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Burning Man death rates – A short lesson in statistics

179 points · 243 comments · viraj_shah

  1. Aurornis · · focus · HN ↗
    Looking at population-level statistics, even adjusted for age, is useless. Going to burning man requires a level of health, energy, free time (not dealing with health issues), and freedom from chronic illnesses that make traveling to a desert a bad idea.

    Most people at high risk of random death are filtered out before they arrive.

    There are so many better comparisons that could have been chosen. Comparing Burning Man to outdoor music festivals would be so much more accurate.

    1. michaelt · · focus · HN ↗
      I don't necessarily agree.

      Marathons select for people with health, energy etc and put them through a 6+ month cardio training regime. But the 5 hours of a marathon have a greatly elevated rate of cardiac arrest - because the strain of running a marathon more than compensates.

      Personally, I'm quite surprised to learn the week-long desert drug orgy with experimental buildings and art vehicles and 70,000 attendees regularly has no deaths.

      1. grogenaut · · focus · HN ↗
        I would guess marathons select for people trying to push themselves hard, in a short period of training time and for a relatively short period of time. I also wouldn't be surprised if marathon attendance skews upper 40s / low 50s, male, and recently got in shape. That's a bit different than sitting in the desert doing drugs. the risk there would be respiratory distress / fent od is my guess.

        it's a lot easier to get someone out of an opioid od in the field than it is out of cardiac arrest, or at least the treatment protocol is.

      2. Aurornis · · focus · HN ↗
        The comparison for marathons would be other athletic events or sports.
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