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Bad science Medicine Popular culture

A bogus statistic about medical errors rears its ugly head in STAT

The claim that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US is one of those slasher statistics that just won’t die. This time around STAT News gave space to Michael Saks and Stephan Landsman to parrot that claim credulously in the service of selling their book.

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

Do medical errors really kill a quarter of a million people a year in the US?

It is an unquestioned belief among believers in alternative medicine and even just among many people who do not trust conventional medicine that conventional medicine kills. Not only does exaggerating the number of people who die due to medical complications or errors fit in with the world view of people like Mike Adams and Joe […]