusions that the increased deaths were solely because of increased numbers of elderly people. The study also uses a different statistical model than the ones used for the past decades to which it compares its results. Not exactly solid science. It makes sense, though, that as the number of the aged increases, so will the number of deaths from influenza and other illnesses: "Now public health and medical communities must also face the looming confrontation between an unstoppable force and an immovable object, the aging of the baby boom generation and the predictability of annual influenza," he wrote. "Simple demographics practically ensure an impending public health disaster of great proportion. We all have to die sometime, and the number of deaths is going to keep increasing as the baby boomers reach their older years. That doesn’t necessarily qualify as a “public health disaster” but it will probably be framed that way, even when they’re dying of old age. posted by Sydney on 1/09/2003 12:56:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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