Homeopathy has its fair share of lunes who are unable to make a reasonable case for it without telling overt falsehoods; we have seen some of then on this blog, for sure. Therefore I was encouraged to finally find a well-argued, rational defence of homeopathy. It comes from an unlikely source – Christian Boiron (CB) is the General Manager of the world’s largest manufacturer of homeopathics ‘BOIRON’ with a turn-over of more than 600 million Euros annually. Some would have thought he could be a trifle biased, but no – judge for yourself.
In a recent, short interview (unfortunately it is in French, so you have to trust my translations) CB rightly pointed out that “Il y a un Ku Klux Klan contre l’homéopathie” THERE IS A KU KLUX KLAN AGAINST HOMEOPATHY. About time that someone calls a spade a spade, I’d say. I think others have previously called those who doubt the miracle of homeopathy ‘fascists’ – but ‘KKK’ is much better, more to the point. Sceptics have indeed a long and infamous habit of stringing everyone who disagrees with their views up on a tree.
The interview refers to the report from the Australian NHMRC which showed that homeopathy is not effective and can even be dangerous. How can this be? Fortunately CB knows the answer: “…personne ne comprend rien”. The panel members were all ignorant! Thanks for clearing that up CB; were they also members of the KKK?
After all, homeopathy is 200 years old, it is now well-grounded in science and accepted throughout the world (“L’homéopathie, qui a 200 ans, évolue avec les connaissances de la science. La France l’a relancée dans un axe totalement scientifique et lui a donné une reconnaissance mondiale”) That surely needed to be said, and don’t you KKK members dare pointing out the occasional fallacy here! Because CB is the first to be critical (“Je suis le premier à être le plus critique”).
What about studies of homeopathy that fail to be as convincingly positive as CB might have hoped? “Quand on dit qu’il faut démontrer en médecine et que la médecine est une pratique scientifique ce sont deux idioties.” Yes, well said CB, the assumption that medicine should become scientific is indeed idiotic. Medicine is about individuals, not statistics; Hahnemann realised this, of course, and thus showed us the way to the future in health care.
And to finish this elating encounter with one of the brightest buttons in any homeopathic drawer: “On croit savoir énormément de choses alors qu’il y a beaucoup qu’on méconnait”. ONE THINKS ONE KNOWS A LOT BUT THERE IS PLENTY ONE MISUNDERSTANDS”
I think even those terrible KKK members amongst my readers might agree with CB here, particularly if this remark introspectively refers to himself.
***a note to homeopaths and their libel lawyers: this post is SATIRE
‘Medicine is about individuals, not statistics’
That must be why their largest selling sugar pills are sold on-line and through pharmacies.
BIORON supported an international homeo gathering in Prague at the weekend, here was the program
http://www.cedh.org/data/media/file/international/prague_EN.pdf
Funny how the homeos dont get all upset when its Big Homeo rather than Big Pharma providing the largesse.
…and I wasn’t invited! [I did publish the state of the art review on the subject: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=altunc+ernst+homeopathy it concluded that “The evidence from rigorous clinical trials of any type of therapeutic or preventive intervention testing homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments is not convincing enough for recommendations in any condition.”]
for those who read French, here is more nonsense from Christian Boiron:
http://www.leparisien.fr/economie/business/laboratoires-boiron-developper-l-homeopathie-en-france-et-dans-le-monde-23-11-2015-5304237.php#xtref=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FvMlh9LEmbS
Using Google translate
‘The debate over homeopathy has subsided.’
He has obviously missed the debates in the UK on whether to ban homeopathy or not, by the FDA on regulating it, the declaration of the Hungarian medical fraternity that it is ineffective and the Australian NHMRC report. With business intelligence of such quality it is surprising they are so successful.