Ben highlights an astonishingly important misuse of statistics around survival rates in early births. As he says, the figure being quoted has no scientific backup. It suggests we should do further research to see if specialist units are that better. But currently, given the source of the data and the affiliation of the source, one must be very suspicious.
In related items, I saw a brief bit of the BBC News this morning on Autism. The presenterette casually chucked in reference to the MMR vaccine link. The mother said (twice) “My son did not have MMR, because he had reactions to other vaccines”. Even so, the presenterette didn’t leave it. This is shoddy reporting; tantamount to a tabloid. But that’s what the Beeb has become on-screen. I think their on-line stuff is more reasoned, or maybe I just read it in a better state of mind.