Scary news stories that didn’t live up to the hype, in one timeline

Sometimes the media and public give too much attention to health scares that don't turn out to be very deadly, all while ignoring more common problems — obesity, car wrecks, alcohol abuse, and the flu — that claim hundreds of thousands of lives a year.

This chart from Information Is Beautiful used the number of searches on Google to track the attention going to some of those exaggerated scares, ranging from killer wasps to violent video games to the nonexistent connection between vaccines and autism:

(Information Is Beautiful)

Some of the choices might seem debatable — killer wasps and the swine flu still killed tens of thousands worldwide, for example. But context matters, as Information Is Beautiful explained: "While Swine Flu is the cause of at least 18,000 deaths worldwide (source), seasonal flu has killed an estimated 375,000 in the same period (source)."

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via