Archive for category Public Health
Evidence Check Evidence Check (or; What The Papers Say)
Posted by Mike in 10:23, Government, Homeopathy, Pseudomedicine, Public Health on December 7, 2009
Over the last couple of weeks, the Commons Committee on Science and Technology held a couple of their “evidence check” sessions, looking at homeopathy. Sessions such as this are held to examine whether there is evidence to support government policy.
The oral hearings take the form of witnesses with relevant backgrounds being quizzed by committee members. Witnesses for the first of these sessions included the legendary Ben Goldacre, Edzard Ernst from the University of Exeter, and Tracey Brown from the charity Sense About Science. Speakers in favour of homeopathy included Paul Bennett from Boots, Peter Fisher from the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, and Robert Wilson from the British Association of Homeopathic Manufacturers.
The big thing that came out of this hearing, from a rhetorical point of view, was the admission by Paul Bennett that Boots did not believe homeopathy to be effective – but they sell it anyway because of consumer demand. This lead to us here at Merseyside Skeptics drafting An Open Letter to Alliance Boots, calling upon them to withdraw the product. If you haven’t done so already, or even if you have, please check out the letter. Digg it, tweet it, repost it, write about it. Help up make some noise!
Ahem.
The pro-homeopathy witnesses, when challenged, mentioned a number of studies which they claimed supported the idea that homeopathy has strong effects beyond placebo. So I thought I’d look up a few of the studies mentioned and see what those studies actually say.
The Truth About Water?
Posted by Andy in 10:23, Homeopathy, Pseudomedicine, Public Health, Skepticism on September 18, 2009
I was thinking about homeopathy today. Again.
Am I the only one who becomes enraged about this topic? I loved the recent Crispian Jago video, “If Homeopathy Works, I’ll Drink My Own Piss”. It was really funny and pointed an excellent finger at the truth behind homeopathy.
There are a number of examples around that make the truth about homeopathy accessible. Crispian’s film, in which he takes some pure piss diluting, discussing and succussing it through to the very common 30c dilution. At which point he drinks it. Fabulous. He points out and explains the Avogadro point too.
Then there is the now classic Mitchell and Webb video imagining with great comic effect a “Homeopathy A&E”.
What makes these films funny for a Skeptic is that we do actually understand the process well enough to mock it and take delight in that mocking. I will, like Tim Minchin, carve a legend on my most sensitive member with a compass if real evidence emerges of homeopathy working beyond placebo. So taking the piss out of the claims is easy.
But I genuinely think that most people don’t have the faintest idea of what the actual manufacturing process is. I say this because on the three or four occasions when I have explained it to a friend, they are invariably “No. Come on. You’re not serious”. Read the rest of this entry »
WHO vs woo: Homeopathy and the World Health Organization
Posted by Mike in Homeopathy, Pseudomedicine, Public Health on September 2, 2009
The World Health Organization has warned against the use of homeopathy to treat a wide range of diseases, including HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and infant diarrhoea. Their statements came in a response to an open letter from the Voice of Young Science Network, which called upon the WHO to issue a clear statement about the inappropriate use of homeopathy to treat serious disease.
We are calling on the WHO to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhoea, influenza, malaria and HIV. Homeopathy does not protect people from, or treat, these diseases. Those of us working with the most rural and impoverished people of the world already struggle to deliver the medical help that is needed. When homeopathy stands in place of effective treatment, lives are lost.
When the WHO responded, they were both critical of homeopathy and full of praise for the Voice of Young Science and Sense About Science for speaking out on homeopathy. Read the rest of this entry »
Son of God says the flu vaccine will kill your kids
Posted by Mike in Conspiracy Theories, Public Health, vaccination on August 18, 2009
Last week, the British government announced that it would concentrate on immunising vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and health care professionals, against the H1N1 “swine” flu strain, before considering whether to extend the vaccination program across the wider population. Westminster is reported to have contracts in place for 132 million doses of the vaccine, enough to immunise the entire UK population. Whether they use it or not remains to be seen.
Unfortunately, the vaccination program has attracted the attention of Internet crackpot and former son-of-god David Icke, who contends that the swine flu vaccine is a conspiracy by the Illuminati to cull vast portions of the human population.
Oh dear.
Australian Skeptics vs AVN Propaganda
Posted by Marsh in Media, Public Health, Skepticism, vaccination on August 13, 2009
Immunization: Get the Facts (click to enlarge)
Businessman, aviator, and explorer, Dick Smith, has funded an Australian Skeptics’ advertisement to urge parents to access factual information on vaccination, in the wake of the country’s largest Whooping Cough epidemic.
The advertisement, placed in the Thursday, August 6 edition of The Australian newspaper, directly addresses the Australian Vaccination Networks’ stated position of being ‘pro-choice’ on vaccines – when realistically they’re actually very much anti-vaccine.
The AVN is headed up by Meryl Dorey – who says vaccinations are dangerous, who says no one dies of pertussis, who says that it’s better not to vaccinate and who insinuates that doctors only vaccinate children because it’s profitable for them. This, of course, is total bullshit – in fact this year alone three children in Australia have died of pertussis, some too young to vaccinate – such as Dana McCaffrey, the four-week old infant who caught pertussis and died due to vaccination rates in her home town of Lennox Head, New South Wales dropping too low and compromising herd immunity.
The advert from the Australian Skeptics is a great, emotive piece showing how to reach the public with real information – at a time when here in the UK herd immunity has been severely damaged due to the MMR hoaxes, with the most serious outbreak of measles in Wales since the time the MMR vaccine was introduced, there’s a lesson here for us in the UK too.
Well done to the Australian Skeptics and to Dick Smith for speaking out against this dangerous propaganda.
Homeopathy 101: Overdoses and Avogadro
Posted by Marsh in Homeopathy, Pseudomedicine, Public Health, Skeptic 101 on August 5, 2009
Last week, in a forum post on mumsnet.com – a parent’s advice forum – a worried parent left the following concerned question (spelling and grammar as per the original post):
“Just found my labour preparation bottle of caulophyllum 200c Homeopathic remedy open on the floor with several of the little tablets lying next to it. Saw him chewing/sucking a few mins earlier but assumed it was the remains of our sushi. Am not panicking but wondering if anyone can advise if we should expect a level of disturbance/ill effects esp as 200c is such a high dose” – Source: Mumsnet.com
Clearly, the forum user is worried her dear child may be at risk of an overdose on her super-strength, 200c tablets. Of course, an overdose is clearly not possible. Even a homeopath will tell you that! In fact, homeopaths deny the possibility of an overdose because of the fact that homeopathy is ‘non-toxic’ and that ‘if you take fifteen tablets or five tablets (or 100 tablets for that matter) AT ONE TIME it is one dose. You will stimulate your curative response one time‘.
Cool, well that’s put my fears to rest. Except of course, that that’s clearly utter nonsense. Curative response? Non-toxic? One tablet has the same effect as one hundred tablets? Do they really think anyone is going to buy that?!
The real reason why an overdose is impossible is that there’s absolutely, completely and utterly nothing in a homeopathic tablet. It’s just water. The only way to overdose on homeopathy is if you drown.
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