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.

‘The COVID pandemic has shown the power of statistics to save millions of lives by revealing ‘what works’. Yet statistical methods have a deeply controversial history, and provoke sometimes bitter debate to this day. Professor Stephen Senn is renowned for his brilliant insights on the subject, and in Dicing with Death he offers us a series of fascinating journeys through its vast and varied landscape.’

Robert Matthews - Visiting Professor Aston University and author of Chancing It: The Laws of Chance and How They Can Work for You