Others have already addressed the accuracy of medical reporting in the mainstream media, so I'll address the issue of medical error.
I'm not going to argue with Wikipedia's figures since the estimates are all over the maps. I am going to point out that unless the study is about medical error, error is really irrelevant to the topic of the essay. Y'see the vast majority of medical error is traceable to one of two things: overextended medical personnel (e.g. doctors working excessively long shifts, nursing staff inadequate to cover the floor), and communication failures (e.g. misdispensed meds due to doctors' poor handwriting). Neither of these really has anything to with most health studies.
They do generally have simple fixes. (Note: simple doesn't necessarily mean easy.) As an example, some hospitals have implemented systems where the doctor types the prescription into an automated system which then dispenses the meds. While this doesn't eliminate error, it has reduced it drastically. Other fixes included putting doctors on shorter shifts so they can get sleep, and using automated diagnostic tools where accurate diagnosis can be reduced to a few factors.
You can find some good information on medical error in the book Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande.
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