As I live partly in France, I often report about what is going on in this country in relation to so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). Here are a few recent posts:
- France outlaws practices which expose patients to a serious health risk
- Dispute about so-called alternative medicine practitioners in France
- Homeopathy in France: going, going, gone!
- Osteopathy in France: widely accepted yet based on little more than wishful thinking
- Alleged sexual misconduct serves a blow to osteopathy in France
- Homeopathy in France: a triumph of reason over profit
- HOMEOPATHY IN FRANCE: Cure cancer with homeopathy? “Let’s get real. We are doctors.”
- Random thoughts on my first SCAM-research conference in France
In general, it seemed that France was becoming more rational in its attitude towards SCAM. But now Franceinfo reported worrying developments:
Patrick Hetzel, the newFrench Minister for Higher Education and Research seems to have a less than academic approach to science. He has in the past taken positions on the fringes of the scientific consensus, supporting, for example, the use of the treatment praised by Didier Raoult during the Covid-19 crisis, or defending homeopathy.
In October 2020, Patrick Hetzel supported an amendment to the French Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) aimed at ‘creating a body specifically dedicated to evaluating complementary and alternative medicines, including homeopathy, and setting a reimbursement rate’. A month later, he co-signed a bill aimed at introducing a two-year moratorium on the reimbursement rate (15%) for homeopathy, rather than delisting it, so as not to upset the industry. These proposals were rejected and homeopathy, whose effectiveness was deemed ‘insufficient’ by the French National Authority for Health (HAS), has not been reimbursed in France since January 2021. To reach its opinion, the health authority scrutinised a number of studies on nearly 1,200 homeopathic medicines. ‘There is a scientific consensus that homeopathy should not be prescribed. At best it is useless, at worst it detracts from a useful treatment’, points out Jean-Michel Constantin, President of Sfar.
At the same time, Hetzel has fought to have chronic Lyme disease recognised as a disease through a bill tabled in September 2023. However, the chronic nature of this disease remains controversial, based as it is on a ‘scientifically unproven’ hypothesis, as denounced by the French Academy of Medicine in 2017.
More recently, during the debate on the bill to combat sectarian aberrations, Hetzel spoke out against creating an offence of ‘inciting abstention from medical care’. He cited a ‘legal reason’ before offering a curious view of science: ‘When you look at how scientific advances are made, very often the paradigm shifts (…) are made by people who are in the minority. So let’s be extremely careful about trying to develop a kind of dogma that would be that of an official science. I think that’s extremely dangerous’, he warned before the Assembly.
This anti-science rhetoric has not gone unnoticed. ‘Taking part in the debate on article 4 of the bill on sectarian aberrations [finally adopted], implying that official science is totalitarianism, and leaving the choice of alternative medicines to patients who have no discernment, I find that annoying. Especially for a minister whose remit includes scientific research’, laments Pierre Ouzoulias. ‘I’m struck by the fact that every time he takes a stand, it’s with conspiracy theories. This accumulation paints the picture of someone who doesn’t understand how knowledge evolves in the world of science.’
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Let’s hope the new development does not signal a general U-turn, that the appointment of Patrick Hetzel is just a little glitch, and that France will nevertheless continue on its path towards rationality.
29 Responses to Bad news for France: Patrick Hetzel, the new Minister for Higher Education and Research seems to be an anti-scientist
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This caught my eye:
Au contraire, mon ami … Virtually all paradigm shifts are the result of ‘dogmatic’ scientific research (i.e. applying the scientific method in a strict and rigorous manner) of novel findings and ideas.
It is extremely rare for just a handful of scientific contrarians to come up with new and effective medical insights and treatments. I can recall only one case where this happened: the discovery of the role of H. pylori in causing gastric ulcers by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren. And these people were – quite contrary to current-day ‘brave maverick doctors’ – dyed-through-the-wool scientific researchers.
… and ‘paradigm shifts’ are extreme rareties themselves.
There are as many “paradigm shifts” as the individuals who made them: Newton’s method, the Foster-Seely discriminator, Ackermann steering, Bose-Einstein condensation, the Higg’s boson and on and on.
To the contrary, huge monolithic bodies might refine something such as the Human Genome Project but *only* individual minds such as the skill of Franklin and the imagination of Watson and Crick make the actual breakthroughs, not to mention Mendel or Darwin.
Medicine is the worst for dogmatism e.g. the way it treated Marshall and Warren as you pointed out above and the way it treats anyone today who does not follow the dogma.
I don’t think you have a clue what a paradigm shift is.
