How does Big Pharma convince nearly all doctors and patients that everyone must take a statin medication?
First, they scare the public into believing that if you don’t, you’ll have a heart attack.
Next, they manipulate statistics to convince everyone that statins are beneficial.
When I was applying to medical school, one of the prerequisites was a course in statistics. Once enrolled in medical school, we were never again taught statistics.
So you’d think that doctors would be able to understand statistics and how they are applied and utilized in medical research.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true — nearly all doctors fail to understand basic statistical principles.
The failure to understand these principles allows Big Pharma to manipulate statistics in medical research to make a mediocre drug or therapy appear better than it truly is.
When medical students come to my office, I ask them to look over a certain research article I have, and tell me if the drug described in the article was shown to be beneficial.
I also ask them to tell me how many people need to take the drug in order for there to be a benefit.
I’ve been asking students to evaluate that article for more than 20 years. During that time, one student (out of hundreds) was able to answer quickly and accurately.
Everyone else had to take the article home to figure out the answers.
If statistics were being taught correctly in medical school, my task for these students would be easy — it should be answered in a minute or so.
But because statistics are taught so poorly in medical schools, doctors have no idea how to properly evaluate medical research.
And if they can’t evaluate such studies, they won’t know if a particular therapy is beneficial for patients.
Doctors who don’t understand statistics might as well flip a coin to decide whether or not to use a therapy.