Even relatively well-informed people tend to think that homeopathy might be quirky and useless but, so what, it cannot do any harm. This is perhaps true for the homeopathic remedies but it does certainly not apply to the homeopaths. As soon as there is a public health problem, homeopaths claim that their approach offers a solution – never mind the evidence to the contrary. Just look at what they presently try to sell us in terms of cold and flu treatments!
The often criminal fight of homeopaths against public health is nowhere clearer than with their never-ending propaganda against the most successful public health measure in the history of medicine, immunisation. Some professional organisations of homeopathy have issued politically correct statements about this and thus feel they are out of the firing line. But, as far as I can see, most homeopaths are against vaccinations. Their arguments are wilfully misguided; here are just a few examples:
- It is well known that measles is an important development milestone in the life and maturing processes in children. Why would anybody want to stop or delay the maturation processes of children and of their immune systems?
- Homoeopathy offers an option for disease prevention and cure. There is scientific evidence in favour of homoeopathy for prevention of diseases.
- Seek out homeopathic, osteopathic, naturopathic, or Chinese medical constitutional treatment to boost your child’s immune system and help them be as healthy as they can be.
- If your children do get sick, use homeopathy to help their immune system get over it. Homeopathy is very effective in epidemics of acute illness. Either see a homeopath, buy a book on homeopathic acute care, or take a class on acute homeopathic prescribing.
- It is possible to prevent post-vaccination damage by giving the homeopathic dilution of the vaccine shortly before and after the vaccination in the C200 dilution.
- there are many recorded cases of people making dramatic recoveries with homeopathic medicines following a bad reaction to a vaccination. Expert advice from a registered homeopath is usually required.
- As you would keep your children away from toxic chemicals in the environment as much as possible, inform yourself about the toxicity of the solutions that are being injected into their bloodstream. It’s up to you to find the information: no one loves your children the way you do.
If you think I cherry-picked these quotes, you are mistaken. I simply used the citations as they appeared on my computer screen after a simple Google search. You might try this yourself because there are hundreds, if not thousands more to be discovered.
A typical and interesting example of a homeopathic anti-vaccinationist is Oksana Frolov, D.Hom. graduate of Saint Petersburg, Russia, I.P.Pavlov State Medical University, General Medicine, and graduate of Los Angeles School of Homeopathy. She states that, although I do hold a medical degree, I am not a licensed medical health provider in the United States. As a homeopathic practitioner, I will provide you with the treatment which is alternative or complementary to healing arts that are licensed by the State of California. On her blog, she provides detailed advice for people who might be uncertain whether to vaccinate their children: immunisation… can cause some very serious side effects including permanent brain damage, epilepsy, autism, and mental retardation. With so many vaccinations being required, doctors often have to administer several shots at a time, which can often result in a disaster. Vaccines, along with the elements that are supposed to create the antibodies, also contain mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, animal tissue, animal blood, human cell from aborted babies, potatoes, yeast, lactose, phenol, antibiotics and unrelated species of germs that inadvertently get into the vaccines. Do you really want all this to be injected into your child just to prevent him or her from having a chicken pox? Vaccines are said to work by stimulating the body to produce antibodies, which are supposed to protect us from an invasion of harmful germs. Childhood diseases, such as measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox, affect the immune system in a way that makes most people immune to them for the rest of their lives. Vaccinations, on the other hand, create an artificial immunity that wears off and allows the person to catch the disease later in life….
Homeopathy has proved to be very effective in treatment of childhood diseases, as well as other infections. From its earliest days, homeopathy has been able to treat epidemic disease, such as cholera, typhus, yellow fever, and diphtheria, with a substantial rate of success, when compared to conventional treatments.
Doctors who practice homeopathy usually claim that only non-medically qualified homeopaths hold such deranged views. Dr Frolov shows us that this assumption is clearly not true. In my experience, most homeopaths, medical or not, advise their patients against immunizations or are at least very cagey about this subject in order to raise doubts in concerned parents. Professional organisations of homeopaths usually hide behind some powerless statement in favour of informed choice; yet they must be well-aware that many of their members fail to abide by it. And what do they do about it? Nothing!
Yes, I am afraid the fight of many homeopaths against public health is active, incessant and often criminal. Of course, they do not for one second believe that they are doing anything wrong; on the contrary, they are convinced of their good intentions. As Bert Brecht once wrote, THE OPPOSITE OF GOOD IS NOT EVIL, BUT GOOD INTENTIONS.
