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infant
mortality - more innumeracy from the fossil media
Most people are weak on statistical
analysis. The fossil media is almost entirely staffed
by innumerate lefties with ‘degrees’ in ‘media
studies’, ‘journalism’ and other non-science-based
‘disciplines’.
Statistics is not an easy subject!
It is riddled with complex ‘philosophical’
difficulties.
All fossil media attempts at using
statistics should be treated with a very long spoon. Almost
all politicians and political systems selectively quote
statistics, and regularly change definitions to promote
their own careers and to get votes from the innumerate
electorate.
While the differences in actual numbers
for infant mortality and longevity statistics are generally
rather small, these differences are constantly repeated
by the uninformed to promote government health systems
in Europe and, now, in the USA. [1]
“The U.S.’ infant mortality rate is not
higher; the rates of Canada and many European countries
are artificially low, due to more restrictive definitions
of live birth. There also are variations in the willingness
of nations to save very low birth weight and gestation
babies.
“The ethnic heterogeneity of the U.S. works against
it because different ethnic and cultural groups may
have widely different risk factors and genetic predispositions.
“Definitions of a live birth, and therefore which
babies are counted in the infant mortality statistics
very considerably. The U.S. uses the full WHO definition,
while Germany omits one of the four criteria. The U.K.
defines a still birth “a child which has issued
forth from its mother after the twenty-fourth week of
pregnancy and which did not at any time after being
completely expelled from its mother breathe or show
any other signs of life.”
“This leaves what constitutes a sign of life
open and places those born before 24 weeks in a gray
area. Canada uses the complete WHO definition but struggles
with tens of thousands of missing birth records and
increasing numbers of mothers sent to the U.S. for care.
France requires “a medical certificate [that]
attests that the child was born ‘alive and viable’”
for [a] baby who died soon after birth to be counted,
[a certificate] which may be difficult to obtain.”
Other problems apply to longevity statistics.
on
longevity statistics
Global
report on pre-term birth and stillbirth (1 of 7):
definitions, description of the burden and opportunities
to improve data
Neonatal
Mortality Levels for 193 Countries in 2009 with Trends
since 1990: A Systematic Analysis of Progress, Projections,
and Priorities
[13-page .pdf; source
page]
Some
World Health Organisation (WHO) definitions;
Definitions also vary thus: for instance,
under one year, under 5 years, under one week, and so
on!
This
is a useful basic source:
“While the overall life expectancy of Americans
is lower than that of people other nations, it [is]
the result of higher rates of homicides, accidents,
and obesity, [and population
heterogeneity] factors that are at best tangentially
related to the health care system.
“The homicide rate in the U.S. was 5.9 per 100,000
people in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of
Justice. In contrast, it was 1.99 per 100,000 in Canada,
1.66 in France, .98 in Germany, and 1.63 in England
and Wales (approximately 1.71 including Scotland.)
“In the U.S., in 2006 there were 14.24 fatalities
per 100,000 people from auto accidents. Canada had 9.25
fatalities, France 7.43, Germany 6.194, and 5.39 in
Great Britain (U.K. excluding North Ireland). In general,
injuries of all kinds accounted for 47 deaths per 100,000
in the U.S. in 2002 but 26 in the U.K., 29 in Germany
and 34 in Canada. Only France, at 48 per 100,000 was
equivalent.
“While Americans are not the most likely to be
overweight, they are more [often] obese than people
in other nations...”
related documents
end notes
- From a commonly used source:
dated 30th March, 2012
- Life expectancy at
birth: remember all
the problems with defining live birth!
In the U.S.A., every sperm is sacred. With a strong
anti-abortion (pro-life) stance, one does, indeed, often
strive officiously to keep alive marginally viable infants,
a practice not common in secular Europe and Japan.
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