A man is caught paying with fake money – gets arrested.
A man sells false insurance policies – gets arrested.
A man sells phoney investments – gets arrested.
A man traffics ‘diamonds’ made of glass – gets arrested.
A man flogs a car that does not work – gets arrested.
A silversmith fakes the hallmarks on jewellery – gets arrested.
A man sells TV sets that are faulty – gets arrested.
A man fakes labels of expensive wines – gets arrested.
A man is caught trafficking fake medicines – gets arrested.
A man is caught printing fake bank notes – gets arrested.
A man insists on changing monopoly money for real money – gets arrested.
A MAN PRESCRIBES ‘MEDICINES’ THAT CONTAIN NO ACTIVE INGREDIENTS – HE IS CALLED A HOMEOPATH.
A PHARMACY SPECIALISES IN MANUFACTURING SUCH ‘MEDICINES’ – THEY ARE GIVEN A ROYAL WARRANT.
45 Responses to This is the shortest post I have ever written
Leave a Reply to James Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
But they do work.
Homeopaths tell us they do.
A homeopath told you only the other day that she’d cured somebody.
Why on earth do you have to keep being so critical?
Oh, by the way- I discovered a new element yesterday.
Your analogies and syllogism are of course exact, meritorious and “unarguably” cogent.
They will be seen as such by the right-minded and be dismissed, misconstrued or ignored by the legions of thick skulled ignoramuses i.e. homeopaths
I suggest that you attend a course in gender equality Edzard.
Don’t you worry, teh ladies can be vicious killer scumbags (and bona-fide heroes) too:
http://edzardernst.com/2018/01/colleen-huber-vs-britt-hermes/
Why, are you suggesting that the post implies women are treated differently? I don’t see any such hint, am I missing something?
yes – what you are missing is obvious: those who ran out of arguments use pseudo-arguments, fallacies or insults.
😀
My previous comment is the shortest comment I have ever written on the professor’s blog. And I mean every character (they are two) I typed 😉
‘I suggest that you attend a course in gender equality Edzard.’
Interesting! I would suggest that ‘He’ in this context is generic meaning ‘He’ and ‘She’. You could say ‘They are called ‘Homeopaths’ but then you would have to alter ‘A Man prescribes..’ to ‘Some people prescribe…’ to finish with ‘They are called…’ So you see it starts getting complicated and unusual English. So if we can accept that ‘Man’ means both genders without getting persnickety about it we (meaning all men and women) will feel grammatically unoffended.
of course!
but when he cannot fault my argument, he feels compelled to criticise something else.
I read JK’s comment as irony…
Why can’t homeopaths have the courage of their convictions and style themselves as such?
Thus: ‘Homeopath Smith’ – ‘Ho Smith’ for short?
Or ‘Hp Smith’ – that would be saucy!
This can be easily corrected to “someone.”
Someone flogs a car that does not work – get arrested.
Easy peasy.
YES, EASY!
but why? it’s not a ‘correction’ just an alteration.
A man starts a religion… And this is why we have lots of not-nice things, like homeoquackery and $cientology. #SpecialPleading #AllFrauds
Well now we can say you are no Yeats, but you can sure make a point.
Edzard’s ‘argument’ implies that Homeopaths should be arrested for prescribing homeopathic medicines. As he well knows homeopathic medicines have been defined by EU treaty. The MHRA has no choice but to call them medicines and state this and the route for registration . Very few UK homeopaths are men which is why the post is so amusing.
i am glad you liked it
It’s an EU Directive, of course, not a Treaty.
But being called ‘homeopathic medicinal products’ doesn’t make them medicines, of course. Also, the only products homeopaths should be advertising, selling or supplying are the 241 that have an HR registration of the 30 that have a NR authorisation. There are, however, a vast number of other homeopathy products that do not have either a registration or an authorisation. These are not licensed by the MHRA and are effectively unlicensed medicines. Advertising of them is not permitted and they can only be sold or supplied under strict conditions. Those conditions do not include being sold or supplied by a lay homeopath (ie a member of the public): doing so would be a breach on the HMR 2012.
being called FLYING CARPETS does not make carpets fly – EU direction or not.