@Old Bob
What you are demonstrating here is called fractal wrongness. You clearly failed to understand anything that I said.
No, medicine is not dogmatic AT ALL. If it were, we would still be stuck with treatments such as bloodletting and with doctors who only worked following ‘old knowledge’, or possibly with lots of water-shaking clowns still meticulously following Hahnemann’s work. And thus we would still have infant mortality in double digit percentages, and an average life span of maybe 55 years.
In fact, medicine has made an almost insane amount of progress over the past 150 years – progress that would have been utterly impossible in a dogmatic system. We now know the cause of a huge number of conditions, and based on that, we also have developed optimal treatments for many of those conditions. AND WE ARE STILL MAKING PROGRESS TODAY.
With only extremely few exceptions, this has NOT been the result of a few brave, smart individuals coming up with spectacular solutions out of the blue, but of endlessly continuing, painstaking work of many, many very smart people, all working together, trying not only to come up with new ideas, but also checking if those novel ideas are any good.
And you know what? Most of those novel ideas, even from very smart people, are complete and utter duds. And THAT is why science is very sceptical when someone steps up from out of nowhere and makes spectacular claims, especially without good evidence. And THAT is why even seasoned researchers like Marshall and Warren initially met with severe scepticism when they presented their theory in 1983. So what did they do? Did they claim that they were ‘censored’? Did they accuse the medical and scientific establishment of dogmatism? Did they play the ‘Big Pharma Protecting Profits’ card? Did they wallow in the unsung genius role?
Nope, nothing like this at all. They put in another year of hard scientific work, and as a result came up with very convincing evidence for their claims. And starting in 1985, just 2 years after being rejected, their work was recognized for what it was, and fully accepted by all of the medical world – not in the least because peptic ulcers could be treated far more effectively than ever before. The rest is history, including several big awards, culminating in a Nobel Prize in 2005.
But I guess you are thinking of Covidiots such as Pierre Kory and other arrogant fools, who to this day refuse to admit that their ideas – no matter how novel and sometimes even plausible at the time – were and are wrong. These dumb people deserve every bit of scorn and derision they receive. Not for being wrong, but for failing the most important test of being a scientist: admitting when you are wrong.
The government spent $60,000,000 and five grand juries trying to jail one man for the crime of discovering a quite successful cure for brain cancers whereas the actual intention was to jail him to prevent him defending his patents from being used by the FDA – there is no dispute that his method works, even by the FDA. The FDA wanted to use his discovery for itself *because* it works.
Another example is Pasteur vs Bechamp. Pasteur plagiarised Bechamp to the extent that even Today few know it:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bechamp-Pasteur-Chapter-history-biology/dp/0980297605/
This is the dogma of today’s medicine: that Pasteur was right.
And yet even Pasteur, on his deathbed finally admitted “It was the terrain” i.e. it was not vaccination but the “terrain” of the host (i.e. everything, the food, the cleanliness, the environment etc). And the proof of this is the terrible health of Americans who spend more on their health system than any other country – it’s the terrain: Bechamp was right, Pasteur was wrong: The Amish have excellent health, living off the land directly, whereas Americans have terrible health living from UPF + medical drugs to mask the symptoms. The latest being ozempic: you can have your cake and eat it, another medical dogma: that health is produced by drugs.
But the worst dogma of all is the “safe and effective” lie about the covid-vaccine and vaccines generally. If vaccination was a cure-all, then the FDA schedule of 72 shots for the young should produce the best health for Americans, not the worst.
None of the vaccines before covid has ever been tested by a randomised, double-blind controlled trial. The covid-vaccine was the first and that lasted only a few months and deliberately did not include pregnant women, and yet the “safe and effective” dogma is used to persuade pregnant women to take it!!!
you are hilarious: is there a conspiracy theory that you do not subscribe to?
“They put in another year of hard scientific work, and as a result came up with very convincing evidence for their claims. And starting in 1985, just 2 years after being rejected, their work was recognized for what it was, and fully accepted by all of the medical world – not in the least because peptic ulcers could be treated far more effectively than ever before. The rest is history, including several big awards, culminating in a Nobel Prize in 2005.”
This off course is routine part of the success story that supposedly solved a problem without realizing that many new problems are being created.
And not for the first time. This is the outcome of the myopic understanding of the human body and the “scientific medicine”.
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/179/6/1523/964963
Absolutely! We are just discovering how little we really are, compared to our microbiome.
I used to have chronic sinusitis and colds all the time + acid reflux. After I reduced my sugar consumption, the indigestion gradually vanished over several years, then after getting stage IV prostate cancer, I changed my diet again from mainly oils to mainly water-based + drinking large quantities of carrot juice and green juices and recovered perfect health. Again, this took a year.
