Chan School of Public Health focused on one particular number: 4,645 “excess deaths” from Sept. 20 through Dec. 31, 2017. Here’s a widely cited tweet that attempted to put the number in perspective:Harvard report says 4645 people died in Puerto Rico as a result of Hurricane Maria. In effect, the researchers took one number – 15 deaths identified from a survey of 3,299 households – and extrapolated that to come up with 4,645 deaths across the island. In response to questions, the researchers posted a document that includes this question: Does your study say that 4,645 died? But it’s an egregious example of false precision to cite the “4,645” number without explaining how fuzzy the number really is.

Source: Washington Post June 01, 2018 21:35 UTC