It's time for a reality check ...

Big numbers get attention, but percentages often tell the real story

It would be nice if more people understood math so they could tell if something was significant

or not.  

We're not talking advanced Trig, Calculus or abstract Algebra here, just simple fractions and

percentages.     

This would save a great deal of handwringing and over-reaction to relatively statistically insignificant events.

It also helps to know that there are about 320 million people in this country, and that 1% means 1 in 100 (for those who slept through Math class) and 1% of the population is 3.2 million. 

So when you hear a big number, like 100,000 afflicted with this or a half-million suffering from that, divide that by 320 million to get a real percentage.

Fiddling with the numbers and definitions is a time-honored tool for anyone trying to make a case.  For example, about 2.5 million people – less than 1% of the population – will die in this country every year from any number of causes, including accidents.
  
When you hear that 19% all deaths are from heart disease, you first need to know that the term "heart disease" includes a lot of stuff beyond heart attacks.

So it doesn’t mean that 19% of all Americans will die from heart attacks this year-- which most people will think, it just means that of the very small percentage of people who will die, an even smaller group will die from some form of heart disease which includes many conditions also associated with simply growing older.  

Nothing to sneeze at, but not catastrophic or a sign of the end of days.  

The same goes for the claims of autism affecting 1 in 110 children.  Part of that is because the definition of autism has broadened dramatically in recent years and more doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, schools and, yes, parents are willing to tag children as autistic.  Also, back to math, that's still less than 1% of children even with the broader definition.

Peanut allergies? That's the official reason for banning peanuts on planes, although most of us think it's because the cheap bastards that run the airlines don't want to give us anything for free anymore.  It's also why some schools overreacted and banned PBJs, the staff of life for many us when we were growing up.

So what's the real percentage of people -- including children and adults -- with peanut allergies?  About 0.4 -0.6% by some accounts; it's true that a higher percentage of children are susceptible but also true that most children naturally outgrow the condition.    

To put this in perspective, about 3% of all adults will have a life-threatening whole-body
(systemic, or anaphylaxis) reaction to bee or wasp stings each year.  

If you know your numbers, most things are not as dire as others would want you to believe.