it couldn’t happen here. could it?

I hope not.

Some of my fellow Sciblings have written quite a bit lately about various ‘alternative & complementary’ health claims. And I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading their posts (here & here, for example). So I wonder what their take would be on a story from the UK, helpfully publicised by the Quackometer. Not only is a British MP calling for more & better public health funding for various ‘complementary & alternative’ therapies – but their Minister of Health is reported as saying “that the Government’s position on complementary and alternative medicines, which I shall refer to as CAM, is the same as our position on mainstream medicines. “ In other words, that homeopathy, iridology, relexology & all the other non-scientific, lacking-in-evidence-of-effectiveness modalities should be treated the same as mainstream medical practice when it comes to funding & publicity, and the euros/pounds sterling allocated to health should stretch even further than they have to now. As the Quackometer says, "[to] treat the claims of pseudo-medical cults in the same way as you treat the claims of scientific medical research is an absurdity."

If I was a health consumer in the UK, I’d be worried. But it couldn’t happen here. Could it? I hope not.

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