I still have the cancer, but this is my seventh year and I am quite old, so that no longer bothers me… It’s the microbiome + environment, foodwise etc i.e. the terrain. Who knows, it may turn out that all old men have it, but only those in the cities, eating badly and not taking enough exercise notice it and die of it whereas country folks, doing their gardens and eating their own produce and walking the dog don’t notice it.
@Krishna
Your comment once again betrays your total ignorance in what makes good science. You even misrepresent the findings and opinions of your own Personal God, Martin Blaser.
Marshall and Warren identified H. pylori as a major cause of ulcers, and the point here is that the rest of the medical world – including Martin Blaser, who thought that the idea was ‘preposterous’ – at first did not accept this finding. Later, Blaser changed his mind, and not only accepted the findings of Marshall and Warren, but actively contributed to important research in this area. He researched the role of H. pylori in numerous diseases, including gastric cancer. Along the way, he discovered that H. pylori also appeared to have beneficial effects, something that no-one could have foreseen. And this time, Blaser was the one who met with scepticism – but again, more and better scientific evidence once again changed everyone’s mind about his findings, which are now quite accepted. This course of events is in other words a great demonstration of how science works and continually improves our knowledge over time.
FYI, Marshall and Blaser also gave a joint presentation on the subject:
https://nihrecord.nih.gov/2022/04/15/scientists-reveal-good-bad-and-ugly-h-pylori
Do you have any idea how insulting this is to millions of hard-working scientists and doctors who made and are still making life better for literally billions of people? This only serves to demonstrate that you are the one who doesn’t understand even the least bit about health, sickness and the human body. Or about science.
But let’s just put it like this: can you point out even one similar success story involving e.g. homeopaths or acupuncturists? Or to put it in somewhat blunter terms: has there ever been even one quack whose ideas were later vindicated, and who ended up making a major contribution to medicine and/or science?
I can’t think of even one.
Richard Rasker on Sunday 06 October 2024 at 15:29
“Along the way, he discovered that H. pylori also appeared to have beneficial effects, something that no-one could have foreseen. ”
This creating of new diseases happened for the first time ? What do you believe the adverse effect of a drug indicates? The new disease will show instantly? How many such instances can be stated here? Hundreds.
Tonsilitis is a protective mechanism for lungs. Doctors continue to operate, even now. What do you believe is the outcome of this procedure?
Paracetamol is merrily dispensed for febrile condition in children. What are the consequences?
Eczema is among a very strong reason for asthma. Which of the drug used in treatment of asthma addresses this reason? While treating eczema, does the doctor or the “hard working scientists” of the drug company have any clue as to that the treatment would lead to asthma?
Repeat for cardiovascular disease. Which treatment for skin disease/cardiovascular problem addresses these issues?
Repeat for Rheumatoid Arthritis. Which treatment addresses the cause of RA? …………………….
“…. insulting this is to millions of hard-working scientists and doctors who made and are still making life better for literally billions of people?”
Money making enterprise do not run on emotions. Look at the balance sheet of Pharma companies like Merck, Pfizer…….. You will find that the Sales and advertising expenses are far higher than their R&D spends.
“you are the one who doesn’t understand even the least bit about health, sickness and the human body. Or about science…”
Put one team of your friends from Netherland into a slum in Bangladesh with their choice of drugs. Put one team of Bangladeshis from the slums into Netherland with no drugs. The test time is a period of 12 months. What would be the expected outcome? How many dead in the team from Netherlands? Which of the team had/has better health?
Do YOU understand health? Or the science behind “hygiene hypothesis”? Was this not known to “Marshall and Warren” that bacteria and virus are part of human health?
“has there ever been even one quack whose ideas were later vindicated, and who ended up making a major contribution to medicine and/or science?”
Numerous Homeopathic doctors. Most of these were earlier trained as allopath doctors. The patients getting treated with homeopathy, seldom go back.
https://www.ecampnd.com/homeopathy/A_Chorus_of_Fifty_in_Harmony.pdf
@Krishna
You are most definitely a true homeopath: you are utterly clueless about health and sickness, about medicine and science, and you keep staunchly believing in magic – while at the same time being extremely arrogant in your dismissal of actual medical science, claiming that real scientists and doctors only make things worse instead of better, and that they, not you, are the ones with ‘a myopic view of the human body’.
