Letter to the editor: Weigh the risks, make your choices

Common sense is now an uncommon virtue. In statistics it is important to understand that figures can lie and liars can figure. Statisticians can have a bias, and the numbers may be unreliable and not relevant.

Political polls predicted Thomas Dewey would win the 1948 presidential election. Most polls were done telephonically. Who owned telephones in 1948? Mostly upper- to middle-class people (i.e., Republicans).

Public officials, many unelected, are making decisions on science they do not know rather than science they do know. Call it mathematical modeling, decision theory, regression analysis or algorithms. All the praise and the glory is to be given to science.

The inalienable rights enumerated in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights conflict with the science and is anathema to the acquisition of power in the name of “public safety”.

Get in an automobile, bus, train or airplane, and there is a statistical probability — remote as it is — you may not arrive safely at your intended destination. Eat raw fish or an egg sandwich — you risk food poisoning. You weigh the risks, make a choice and then get on with life.

We the people are aware of risks. If some are ill, have an underlying medical condition, elderly or high risk, it would be prudent to avoid or take preventive measures.

The point is: We the people should make the choice — not some flawed apparatchnik, elected or not — infringing on our God-given liberties.

Your choice is clear: The risks of freedom or a secure slavery.

David A. Scandrol

Lower Burrell