When people announce the results of statistical modelling as fact (e.g. "vaccines save X number of lives per annum", for example) I find it somewhat disturbing and disingenuous, because statistical modelling IS NOT AND CAN NEVER BE FACT! It is just a form of informed guess, and it's accuracy depends on many things often not made public by the people that collect the data and those who analyse it. After all, models never include all the variables of the real world and so can never accurately reflect a truly natural, complex system. Only simple systems with few variables can be accurately modeled in the way that many treat far more complex subjects.
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