For your information: the huge progress in human health that we experienced in the past 150 years, the 98%(!) decrease in child mortality, the almost doubling of our life expectancy were ALL thanks to real scientists and real doctors, not to arrogant water-shaking clowns like you.
And oh, talking about a ‘myopic view’:
Yup, I did. Sure enough, last year, Merck spent about $2.5 billion on R&D annually, or about 20% of their gross profit. They spent considerably more on marketing and sales, some $4.5 billion or 35% of their gross profit, see their annual report, page 30.
Now, let’s compare this to this circus full of water-shaking clowns, Boiron. This is what their 2022 annual report says on page 26:
Gross profit: € 380 million
Marketing and sales: € 150 million + € 85 million = € 235 million = 66% of gross profit.
Research and development: € 6 million = 1.6% of gross profit.
So you are chastising pharmaceutical companies that arguably saved hundreds of millions of lives with their products for spending more on marketing and sales than on R&D – even though the latter expense is still some 20% of their profit margin.
But it never occurred to you to look in the mirror as is were, and notice that a quack company like Boiron, which never saved even one human life, do far, far worse. They spend the majority of their profits on foisting their useless crap on gullible believers, and virtually NOTHING on actual R&D.
It would appear that homeopathy not only makes you arrogant, but also stupid. And blind.
Richard Rasker on Tuesday 08 October 2024 at 10:28
“You are most definitely a true homeopath: you are utterly clueless about health and sickness, about medicine and science, and you keep staunchly believing in magic – while at the same time being extremely arrogant in your dismissal of actual medical science, claiming that real scientists and doctors only make things worse instead of better, and that they, not you, are the ones with ‘a myopic view of the human body’.
Your use of adjectives for me, in place of a considered argument based upon facts, is an indication that you have realized the failure of your earlier statements and have reached a point where, either you have no logical points left or are sure your next statements will prove to be equally illogical. This is the point where throwing of labels start. This useless tactic is quite common and anyone using such adjectives indicates the bankruptcy of logical thinking and lack of proper knowledge.
I am not a doctor but I have never used any allopathic drug in my 70 years of life and this is true for 4 generations of our family because we have had homeopathic doctors in the family for 3 generations. Homeopathic medicines have always resolved all illnesses experienced by us.
When do YOU plan to visit and spend 12 months in a slum in Bangladesh to evaluate the reality of your health supported by “actual medical science”? I am positive I can motivate numerous Bangladeshi individuals to replace you in Netharland with ZERO medication.
“…..the huge progress in human health that we experienced in the past 150 years, the 98%(!) decrease in child mortality, the almost doubling of our life expectancy were ALL thanks to real scientists and real doctors….”
Go back and read the treatise by Dr Blaser. Remember, he picked up only one area to uncover the mess: use of antibiotics.
Try reading Dr. David Eddy, a cardiologist who ended up doing a PhD in mathematics to point out the mess created by the medical profession.
“And oh, talking about a ‘myopic view’:”
Try and explain why are Americans, with all the R&D in the pharmaceuticals being conducted in their backyard, the sickest people in the world if we use the measure of average drug intake per person. Do you have any clue as to the spend by American citizens on health care? Should Americans not be the healthiest individuals with least requirement of medication?
“Boiron. This is what their 2022 annual report says on page “
In homeopathy, the doctors update treatment protocols. The research is NOT done by manufacturing companies. The companies are busy combining medicines to address a wide range of symptoms, of one specific ailment like rheumatic pains. Or asthma. Or piles….
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3085232/
“So you are chastising pharmaceutical companies that…”
Just stating facts. The numerous “new age plagues” are creation of the allopathic system that refuses to look at the patient and only removes/controls one symptom without addressing the root cause and in the process creating new diseases. Converting simple eczema into asthma, Rehumatic Athiritis, cardiac problems. This is now known to allopaths but they have no understanding to treat it. Cured patients are bad for business. Most companies don’t require experts to tell them this simple truth.
https://www.levinperconti.com/blog/big-banking-recommends-drug-companies-avoid-making-effective-drugs/
“..arguably saved hundreds of millions of lives with their products “
This is an assumption that has been pedaled around for long. When the first report on deaths and disabilities due to doctors was published, all hell broke loose. Now, the doctors say that the estimates in the first report were wrong: the actual figures were much larger.
@Krishna
Then I congratulate you and your family on your robust health. And I congratulate you on the fact that you were apparently never really seriously ill i your lifetime, i.e. you did not have an autoimmune disease, cancer or life-threatening infectious disease. Because in that case, your homeopathic “remedies” would not have helped you one bit. You would have simply died. Such is the truth.
