Had one of my "What the bloody hell??" moments on Saturday. These are times when I scan a line in the paper, do a double-take, read it again more carefully and exclaim "What the bloody hell??" in a voice loud enough to attract worried looks from strangers. The latest WTBH came from the case of Professor Roy Meadow, reinstate by a High Court ruling after being struck off by the GMC. Meadow had given erroneous testimony which led to the wrongful conviction of Sally Clark for the murder of her two babies. He claimed that the chances of two cot deaths in one family are 1 in 73 million. They are in fact closer to 1 in 77.
"What the..." etc. The High Court judge claimed that statistical evidence can be difficult to interpret. Well, yes, it's a tricky beast. Being out by nearly 73 million, though, is frankly quite an alarming error. And it may be true that Meadow is overall an excellent paediatrician. I would still like him to have to sit a basic maths test before being allowed to, say, take a baby's temperature ever again. Otherwise he'll be hospitalising the unfortunate children believing they have the same temperature as an exploding supernova.
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