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Medical statistics is an entire field of study that has multiple disciplines. There are many controversies in this field.

Regarding how death rates are calculated, there are controversies in the field regarding how to best calculate from both a math and even a philosophical standpoint.

This article, which talks about the famous paper from 2015 that first noted the dramatic rise in suicide, covers the controversy well. Some of the best statisticians and researchers in med stats, who all are competent and mean well, simply cannot agree if the death rate has gone up or down [1].

[1] https://www.thecut.com/2015/11/gender-controversy-over-white...




As the old saying goes, "smoking is the leading cause of statistics."




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