Archive:Hype metrics
(Redirected from Hype metrics)
Some fears get attention that's out of proportion to the associated risk. Please use this wiki to keep track of how overblown media-pushed a given risk is.
The metric I'll use is the Google Hits per Annual Fatality (GHAF). To calculate the GHAF for a certain risk, divide the number of Google hits a term finds by its annual fatality rate.
Between 1 and 10
Between 10 and 100
- Cancer in the United States (GHAF = 94, 53 600 000 hits [3] per 570 280 deaths: page 1 of [4], .pdf warning: 6 MB)
Between 100 and 1 000
Between 1 000 and 10 000
- Choking game in US (GHAF = 1 402 , 115 000 hits [5] per 82 fatalities in the last years [6] for more.
- Salmonellosis from raw eggs (GHAF = 4 200 , 294 000 hits [7] per 70 annual fatalities [8]. See my blog entry for more.
- West Nile Virus in the United States (GHAF = 5 500, 911 000 hits [9] per 165 annual deaths [10])
Between 10 000 and 100 000
- Africanized Bees in the United States ( = 28 000; 97 000 Google hits [11] per 3.5 annual fatalities [12].)
- vCJD, the human disease from eating a mad cow, worldwide (GHAF = 81 000, 1 400 000 hits [13] for 139 cases over 8 years [14] - see my blog entry for an editorial[15])
Between 100 000 and 1 000 000
- School shooting deaths, United States (GHAF = 108 857; 762 000 Google hits [16] per 7 annual deaths [17](including Virginia Tech, excluding non-shooting fatalities and not including the shooter, if killed)
- Terror, worldwide (GHAF = 111 386; 86 300 000 Google hits [18] per 774 annual deaths (1995-2003) [19].
- 2009 Virus H1N1 outbreak (swine flu), Worldwide (GHAF = 142 857; 12 000 000 Google hits [20] per 84 annual deaths [21], 25 May 2009.
- Alligator Attacks in the United States (GHAF = 293 000, 461 000 hits [22] per 1.57 annual deaths [23] - possibly the fatality rate is underestimated by this list)