23 Responses to Homeopaths’ often criminal fight against public health
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Oh dear! The first two bullet points say it all, the second offering to do the very thing that the first decries. This is typical of a lot of CAM, where a minimal amount of investigation reveals tenets that are mutually contradictory.
The bio of Oksana Frolov, MD from St Petersburg and then moved to LA to become homeopath, reminds me of this dialogue from The Leningrad Cowboys:
Siberian Svengali: [after audition] Bullshit.
Igor: How come?
Siberian Svengali: No commercial potential. Go to America. They’ll put up with anything there…
I have just found this abstract of 2007:”Medical quackery is rampant in Nigeria; Culprits cut across the whole strata of medical and health practitioners. The so called alternative/natural health practice has particularly assumed great popularity lately and the Federal Government seems to turn the other way in spite of their unsubstantiated, largely placebo ‘Cures’. Homeopathy, in particular, is a medical quackery per excellence and should be banned. Law Enforcement Agents, Medical Practice Licensing Board and other Health Professions Licensing Boards, Nigeria Medical Association and other Health Profession Associations should take this problem seriously. Legislations should be made where they have not been made and enforced where they have been made and various professional bodies should not hesitate to sanction their erring members who deviate from acceptable practice” [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18080586]. If Nigerian doctors protest in this outspoken way, why do we see so little objection to quackery in Europe or the US?
Doctors are generally too busy doing their job, and if they do speak out against quackery the quacks exploit it by claiming “turf war”. This is not new: Wilk v. American Medical Association put a lot of doctors off the idea of actively opposing even the most egregious charlatans.
It needs a determined effort by TV doctors and other educators, to show people why the claims of quacks are deceitful. What it does not need is coverage like today’s entirely credulous interview with the parent of one of Burzynski’s victims. He doesn’t realise he was scammed, and cognitive dissonance means that not only is it unlikely that he will become aware, but it would probably be cruel to make him so. Quacks are incredibly adept at exploiting the belief of their victims.
More grandiose delusions endangering public health:
http://www.homeopathyforhealthinafrica.org/
Time for WHO to step in ?
It’s cheaper for the CAM lobby to send sugar pills to African countries than to get real medicine there. This is precisely the argument that some bean counters are using re the British NHS – use the cheap stuff regardless of whether it works. So we should be worrying about whether our own GPs will be forced to give us homeopathy rather than medicines soon.
yes, of course.
by this ‘logic’, the best is always doing nothing at all because it is entirely free.
The people at something called “National Center for Homeopathy” Have been flaunting in several recent Facebook statuses exciting citations about homeopathic victories in the great influenza pandemic of 1918.
Examples:
And
Homeopaths in my corner of the world are tearful with joy over these fantastic revelations, which finally put an end to all doubt.
Too bad shaken water doesn’t work on flu nowadays 😉
Anyone know of a good analysis of these stories? I don’t seem to find much on the net myself. I guess they are not only attributable to a an overmortality introduced by the murderous malpractice of the physicians of that era?
To avoid misunderstanding, can you please use “…..” when quoting? That way it will be easier to understand your message here!
It is true that Homeopathy exists as a threat to overseas health services, but I fear that we are also in danger here. A political party with a good chace of forming a future coalition wants it.
UKIP wants to force taxpayers to pay for health measures that don’t work. Quote “UKIP will continue to support homeopathy through the NHS”. (A Healthcare Policy for an Independent Britain, Policy Statement March 2010, UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY) http://www.ukip.org/media/pdf/UKIPmanifesto1304a.pdf
(Note: UKIP appears to be hiding the evidence of its criminal plots by removing access to documents from its website.)
The brains behind this is UKIP Deputy Leader Lord Monkton, who calls himself a member of the House of Lords (he isn’t http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2011/july/letter-to-viscount-monckton/). He doesn’t believe in Climate Change (and tells sufferers from Katerina, Sandy and the Oaklahoma tornadoes that this is nothing unexpected); his disbelief is not from his academic study but because God wouldn’t let His chosen people suffer. (In passing, he thinks evolution is also wrong, as do his American creationist sidekicks). He further thinks magic pills from his own pharmaceutical company can cure AIDS, herpes, multiple sclerosis and Graves! Hence UKIP is – IIRC – the only party that would make taxpayers pay for health measures that don’t work.
http://www.ukip.org/content/latest-news/1364-lord-monckton-on-climate-change (from that bastion of sense RT)
Farage doesn’t seem to be a believer; he had real medicine after back operations following his plane crash. It wasn’t like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0 (Mitchell and Webb)
his brother is Jonathan Monckton who, in 1990, was appointed as director of the Research Council for Complementary Medicine; that tells you a lot, doesn’t it?