RPGNo1 on Wednesday 09 October 2024 at 09:03
“..I congratulate you on the fact that you were apparently never really seriously ill i your lifetime, i.e. you did not have an autoimmune disease, cancer or life-threatening infectious disease. Because in that case, your homeopathic “remedies” would not have helped you one bit. You would have simply died. Such is the truth.”
This is not being said for the first time. When doctors or friends are told that we are not popping any pills for BP, Sugar, Cholesterol…. they always show surprise and disbelief is the first reaction.
You could do with reading some genuine papers/blogs on adverse impact of the so called “scientific medicine” and then this “congratulation” is not needed. The auto immune diseases, cancer… would not have been effecting such large population if patients were not exposed to the present genre of “scientific medicines”, or the myopic view of health of humans, that have been found to be the main reason behind most such illnesses.
For infectious diseases: one can see the approach of the “scientific medicine”. The success of small pox eradication (that helped start the HIV spread) has got them to go after each and every possible disease, pushing the governments to make vaccination mandatory, with no valid reason or knowledge about the long term consequences. And not one has been eradicated.
We all saw the response of the medical world when faced with Covid 19. Ivermectin, antibiotics, paracetamol…… just about anything available was pushed at patients to help them die faster. No different reaction than the Spanish Flu of 1918.
The reality: the homeopathic medicines that worked during the earlier flu, worked this time also.
Now we wait for the long term adverse effects of the Covid Vaccine forced upon all in the name of herd immunity: some adverse effects have already been noticed. Others will follow and another Blaser will record the outcome.
@Krishna
Krishna, you are a liar and a fraud, and a wilful ignoranus where it comes to sickness and health, and of course medicine and science. This latter statement of yours is just one more piece of vile crap on a heap that by now must almost reach to the moon.
No, smallpox vaccines did absolutely NOT contribute to the emergence and spread of HIV/AIDS. It was a lie from the very first moment that some idiot made it up.
@Krishna
You are spouting dangerous bullshit and spreading conspiracy theories, just like @Old Bob.
RPGNo1 on Thursday 10 October 2024 at 10:21
“You are spouting dangerous bullshit and spreading conspiracy theories, just like @Old Bob.”
Try being specific.
Richard Rasker on Thursday 10 October 2024 at 08:38
“No, smallpox vaccines did absolutely NOT contribute to the emergence and spread of HIV/AIDS. It was a lie from the very first moment that some idiot made it up.”
Where did I write this?
I was specific: “The success of small pox eradication (that helped start the HIV spread) has got them to go after each and every possible disease, pushing the governments to make vaccination mandatory, with no valid reason or knowledge about the long term consequences. And not one has been eradicated.”
Now go and check the link between small pox eradication and HIV spread. If unable to do so, I will do it for you.
“you are a liar and a fraud, and a wilful ignoranus where it comes to sickness and health, and of course medicine and science. This latter statement of yours is just one more piece of vile crap on a heap that by now must almost reach to the moon.”
There you go again. Lack of knowledge being covered by vile language. Who taught you this? Parents? Teachers?
@Krishna
You are playing pigeon chess. You knock the pieces over, crap on the board and fly to your flock to claim victory.
RPGNo1 on Thursday 10 October 2024 at 12:34
“You are playing pigeon chess. You knock the pieces over, crap on the board and fly to your flock to claim victory.”
You consider yourself a chess board?
You have it wrong. I am not a pigeon and am still around. Everything I write about “scientific medicine” is actually written by a decorated doctor trained in the Scientific Medical System. Dr Blaser for example. All you write is beliefs, and stories.
It seems to me that Patrick Hetzel has no idea what a paradigm shift means. Or he uses the term colloquially. Which would still be embarrassing for a qualified business economist and university teacher.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigmenwechsel
neither has OB!
I agree.
A “paradigm shift” in medicine looks like this (antineoplastons):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqYOUW3lhIY&t=35s
Shifts occur via research which is published for others to verify. And duplicate.
Burzynski has never published anything.
He is a foul grifting quack who gloms off the most vulnerable. He should be in prison.
https://theotherburzynskipatientgroup.wordpress.com/
@OB You only need to watch two minutes of this video to understand why the good policeman is dead wrong about his endorsement of Burzinsky.
I have no hope you will ever understand this but two facts the man relates prove that he is wrong. 1. His daughter is dead. 2. His daughter received real albeit cruel treatment that may have prolonged her life before being brought to the charlatan who dispenses proven useless “antineoplaston treatment”.
Stanislaw Burzynsk is quack and plastic shaman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burzynski_Clinic