Quote:
Originally Posted by nick demis
I know how everyone says that the numbers don't lie, but they do lie. How is it that on the average 200,000 people die of the flue every year but this past year it has been almost 0. I would love to get some true numbers and not what the fear mongers want you to believe.
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Who says "figures don't lie" ? LOL, I was so naive when I entered graduate school for the fist time, after 3 graduate degrees I learned many, many, things in the fields of study, but most of all grad school taught me there are MANY ways to make figures "say" what you want them to, and all are perfectly "legal".... sort on various fields, change the standard deviation factor of your research theory, change software programs, sort on more or fewer variables, increase/decrease the study groups, ...... let me count the ways ! One tiny illustration here just an example, not a "fact". If you want to make a particular county of a state look "better" or "worse" in relation to any condition or disease... such as a virus like Covid-19. Just one of hundreds of examples; you could take a look at the stats for populations in jails, or prisons, at residential programs, or even at summer camps for youth. By simply expanding or contracting the study, you can manipulate the data to be FACTUAL, and yet, give the conclusion you desire for your "research article". One of my wisest mentor's in grad school began all advanced statistics classes with the phrase " studies show....... fill in the blank". By the time you have completed all of the required advanced statistics classes, you will know why everything in our environment has "studies that show........... ". How prophetic that was....