H
Harry Hope
Guest
From The St. Petersburg Times, 11/1/07:
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/01/Worldandnation/Giuliani_botches_canc.shtml
Giuliani botches cancer stat
In criticizing "socialized medicine", he gets his numbers wrong.
By LISA GREENE and MELISSA AUGUST, Times Staff Writers
Rudy Giuliani has made his fight with prostate cancer part of his
campaign for president.
But critics say he's using misleading data to bash Democratic
proposals for health care reform.
Giuliani, who was treated for prostate cancer, says he's lucky to have
had the disease in the United States.
"I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving
prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United
States: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in
England: only 44 percent under socialized medicine," Giuliani says in
a new campaign ad.
Giuliani's campaign defended those numbers Wednesday, which it got
from a quarterly magazine published by a conservative think tank.
But the figures aren't accurate.
National survival rates show a gap between the two countries, but it's
not nearly as large as Giuliani says it is.
And experts say the two figures can't be compared anyway because of
differences in how the rates are measured.
The ad caused a stir in medical circles after the Commonwealth Fund,
the group that did the research, issued a statement condemning the
misuse of its numbers.
"I find it personally distasteful to have Mr. Giuliani exploiting
cancer patients to make a political statement," said Andrew Vickers,
associate attending research methodologist at New York's Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
_________________________________________________
heh heh
Harry
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/11/01/Worldandnation/Giuliani_botches_canc.shtml
Giuliani botches cancer stat
In criticizing "socialized medicine", he gets his numbers wrong.
By LISA GREENE and MELISSA AUGUST, Times Staff Writers
Rudy Giuliani has made his fight with prostate cancer part of his
campaign for president.
But critics say he's using misleading data to bash Democratic
proposals for health care reform.
Giuliani, who was treated for prostate cancer, says he's lucky to have
had the disease in the United States.
"I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving
prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United
States: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in
England: only 44 percent under socialized medicine," Giuliani says in
a new campaign ad.
Giuliani's campaign defended those numbers Wednesday, which it got
from a quarterly magazine published by a conservative think tank.
But the figures aren't accurate.
National survival rates show a gap between the two countries, but it's
not nearly as large as Giuliani says it is.
And experts say the two figures can't be compared anyway because of
differences in how the rates are measured.
The ad caused a stir in medical circles after the Commonwealth Fund,
the group that did the research, issued a statement condemning the
misuse of its numbers.
"I find it personally distasteful to have Mr. Giuliani exploiting
cancer patients to make a political statement," said Andrew Vickers,
associate attending research methodologist at New York's Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
_________________________________________________
heh heh
Harry