Thanks for bringing the policies of UKIP to our attention. It certainly is not the policy which usually gets attentio from the mainstream media. I don’t know anything about Lord Monkton but will be looking to find out more – is he simply an opportunist who thinks this is a good way to maximuse profits? By the way, what is the name of his company and products – it would be useful to know what to avoid. Politicians generally seem woefully ignorant of anything related to healthcare, and don’t seem to want to find out anything either.
Lord Monckton appears to b e a director of a comapny called Resurrexi Ltd which is registered in Pitlochry, Scotland, and which according to Companies House is a dormant company. Is this the company which is involved in the apparently amazing cures?
one of the most curious HP- remedies – available short after 9/11
Bio-Organism Prophylactics Kit
Kit Contents
Cholera-30c…intestinal bacteria
Diptherinum-30c…Diptheria
Anthrax 30c…burning/swell/gangrene/lungs
Bubonic Plague-30c…Plague
Poison gas-30c…sinus/lungs
Ebola-30c…virus
Dengue Fever-30c…Fever
Meningitis-30c…bacteria/infection
Staphlococcus-30c…staph or other infection
Variolinum-30c…Small pox
Directions…
For epidemics: use the cap of the bottle, place 1 pellet on the tongue and allow to dissolve before eating or drinking, 1x/day.
As a prophylactic, place 1 pellet on tongue and take 1x/week for 3 weeks, then stop. Repeat if epidemic arises. Do Not touch remedies with hands, use lid of vial Stop if any unusual symptoms arise.
You can buy it for only 39 US$ – of course the kit has to be paid before delivery.
Source http://www.karinya.com/dancu2.htm
Let me see if I have this straight . . .
In most places, homeopathy isn’t illegal – or even regulated – so people can, and do, make all sorts of outrageous claims about it. (After all, profit seeking isn’t illegal either; in fact, it’s practically a holy calling.) Also, some of the people who publicly support homeopathy are clearly unhinged. Finally, homeopathic treatments cannot be tested using accepted methods for testing conventional medicines. Therefore, homeopathy is totally bogus.
Is that about right?
k.Lee said
No. It’s not the regulation or legality of it – they are irrelevant. There are many other consumer protection rules, regulations and laws that homeopaths have to abide by. Unfortunately, many don’t.
Wrong. Homeopathic treatments can – and are – tested using robust methods. The best show no effect over placebo; therefore homeopathy is bogus.
I have checked UKIP web site. Monckton is not mentioned. He does not appear to be ‘Deputy Chairman’.
That is Neil Hamilton!
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I would like this thread to be as accurate as possible.
According to Wikipedia, Monckton was UKIP’s Deputy Leader for a few months in 2010 and was their Scottish President from January to November this year, and has been involved with them in previous years. However, as you say, he does not appear to be their Deputy Chairman.
Sorry – events seem to have overtaken me.
I did the reaearch behind my posting in mid-November 2013, being, at the time, most interested in how climate change influenced political policy. When I posted about homeopathy, I quickly checked each link; all worked except for the 2010 manifesto, which I took to be temporary. I did get there by searching for “Monkton homeopathy” within the UKIP site. At the time, Monkton was described as chairman for UKIP Scotland and deputy leader of the party.
Now, correctly as posted, there is no mention of Monkton – and no search facility on the web-site to find him either.
It appears that Monkton and Farage have had a row, and Monkton has been airbrushed out of UKIP history, just like Trotsky or Kim’s uncle.
See http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/ukip-wiped-out-north-of-the-border-after-its-scots-leader-is-sacked.2283305 or http://liberalengland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/there-isnt-any-ukip-in-scotland-its.html
Hello – Can you please tell me why you bother to rant and rave such negativity about homeopathy or anything else for that matter. It cant be healthy focussing so negatively on anything.
If there were no validity to it wouldn’t it just die a natural death – and yet it persists. Why ?
If it were just placebo – why dont conventional medicines act as placebos and cure everything. Conventional drugs should have a better placebo effect really since they actually do something and could also act as a placebo.
So why then do people turn to something else when they are not satisfied or getting better with the medical treatment they may be receiving.
And how do people just suddenly get well on placebo when their medical treatment failed ?
Quite politely – fuck you – you lot are quite possibly stopping someone from getting the help they may need in whatever shape or form whether it be homeopathy or another alternative.
Conventional medicine is not the be all and end all – god forbid you have the threat of another form of health treatment just around the corner taking away your income.
An unusual application of en dashes. An alternative to punctuation, perhaps?