Bad Data, and Good Data Turned Bad

     The internet is a great place and brings information to everyone around the globe, to include wrong information. Most people tend to believe in what their parents and friends tell them to be true without further questioning. You have a friend that repost an article on Facebook, you see the headline and nothing else, you don't question it or check its validity, you trust that your friends read it and know whats going on.

     Influenza kills between 12,000 and 56,000 people per year in the United States and as of 2018 there is no fool-proof way to 100% prevent contracting it. There are flu vaccines that can help prevent contracting the flu, but they don't work all the time, which most Americans know to be true. In current years, there has been rumors (bad data) floating around that flu vaccines cause mental deficits such as autism. You would think that most people would know this to be untrue just by the sound of it or just knowing basic information, but thats giving too much credit to the public. But don't blame the public, blame the people who give the public information, such as Donald J. Trump; the current leader of our free country.

 

     Donald Trump tweeted this before he was elected president in 2016 and it has over 13,000 retweets. Besides that fact that President Trump is not a doctor and has probably never opened a medical textbook in his life, people full-heartedly believe in him and trust him. This is an example of bad data, there are no facts or citations, no accredited people backing it up, terrible grammar, and it is located on a website that is 110% opinion. Don't get me wrong, I love twitter just as much as the next millennial but it is not a good place to get information on important issues that are causing people to die. 

     A more proper place to gain knowledge and information on a medical issue would be your doctor (not web m.d.), CDC website, WHO website, anywhere that is accredited. The power of unlimited knowledge is right before each and every one of us but we need to use it properly and responsibly, don't believe everything your friends, parents, or colleagues tell you and definitely don't believe everything you read on the internet.

     These are two more examples of good and bad graphs. If you cannot accurately read the information provided on a graph or if the data isn't added up correctly, chances are you are looking at a bad graph. If you feel like you are looking at a bad graph, take the time to find a new, better, more accurate graph that you can cite. These graphs aren't for anything specific, but they are good representations of what to look for.

 Bad Data Graph

image 1 - https://davidbridge.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/looking-for-suspicious-data/

Good Data Graph

image 2 -https://people.uwec.edu/ivogeler/w111/3-proj1.htm

Credible websites:

http://www.who.int/en/

https://www.cdc.gov