What I Did On The Weekend

Long-time readers may recall I’ve written about homeopathy once or twice before.

Just in case you were unaware, the quick version is this:

Homeopathy is a pretend medicine by which cynical practitioners exploit the placebo effect and confirmation bias to bilk gullible people out of their cash.

So last Saturday, to demonstrate that there’s nothing in Homeopathy, some fellow skeptics and I participated in the global 10:23 campaign.

And we all took a massive overdose of the stuff.

The point was to make a public statement about what homeopathy is.

Or rather, what it isn’t.

I’m the guy in the awesomely cool sunnies.

Homeopathic Vaccinations? Oh, Please.

This morning David and Kim (admittedly hardly paragons of scientific virtue) really dropped the ball.

Not only did they give a substantial chunk of air time to Isaac Golden, a “doctor” of homeopathy with some very strange ideas about vaccinating using homeopathy, their resident actual doctor Nikolai Petrovsky completely failed to call Golden on any of the bullshit he was spouting.

Warning: video may induce the urge to hit head on desk.

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The video has been removed from YouTube because of a copyright claim from Channel Ten, but you can find a transcript here.
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At timestamp 4:10 Golden claimed to have a homeopathic treatment for swine flu, and it was actually David who asked the very good question: “What is it? What are the components of it?”

Golden started banging on about the “law of similars” and similar nonsense, and Petrovsky still didn’t call him on it.

All Dr. Petrovsky had to say was “I’ll tell you what the components are David … it’s simple. In fact there’s just the one. Water! That’s it! You could fill your syringe up at the tap and it’d do you just as much good as a homeopathic vaccination. In fact, screw the $400,000 the Cubans apparently paid for their treatments. I’ll do it for $50,000 and a slab.”

But no … all Petrovsky could manage was some lame protests that “vaccines work” before being interrupted by Golden with some hand-waving about a “major scientific paper about to be published”.

Just quietly, I’m not holding my breath for that one.

The real concern here is that viewers watching this piece may have come away thinking that homeopathic vaccination is a viable alternative to genuine vaccination.

I’d like to see a follow-up piece, in which it’s clearly explained that the claims of homeopathic practitioners fly in the face of all known scientific principles, that homeopathy has never been shown to have any effect in a properly controlled double-blinded trial, and most importantly, that homeopathic solutions are indistinguishable from everyday tap water.

Simon and the Skeptics

A few weeks ago I wrote about science journalist Simon Singh and his run-in with the British Chiropractic Association.

Simon’s currently on a tour of Australia as part of the 2009 Festival of Ideas, doing meet-and-greets, promoting his books and talking (in a limited way) about the BCA libel case.

This evening he spoke to the Victorian Skeptics about some of the topics from his book Trick or Treatment, focusing particularly on homeopathy and its somewhat ridiculous underlying theory.

I was hoping that we might get one or two homeopathists or chiropractors popping up for a bit of an argument, but no such luck. It was largely a case of preaching to the converted so it was a very entertaining, but far from controversial, evening.

Having been a huge fan of Simon’s for years (ever since The Code Book and Fermat’s Last Theorem … I’m such a maths nerd), after the talk I bucked up the fanboy courage for a quick chat.

I can’t remember what we talked about (fanboy, remember?) but it did happen. I’ve got the photo to prove it.

Simon’s the one with the cool haircut.

Homeopathic Treatment for Pigfluenza. Bwahahaha!

This is just too funny.

The misguided loons over at Homeopathy Plus are preparing to tout their magic memory water as a cure for . . . Swine Flu!

... we are working with homeopaths around the world to crossmatch the swine flu symptoms with the homeopathic remedies that will best treat and prevent them.

But never fear, because

... your existing bottle of Flu-Stop still contains the most common remedies used by homeopaths for the treatment and prevention of flu.

Phew, that's a relief. Your existing bottle of magic water will still work until you can get a special replacement bottle of magic water.

Of course, the new Swine Flu remedy will be identical to Flu Stop, because they'll both be just water.

So what is the delay all about? All they need to do is slap a sticker on the "Flu Stop" bottles to make them "SWINE Flu Stop".

