Cluster sampling is a very standard biostatistical technique that has been used in numerous contexts, not just death counts -- vaccination percentage estimates, estimated prevalence of an infection, etc. Most of the people attacking the study seem to have no public health training at all.  I'd be happy to send people other literature that either uses these techniques or explains them further. As for the best riposte to the (right-wing and faux-contrarian) attacks on the Lancet study, I would recommend these two blogs written pseudonymously by experts in the field: <a href="http://healthvsmedicine.blogspot.com/2006/10/old-death-in-new-iraq.html">http://healthvsmedicine.blogspot.com/2006/10/old-death-in-new-iraq.html</a> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2006/10/the_lancet_paper_on_the_iraq_w.php#more">http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2006/10/the_lancet_paper_on_the_iraq_w.php#more</a> <div>On 10/12/06, Michael Pugliese <<a href="mailto:michael.098762001@gmail.com">michael.098762001@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Questions about this survey and the previous by Lancet, <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2108887/">http://www.slate.com/id/2108887/</a> <a href="http://www.casi.org.uk/analysis/2004/msg00477.html">http://www.casi.org.uk/analysis/2004/msg00477.html </a> <a href="http://burkeophilia.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-report-on-deaths-in-iraq-new-study.html">http://burkeophilia.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-report-on-deaths-in-iraq-new-study.html</a>   Iraq Body Count vs. MediaLens, <a href="http://www.iraqbodycount.org/editorial/defended/2.1.php">http://www.iraqbodycount.org/editorial/defended/2.1.php</a>   Questions about economist Marc Herald's study of Afghan casualties, <a href="http://www.cursor.org/stories/noncounters.htm"> http://www.cursor.org/stories/noncounters.htm</a> . William M. Arkin, "Civilian Casualties and the Air War," Washington Post [October 21, 2001].(Arkin has worked for Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch and the leftist think tank IPS) <a href="http://www.comw.org/pda/0201oef.html">http://www.comw.org/pda/0201oef.html</a> On 10/12/06, Doug Henwood <<a href="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com">dhenwood@panix.com</a>> wrote: > The Lancet has posted the study showing 650,000 excess deaths as a > result of the U.S. invasion: <<a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/">http://www.thelancet.com/journals/</a> > lancet/article/PIIS0140673606694919/fulltext>. > > I await Michael Pugliese's effort to discredit this methodologically > orthodox study, published in one of the world's leading medical > journals. > > Doug > ___________________________________ > <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk"> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</a> > -- Michael Pugliese ___________________________________ <a href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk </a> </blockquote></div>