Do you believe in percentages and numbers??

Did you know that there are 131 Cdns. infected with H1N1(Swine Flu). Did you know if you drink coffee everyday it will lower your risk for cancer to only 30%. Did you also know that 65% of Canadians own a cellphone. The point I'm trying to get across is that we hear so much about percentages/numbers in the news that we actually believe what they say. Have you ever questioned how they come to these results or how they were polled? Sometimes it's all about marketing and what marketers want you to think. If a dentist promotes a toothpaste by stating "1 in 4 dentist recommend this toothpaste", it will persuade you to use it right? But we still have no proof these comments are "True". The news and media report like this everyday. A good example is the recent news of Swine flu. Every media report has a different tally on reported cases. In Toronto news, one outlet reports 120 cases of Swine flu, while another media outlet will state a different number. Who do you believe? Sometimes you really need to be careful and aware of the facts and figures that are promoted. A recent poll or statistics can only be use as an analytics or a way to see trends or patterns. Hopefully people can understand this and make proper judgements on their own because I know for a fact that I'm 85% correct most of the time!