But maybe that's not enough.

After all, what font should they use for the sticker? Should they include a picture of a pig? Should the pig be wearing a top hat?

So many decisions. And so little time!

Hurry, homeopaths of the world. We need you!

Oink.

Vaccination Story Shock

Last night Channel 7 aired a shocking story on vaccinations.

The shock was in its complete lack of tabloid scaremongering, its scientific content and the fact that it was clearly a carefully researched story.

We really needed this. The anti-vaccination crowd has been incredibly vocal of late. The whole vaccines-cause-autism thing just won’t go away, despite its architect Andrew Wakefield being discredited as a fraud.

The anti-vax cause has impassioned believers and celebrity endorsements (most recently Jim Carrey), which have real power to sway a public sadly under-educated on this very important topic.

While the smackdown on Carrey’s ill-informed rant was swift (this one was my favourite), the damage will have been done.

The science is in on this topic but the message just isn’t getting out there. The voices of reason are all too often drowned out by the cries of those irrationally and ideologically opposed to vaccination, and children die as a result.

For all these reasons, Rebecca Maddern is to be congratulated for her great segment on last night’s Sunday Night.

This also gives you some idea of the scientific non-credentials of the anti-vax crowd.

Homeopathic treatment for whooping cough? Please. Your magic homeopathic water does nothing. How could it? After all, it’s just water and nothing else.

It’s a shame that nonsense wasn’t exposed for what it is, but maybe in the next segment. How about it Channel 7?

Let Me Repeat: Homeopathy is a Scam

I wrote a while ago about the homeopathy scam and its use on poor unsuspecting animals.

That’s bad enough, but it’s even worse to use it on poor unsuspecting children.

And especially heinous is the frankly dangerous idea that homeopathy could in any way be an acceptable method of childhood vaccination.

Check out this nonsense from the Homeopathy Plus website:

Homeopathic immunisation - also known as homeoprophylaxis - is a safe and effective way to protect you and your family against childhood and other epidemic diseases.

Effective? No. Safe? Well . . .

The homeopathic immunisations are “safe” because

they are free of harmful components

and

have none of the adverse reactions or side-effects associated with vaccines.

That’s true. It will have no side effects.

BECAUSE THERE’S NOTHING IN IT. IT’S ONLY WATER.

What is not true is that homeopathic treatment will in any way protect anyone from anything.

After all, how could it?

It’s a valid question, and one that those promoting this ridiculous pseudo-science can’t even answer themselves.

Here’s their “explanation” of how it works:

The nature of potentisation is the mystery of Homeopathy. What is understood is that the potentisation process imprints energetic information from the original substance onto the diluting liquid during the stages of succussion. This liquid is then prescribed according to the Law of Similars as either drops or medicated pilules to the unwell person. They carry the energetic information into the body to trigger a self healing reaction that moves the person back to a state of health.

Notice how you get to the end of the paragraph and don’t know anything more than you did at the start?

That’s because it is nothing but utter, unadulterated nonsense.

This has got to stop.

Ripping off people who are happy to waste their money on placebos is one thing, but if this rubbish starts getting promoted as a legitimate alternative to vaccination, then we have the potential for a serious public health problem.

Homeopathy For Pets

Homeopathy is one of the biggest scams ever wrought upon a gullible public.

Here’s the thing: a homeopathic preparation is nothing more than water.

Seriously.

It's just water.

Supposedly the water retains the ‘memory’ of something or other diluted in it, but by the time you’re shelling out your money it’s been diluted so much that there’s nothing there anymore.

It’s just water.

I'm amazed anyone has the gall to charge so much money for this stuff. I'm only slight less amazed that people actually pay so much money for this stuff.

No study has ever shown homeopathy to have any effect beyond that of a simple placebo. Which is hardly surprising.

After all, it’s just water.

So imagine my surprise when I was in my local vet’s this afternoon, and they have on their shelf something called “Homeo-Pet”.

Yes. Homeopathic treatments for pets. At $37 a bottle.

For water.

I get that a placebo might work on humans. I do. But on animals? On dogs and cats?

Please.

They’re just not that stupid.