[TaupeRanger]

Exactly. Every time I come to a medical thread on HN I realize how bad even intelligent people are at understanding medical statistics and recognizing when to raise an eyebrow of skepticism. It really does take a lot of study and/or professional training to develop those skills.

[deltaonefour]

Interesting. I would be one of those people who can't fully understand the accuracy of these numbers, so I have to take other peoples' word for it.

Are you part of the medical field yourself? If so then I wouldn't trust anything you say given that if the statistics were true, what you're saying has a high chance of just covering yourself up.

[TaupeRanger]

I'm not, but I've spent a lot of time over many years cultivating an understanding of epidemiology and med statistics, especially as they relate to study/trial design. The article linked above points out many of the problems with the parent's study. Medical errors are a problem, but we don't know much about it because of these problems, so I worry, as always, that people will take the wrong message away from headlines like this.