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Don't know about the truth behind the statistics but funny never the less.


(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physicians 0.171

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.

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Now think about this:

Guns

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. (Yes, that's 80 million)

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .0000188 Statistics courtesy of FBI


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So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

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Remember, 'Guns don't kill people, doctors do.'

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FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN, BUT Almost everyone has at least one doctor. This means you are over 9,000 times more likely to be killed by a doctor as by a gun owner!!!

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Please alert your friends to this alarming threat. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

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Out of concern for the public at large, We withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention!

From least to worst...

Little white lies --> Outright Lies --> Bold-faced Lies --> Statistics.

I've seen these "statistics" about physicians hundreds of different times, and always to make a point. That point is always a logical fallacy, and is often used to hawk snake oil.

"A is bad, therefore B is good." A and B are not related. Therefore the statement that B is good because A is bad is a logical fallacy.

Physician statistics (assuming they are true, and I have my doubts) are completely unrelated to gun statistics. Therefore there is no valid argument there. Let's unpack that. There may be 80+ million guns in the country, but it is arguably true that most of them sit unused in safes and closets and dresser drawers. Only a small percentage of them actually get carried daily and are therefore likely to be used in a confrontation. Even if we use the most optimistic numbers, we say that guns are used between 2 million and 5 million times annually by private citizens to avert a crime. A small percentage of shooters make regular trips to the range. Thus, the daily exposure to the possibility of gun-related deaths is vastly reduced.

On the other hand, doctors go to work every single day. Many of those doctors are treating the common cold. But an equal number are treating patients who suffer from conditions in which there is a high degree of mortality. Think about it... How many of the "accidental" physician caused deaths are simply a case gone awry? Back when I was in my late teens, I had a friend whose father was a prominent local neurosurgeon in the Pasadena area. He had a young woman patient who had a brain tumor that had advanced to the point of being almost inoperable. Surgery would have been a high risk. He informed both her and her family that there was a 50/50 chance that she could die on the operating table. They decided to go ahead with the surgery and signed all the release forms, and she died on the operating table. They sued my friend's father for malpractice. Should her death be listed as accidentally physician caused because she made an informed decision to undergo surgery which had a 50% chance of killing her?

That is why this comparison is a nonsense statistical comparison. Physicians are engaged in a pursuit in which they are intensely hemmed in by government on the one side, and insurance companies on the other. Yes, they get well paid... ...if they stay in practice long enough instead of getting disgusted and quitting - like the ER doctor I used to know who got his law degree so he could quite medicine and go into malpractice law because it was much more profitable. No, doctors aren't God, but they are for the most part decent people doing difficult work under trying circumstances, and all these phony stats do is to make their jobs harder.

It is at its most egregious when it is used as a tactic to try and sell other "health" products. There is no miracle product in health care.

TAM,

I think the OP was pointing-out the fallacy of Statistics, in and of themselves.

Purplehood wrote:TAM,

I think the OP was pointing-out the fallacy of Statistics, in and of themselves.

I understand. I wasn't bashing the OP. I should have made clear that I am irritated by all the emails that I've gotten over the years that make that claim. My apologies.

Edit: In retrospect my post was a little too snide for my taste.

If anyone wants to spend the time, there is some interesting (sort of out-of-date) information in these:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00957.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.healthgrades.com/media/engli ... _final.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.healthgrades.com/business/im ... rt2005.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

pcgizzmo wrote:Don't know about the truth behind the statistics but funny never the less.

It's at least as true as the statistics the Brady goons throw around, and shows how illogical they really are.

RoyGBiv wrote:From least to worst...

Little white lies --> Outright Lies --> Bold-faced Lies --> Statistics.

Samuel Clemens said but a little bit saltier.

These are more correct:

Doctors:

(A) The number of doctors in the U.S. is 700,000

(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 17.14%

Statistics courtesy of the U.S.Dept of Health & Human Services


Guns:

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000 (yes that's 80 million)

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is 0.001875%

Statistics courtesy of the FBI