Flu Vaccine Statistics and NaturalNews
The notorious “Health Ranger” strikes again.
I’m always amused by the response of people to bad reporting. This is a classic example. The author, Ethan Huff, blogging at NaturalNews, the website of Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has confused percentile change and percentage POINT change and the result is hilariously misinformed. He accuses the CDC of deceptive statistics in stating that the seasonal flu vaccine is 60% effective. No, he disputes, the accurate descriptor is “less than 2% effective”. *facepalm*
http://www.naturalnews.com/038826_flu_vaccine_victims_hospitals.html
XKCD illustrates the difference far better than I ever could:
http://xkcd.com/985/
For a basic primer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percentage_point
http://www.mathsisfun.com/percentage-points.html