Dicing with Death (Elements in the Problems of God)

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical statistics and public health data have become staples of newsfeeds worldwide, with infection rates, deaths, case fatality and the mysterious R figure featuring regularly. However, we don't all have the statistical background needed to translate this information into knowledge. In this lively account, Stephen Senn explains these statistical phenomena and demonstrates how statistics is essential to making rational decisions about medical care. The second edition has been thoroughly updated to cover developments of the last two decades and includes a new chapter on medical statistical challenges of COVID-19, along with additional material on infectious disease modelling and representation of women in clinical trials. Senn entertains with anecdotes, puzzles and paradoxes, while tackling big themes including: clinical trials and the development of medicines, life tables, vaccines and their risks or lack of them, smoking and lung cancer, and even the power of prayer.

Stephen Senn has worked as a statistician and as an academic in Switzerland, Scotland, England and Luxembourg. He is the author of Statistical Issues in Drug Development (1997, 2007, 2021) and Cross-over Trials in Clinical Research (1993, 2002). He was awarded the Bradford Hill Medal of the Royal Statistical Society in 2009 and holds honorary chairs at the University of Sheffield and at the University of Edinburgh.