drumming up the death rate

DRUMMING UP THE DEATH RATE
2004-10-21


OCTOBER 21, 2004. The other day, I printed an excerpt from a USA Today/AP story that claimed annual flu deaths in the US are actually higher than suspected.

I have already shown (see my archive) that, buried in small print, the CDC itself lists annual flu deaths as MINISCULE.

Anyway, the USA Today piece talked about something else called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and how 11,000 people in the US are dying from it every year.

Independent researcher John Cullison has searched CDC small print and has found their figures for RSV.

Turns out there are three different categories of RSV. We'll take them one at a time.

We have RSV pneumonia. The CDC code for this category is J12.1. Deaths? 1999: 30. 2000: 18. 2001: 26. (These are the only years for which figures are available). Total? 74 deaths.

Category two is acute bronchitis due to RSV. The CDC code for this category is J20.5. Deaths? 1999: 0. 2000: 0. 2001: 1. Total? 1 death.

Category three is acute broncholitis due to RSV. The CDC code for this category is J21.0. Deaths? 1999: 9. 2000: 6. 2001: 4. Total? 19.

Total of deaths from all three categories of RSV for the years 1999, 2000, and 2001 lumped together? 94.

During that period, according to USA Today and its medical experts who provided the "alarming news," we should have expected the total to be 33,000 deaths.

Well, they weren't off by much. Sometimes, you know, it's hard to get it exactly right. Standard margin of error creeps in. The medical expert interviewed was having a problem with the coffee maker. The phone connection between the reporter and the expert was hazy and there were people shouting in the background.

Reminds me of my one day in 1961 as a phone salesman in a boiler room operation in West LA. I was supposed to be selling subscriptions to a local newspaper. It wasn't going well at all. Hell, the circulation of the newspaper was hovering at about 750 a week. Finally, I called a school from my canned list of numbers. The phone rang and rang and rang and, just as I was going to hang up, a man picked up and said hello in a soft voice. Turned out he was the janitor.

Desperate, I tried to shove that damn subscription down his throat. He had the presence of mind to ask me what the circulation of the paper was.

I said, "Oh, about 100,000 a week."

"Okay," he said, "we'll take it."

I couldn't hear him very well, because when I quoted the 100,000 figure, all the other phone pros in the boiler room cracked up and fell out.

The fat man next to me said, "Dig THIS f**king guy!"

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com

www.nomorefakenews.com

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