Why do medical tests always have error rates?

johndcook.com

2 pointsalexmolas2 comments

> Most people implicitly assume medical tests are infallible. If they test positive for X, they assume they have X.

Reaction I: It's not just medical tests that have error rates.

Reaction II: Most of the reason for people implicitly assuming is that they were explicitly "educated" by Hollywood.

Our internal makeup is not very cut and dried. We're a big ball of wibbly wobbly organic stuff.