Well, when you put it that way….
It is true that statistics can be used to reach almost any desired effect depending on the context of their use. Conceding this fact, the following numbers taken from a brief article in the April, 2005, edition of Popular Science is numbing:
100 Percent increase in risk of heart attack and stroke found in a 2004 Merck-sponsored study of 2,586 patients taking the painkiller Vioxx (MD Anderson Cancer Center)
88,000 Estimated cases of serious coronary heart disease in the
140,000U.S. caused by Vioxx since its launch in 1999, according to an FDA study
1.2 million Number of Americans with Vioxx prescriptions when it was voluntarily recalled last September (NDC Health)
100,000 Number of patients who switched from Vioxx to Celebrex, a prescription painkiller in the same class, the week after the recall (Verispan)
150 Percent increase in risk of heart attack and stroke in a National Cancer Institute study of 2,000-plus Celebrex patients last December
0 Percent more effective Vioxx and Celebrex are at relieving pain compared with traditional pain relievers such as aspirin and ibuprofen (Stanford University Medical Center)
100,000 Estimated number of Americans who die every year because of adverse reactions to prescription drugs (University of Toronto)