Monday, August 13th, 2007...10:21 am
AP Wrong in Report on Life Expectancy and Infant Mortality
The AP carried a story on August 11, 2007 by By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer, entitled “U.S. life span shorter”. The report contained the following excerpts.
“Forty countries, including Cuba, Taiwan and most of Europe had lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. in 2004. The U.S. rate was 6.8 deaths for every 1,000 live births. It was 13.7 for Black Americans, the same as Saudi Arabia.”
“A baby born in the United States in 2004 will live an average of 77.9 years. That life expectancy ranks 42nd, down from 11th two decades earlier, according to international numbers provided by the Census Bureau and domestic numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.”
While I believe the outcomes of the USA, profit driven, health care system are atrocious, given the wealth of the nation, I also believe in the great importance of accuracy and fairness in the public discourse. I consulted the World Health Organization’s web site relative to this matter after I read that Senator Dodd made similar claims in a democratic debate which Mr. Ohlemacher has made in his report.
World Health Organization statistics indicate the USA ranks tied for sixth lowest infant mortality rate.
As for Healthy Life Expectancy, the USA is tied for seventh longest healthy life expectancy.
The fact is that in a spreadsheet USA ends up in the 41st cell, but the USA is amongst a group of countries with the same rate. Likewise the nations with the same rate ahead of the USA are grouped. So there are like five or six groups with the same rate ahead of the USA.
Here are a couple of links to spreadsheets which I copied from the WHO site and pasted into and sorted with Excel.
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4 Comments
August 13th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Very dangerous, this habit you have of thinking. Don’t you know it only causes problems? For another fascinating article on numbers that lie, take a look at this NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/weekinreview/12kolata.html
August 13th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Hey Dan. It’s a habit
August 13th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
This habit of thinking and questioning fits very well with the ROW goal of wiping out Calvinism !! Yeah, I see the method in your madness.
Theresa
August 13th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Hey Theresa,
I can’t say I’ve made the connection you have, but it makes sense to me.
The purveyors of Calvinism, I think, prefer that folks not think to question the dogma that extols the worthlessness of humanity.
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