What Americans die from vs. what's reported in the media

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata
In J-School, first-year students learn the definition of news with the difference between the 'Dog bites man' and 'Man bites dog' headlines. The above is also a great representation. The uninitiated would confuse newsworthiness with perception of importance, as evidenced by the conspiracists (U.S. folks?) in this commentary.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata I would love to see a similar graphic designed to add one or more comparison countries. E.g., if Canada was added the rates of Heart disease and cancer are probably similar to US, and probably equally ignored in media...

@DrorBedrack @infobeautiful @ourworldindata my thoughts exactly. The news reports on things that are, well, newsworthy. It's worth noting that, according to the chart, COVID deaths were 2% of the deaths, but 5% of the reporting. It's almost like there was something worth reporting on at the time!

News media sucks in lots of ways, but "death-related reporting doesn't accurately reflect causes of deaths" is not one of them.

This is why I always tell people to follow the data, not the headlines

Media optimizes for clicks and emotional reactions. Reality optimizes for... reality

The gap between what we THINK kills people and what ACTUALLY kills people explains so much about how we allocate resources, funding, and attention as a society

Heart disease quietly takes out more people than anything on the front page, but it does not generate engagement so it stays invisible

@benroyce
In one specific and very real case that I know personally, killing Grandpa.
Which also led to a spiral in Grandma, and her death a year later.

@PizzaDemon @infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@mloxton @PizzaDemon @infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

...and guessing there will be very similar charts here in Europe and many other parts of the world. This problem of hyperdistorted coverage is not at all confined to America.

I also want to pause to observe, once again, how absolutely fucking insane it was that instead of masking up, avoiding crowds, and sticking to a sanitary regime, many of these people rushed out to buy guns instead. Because in their folklore, the biggest danger wasn't a disease, but brown people coming to steal their stash of jerky and bourbon

@benroyce @PizzaDemon @infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@Trifolium nope--you are missing the point. @infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata @franceinfo
Peut-on avoir la même analyse en France. Media publique versus Bolloré group. #FranceInfo

@SnowyCA @infobeautiful @ourworldindata

Pray tell then what you think is the point.

@benroyce @admin @PizzaDemon @infobeautiful @ourworldindata also a high sodium diet is a strong stroke risk, and guess what else they pump into our food?

@Wyatt_H_Knott @admin @PizzaDemon @infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@Trifolium What reason? Sensationalism? Terror and murder go on all over the world, the reporting of it is entirely political. While stroke risk, which is a HUGE problem, and is EASY to fix, gets NOTHING.

Stop talking and start thinking that you might be part of the problem.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@Trifolium
The point is this:
There was a time when the media gave us facts not sensationalism...I'm old enough to remember those days.

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata

@infobeautiful @ourworldindata Suicide goes up with newspaper coverage so Nytimes can be added to the list of causes of death.

@benroyce @admin @PizzaDemon @infobeautiful @ourworldindata strokes are due to blood clots forming and migrating to the brain where the circulatory system becomes to small to pass them so the parts of the brain where the obstruction occurs are starved of oxygen.
Yes strokes occur more commonly in people with high blood pressure but not exclusively.

"High blood pressure is the biggest single risk factor for stroke. It plays a part in about half of all strokes."

https://www.stroke.org.uk/stroke/managing-risk/high-blood-pressure