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08/09/2004: Um, can you say "overreaction"?
I received a spam a couple days ago for, of all things, mosquito traps. And to whip you into a frenzy of enthusiasm for purchasing their product, they proceed to lay some scary statistics on you. Under the subject line "246 died from mosquitoes", you read:
West Nile Virus has begun its sixth season in the United States, and health officials predict a worse outbreak than last year. According to the Centers for Disease Control, over 9,100 cases of the illness were reported nationwide last year and 246 people died.According to The U.S. Census Bureau's U.S. Population Clock, there are 293,960,598 of us when I looked at this (when you follow the link, most likely there will be a few more of us).
Close to 300 million (thanks, Goose) of us, and fewer than 250 of us have died from West Nile? Not to minimize the plight for the 250 fatalities, but this isn't anything to panic about. And certainly not a reason to buy mosquito traps....
Len on 08.09.04 @ 07:44 PM CST
Replies: 2 comments
on Monday, August 9th, 2004 at 7:54 PM CST, gooseneck said
You said 293,960,598. Isn't that million, not billion?
on Monday, August 9th, 2004 at 7:57 PM CST, Len Cleavelin said
You be right. Now you know why I never became a mathematician. And it's corrected now.