Did Anyone Add Up All These Numbers?

by Joe Pulcinella

Just got this from Cato:

"The government, acknowledging a mistake in a highly publicized health report, is expected to significantly reduce its estimate of the number of Americans who die because of obesity," USA Today reports.

"The much-touted study, reported in the March 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicated that diet and physical inactivity accounted for 400,000 deaths in 2000, compared with 435,000 from tobacco. A CDC researcher predicted that obesity would overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death by next year."

Did this many people actually die from all causes combined in one year? Geez, at this rate, we won't last long! My bet is that the CDC hopes that no one ever checks out this sort of stuff.

Posted 11/28/2004 7:06:32 PM by Joe Pulcinella

These numbers are born of the martini-fueled blue-skying that twentysomething gearheads and Washington lobbyists engage in all the time. They were probably totted up on the back of a cocktail napkin, and have just as much documentation behind them. The figures, and those who peddle them, would be a mere annoyance if they did not have the ear of the rich and powerful, and are a huge menace, since they obviously do.

Posted 11/29/2004 11:32:23 AM by Vince Daliessio