Michael Perkins

The following headline appeared on Telegraph.co.uk today:


Similar stories were carried by other British media outlets.

The Telegraph reports that:

The virus has increased fourfold in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside, the areas of Britain where Facebook is most popular, because it has given people a new way to meet multiple partners for casual sexual encounters.

Professor Peter Kelly, director of public health in Teesside, said staff had found a link between social networking sites and the rise in cases, especially among young women. 

This conclusion appears to be based on the fact that the reported cases of syphilis in Teesdale last year rose fourfold to 30. And what is the connection with Facebook? The Telegraph reports that:

Research has shown that young people in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside were 25 per cent more likely to log onto social networking sites than those in the rest of Britain. 

So an increase to 30 total reported cases of syphilis in an area of Britain that is know to use social networking sites more heavily than the rest of Britain constitutes evidence that "Facebook is linked to a rise in syphilis."

It sounds like there's an opportunity here for the UK Statistics Authority!

It's easy to make fun of this, but the sad fact is that many people will read it and believe it.