2011 – Page 7 – The Quackometer Blog

When the Regulator Believes in Fairies, Who Protects the Public?

22nd January, 2011 37

It would appear to be a common mistake in the regulation of alternative medicine to assume that those trained in the subject, and who practice it, can be considered experts in the subject. And that those experts can help formulate good regulatory practices. The nature of expertise has plagued philosophers since the time of Plato, whose Socratic dialogues explored how you could tell a doctor from a quack. Plato struggled [read more…]

The Homeopaths’ Response to the CBC Marketplace Programme

16th January, 2011 40

This week, the Canadian consumer affairs programme Marketplace devoted its episode to looking at the claims, practices and regulation of homeopathy. It is a pretty damning account and the homeopaths are up in arms about it, as we shall see. This prime time programme is likely to do the homeopathy trade a lot of harm in Canada. And the main reason is that it did a good job of exposing [read more…]

In Five Years, the Society of Homeopaths Have Learnt Nothing

5th January, 2011 43

Hat tip to the Quackometer on BBC Newsnight… Before they reconsider their damning response. here it is… with annotations in red Society of Homeopaths does not endorse “preventative” treatment in serious tropical diseases The Society of Homeopaths, the UK’s largest register of homeopaths with 1,500 members, does not endorse the use of homeopathic remedies with a view to preventing serious tropical diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. [read more…]