The MHRA strictly enforces medicines regulations through their enforcement division. They are not known to take any risks with public safety. Everybody with half a brain knows this.
Only regulars on here could possibly think otherwise. How come you and ‘UK homeopathy (sic) Regulations’ can’t get any prosecutions Alan after all your considerable efforts?
You have mostly answered this question yourself in your previous comment Ms. “JK”.
It is very difficult to prosecute someone for selling sugar or water, especially if such commerce is supported by the EU, there is a strong fake medicine industry with supporters in parliament and even the royal family actively and fiercely opposes such efforts, albeit behind the scenes.
The protective effect of the prefix “health-” against litigation is another factor. This is a ubiquitous problem based in culture and history.
Despite these obstacles, their efforts have managed to reduce the sales of fake medicine considerably as Mr. Henness and others have shown.
JK said:
Well, not all regulations.
LOL! That’s almost quite funny!
According to their website the MHRA regulate medicines and medical devices. So why are they not taking action against this alleged criminal activity?
I am glad you enjoyed my post Alan. However, please note that according to Edzard those who run out of arguments use pseudo-arguments, fallacies or insults.
Thanks boys.
LOL! Yes, the MHRA has a duty to enforce some of the regulations regarding medicines and medical devices… Let me try to help you here: can you think of any other body that might be involved in enforcing regulations concerning medicines?
Oh? And which of those (if any) are you accusing me of using?
You are not very good at explaining why there have been no prosecutions Alan.
LOL! I have nothing to explain, JK!
Maybe just a pointer as to why no UK homeopath has been arrested for prescribing homeopathic medicines.
But why should I?
No wonder then this was Edzard’s shortest ever post.
Your comment is orphaned from all others: no wonder what?
So are any homeopaths going to get arrested for prescribing homeopathic medicines?
perhaps – if you report them.
Another orphaned comment…
Do you think they should be arrested? Under what law?
To whom should I report them to Edzard?
Please don’t say Alan as he is far too busy at present fostering and adopting orphaned comments.
JK said:
Well, JK, if you’d been more attentive when I was trying to educate you, you might not have had to ask such a silly question now.
You Alan were talking about breaches of the HMR 2012 Act by Homeopaths. That would mean 5.5 years of continuous breaches of the Act if you are correct.
There have been no such arrests or prosecutions relating to these alleged breaches.
Check out the MHRA and GPhC websites to see what happens to those who breach Medicines Regulations.
Therefore I conclude that you misunderstand current regulations or are writing for entertainment purposes only.
It is you who really should be more attentive.
Well, this last comment of yours does show some promise, but you’re still not quite getting it, are you?
Ok then quote me a regulation currently being broken?
That should be easy for you. Or is it all a secret?
Are you getting it now?
LOL! Playing games is a good learning method, isn’t it? Well, sometimes at least. You were the one who was wondering about homeopaths being prosecuted: what offence do you think they might have committed? Also – and let me help you once again – is being arrested and prosecuted for any offence the only available enforcement action? And your follow-on question (although you’re really already answered this): available to whom?
There. I think that’s about all the help I’m inclined to give you.
Alan said before he was inclined to go away.
‘You were the one who was wondering about homeopaths being prosecuted’
The whole post was about Homeopaths getting arrested! So all I did was query this and for this i get vauge replies regarding enforcement action.
I said nothing about going away – wishful thinking perhaps, JK?
Prof Ernst said nothing explicitly about homeopaths being arrested and prosecuted, but it was you who raised it. I tried to get you to think about the many other possibilities and who might enforce the various rules, but I seem to have failed in that aim. Sorry.
there you have it! Alan said ‘sorry’ – now we only need an apology from you for boring our pants off, and all is well.
Why try get me to think of other possibilities Alan? Why not just say it?
Anyway never mind and I hope you can find your pants Edzard. Sorry if you can’t.
Another comment out of place…
Anyway, JK said:
Just tryin’ to be helpful, JK. Just tryin’ to be helpful… 🙂