Skeptic

1293 readers

1 users here now

Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism, sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence.

Do not confuse this with General Skepticism, Philosophical Skepticism, or Denialism.

Things we like:

Civility
Thoughtful discussion based on evidence and facts
Humor

Things we don't like:

Personal attacks or disrespectful attitude
Wild speculation on events with no evidence
Low-effort comments and posts

Other communities of interest:

Fediverse vs Disinformation

"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence." -David Hume

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

acosmichippo@lemmy.world

kabe@lemmy.world

Medical Error Is Not the Third Leading Cause of Death (skeptoid.com)

submitted 3 months ago by TrojanHam@sh.itjust.works to c/skeptic@lemmy.world

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In 2022 (the last year for which final numbers are available as of this writing), the leading causes (in order) were heart disease (703,000), cancer (608,000), followed by accidents, COVID-19, stroke, lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer's, diabetes (at 101,000), and then the 98,000 number would rank only ninth.

Those are pretty general categories too. There's a lot of cancers and a lot of different sorts of heart disease. Not to mention an almost uncountable number of ways to die in an accident.

[–] snooggums@midwest.social 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There are also a lot of different kinds of medical errors...

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

True. I'm not sure if any category is really especially useful as a statistic. Am I more likely to die slipping in the bathtub than I am of eye cancer? That's quite likely even if neither kill me because I'm guessing a lot more people die slipping in the bathtub than of a rare form of cancer.