What’s wrong with catching the measles is the name of an excellent post over on Evidence-Based Thought. It was written following warnings from our Ministry of Health about the possibility of a measles epidemic – something which is already becoming a problem in parts of Europe & the US, where vaccination rates (& consequently herd immunity) have declined after a fair bit of scare-mongering about the risks of vaccination. (Evidence- Based-Thought has some useful things to say on risks & probabilities – a valuable antidote to some of the comments that follow the MoH warning. I must admit, I was gobsmacked to see claims there that homeopathic remedies could prevent or treat measles…)
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Grant says:
Not just homeopaths are trying to cash in on this. The local chiropractor is too…
Alison Campbell says:
One hopes that your local chiropractor will also stand up & take responsibility when someone takes their kid to him for measles ‘treatment’ (you have to wonder how the heck manipulating a spine could affect a viral disease!) & the child develops serious complications from the illness… Although from following these things at Orac’s & elsewhere, it would appear that the blame for any failure to improve is put back on the patient.
Renee says:
I have a nagging cough I can’t seem to shake and one of my friends keeps telling me about her homeopath and how after one ‘remedy’ her cough disappeared. I can’t think of a nice way to say ‘but I think homeopathy is a load of cobblers…” Maybe I’ll direct her to your blog instead!
Alison Campbell says:
ooh, ooh, more traffic! 🙂
The difficulty with homeopathy is that it does seem – on the surface – to work for things like coughs & colds. But the problem with this perception is that such things tend to be self-limiting: they go away eventually. (I really must write about this in a bit more detail.)