Regular vs social media stats
A recent article from CNN.com caught my eye. It concerned the news that about 100 people who received the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccination later came down with Guillain-Barré
syndrome. Mathematically, that comes out to 0.0008% of that group. That is 8 ten-thousandths of 1%.
CNN followed that statement with the statement, “It’s not clear whether those cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome resulted from the vaccine.” CNN is not alone in reporting this news this way. It’s got everbody on social media up in arms, too.
The problem? CNN goes on to report that 3,000 to 6,000 people develop Guillain-Barré (out of our population of 330 million) which is (wait for it)…. 0.0009% to 0.0018%, 9 to 18 ten-thousandths of a percent.