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A real victory against fake medicine
A real victory against fake medicine!
The British Medical Association (BMA) has voted to stop offering homeopathic treatment on the NHS.
...homeopathic products should no longer be labelled “medicines†and should instead be marked “placebo†when sold in pharmacies.And, my personal favorite line from the article:
And really, homeopaths shouldn’t be too disappointed. In fact, they should be grateful. After all, by their own logic, the less funding they get, the more effective it will be.
Comments
"The makers of the ridiculous plastic "Power Balance" bracelet, which is selling by the millions everywhere, have been forced to publish a comprehensive statement..."
Also, We recently had TAM Australia in Sydney, which was, by all reports, a Roaring Success.
I remember listening to the time Richard Saunders went to Either Mind Body Spirit festival (Known to skeptics around australia as "Mind Body Wallet", it's essentially a trade show for Woo) or Sexpo Sydney, and spoke to a guy who was selling a competing Kind of band - an EK band, or something like that, I don't specifically recall - Who claimed that his bracelets were OBVIOUSLY twice as powerful as the power balance bands, Because they had TWO holograms. I had to turn off the podcast for a bit, because I was laughing to hard to listen to it.
Though, now that we have that scam out of the way, I personally recommend the Placebo Band. Performs admirably against what it claims, and priced at Two dollars, is a hell of a lot cheaper!
It's kind of the same question as being a right wing talk show host. Sure, it would be awful to sit there and talk bullshit for hours, but, if they were going to pay me a few million dollars a year to do it, I might consider it.
Design it, design the packaging. Get a chinese factory to make a small batch. Start selling them locally to hippies. Then expand and eventually sell nationally with ads on TV, like Head-On. It's all basic product marketing. Marketing becomes really easy since you are flat out lying!
Why haven't I done it? Same reason I haven't blown up any bridges or buildings. I always complain about every stupid terrorist who fails, and talk about how I could do so much more damage if I were a terrorist, but I'm not evil. I am most thankful that evilness and smartness so rarely occur in the same person. It seems like almost never.
For example, I remember when a company that distributes Goji Juice and Acai berry products (One of those silly "Superfoods! antioxidants! FUCKING MIRACLES!" sort of things), got hit with a massive fine for strongly implying they could treat or cure cancer - which is, shockingly, illegal as fuck down here.
Also, The Australian Vaccination network - The primary anti-vax group in the country - had it's Charity status revoked by the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing*. They also had public warnings issued about them by the Health Care Complaints Commission and the Chief Medical Officer of Victoria(Who declared them "A risk to Public Health"), and have generally been a target of scorn and derision in the media. They're rapidly losing ground against the Australian Skeptics and the SAVN(Stop the Australia Vaccination Network) Groups.
* - Yes, Charity licences down here are issued by the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing. Terribly incongruous, as you don't expect that sort of thing to be issued by a group whose name sounds like the ingredients to a damned good party.
For example, Ocillococcinum, perhaps the most popular homoeopathic product, says on the package "for flu symptoms". It doesn't say "cures flu symptoms" or "relieves flu symptoms" just that it's "for flu symptoms." The FTC just looks at your marketing. The trick is to lie without breaking the law. Since you are already a law expert, lying within the law will be easy for you.
There's a lot more to communication that the specific words that you speak, and advertisers have only become better about it. To continue beating that long-dead horse, it's the route that a lot of organic food producers take; there's a widespread belief that organic foods are healthier for you, but very few organic producers have made any specific claims at all. They've just given you everything you need to draw that conclusion.
Those little pills are pretty tasty, and make for good ice-cream topping or cake sprinkles in a pinch.
For the $20 I got as Christmas money and the $10 bill I have in my hand, turns out I can start a small homeopathy company.
But then again, we use honey dressings on wounds sometimes which are bacteriocidal and promote healing enzymes, and a few decades ago we would have argued that was fake too.