1/ THREAD • Three teens from Wake Forest-Rolesville HS (Class of ’11) were hit with Ewing sarcoma, a bone cancer that strikes only ~200 kids a year in the US. Officials said “coincidence.” Let’s look at why that answer is not good enough.

Meridian Radiopharmaceuticals
https://www.meridianradiopharmaceuticals.com/

2/ Rarity check: 200 cases ÷ 56 million US kids 0-19 ≈ 1 in 280 000. A class of ~400 should expect 0.0014 cases. Pulling three? Back-of-napkin puts the odds in the 1-in-billions range. I know this is oversimplified - statisticians / actuaries please weigh-in.

5/ Translation: The numbers did not pass a rigid p < 0.05 test, so officials wrote it off. Even the state epidemiologist called the situation “unusual” and admitted flaws in the process. Cancer registry data were arriving more than six months late.

4/ In 2013 a WRAL exposé (linked at end of thread) forced action. DHHS finally opened a formal probe, adding a fourth local case from 2009. The December 2013 report said no environmental link, no statistical excess, not a cluster. Case closed.

3/ Parents flagged the pattern to NC health officials in 2011. The state promised a review but never told the CDC and never sent its findings to the families. They waited in silence while their kids fought chemo.