With thanks to vonsyhomeopath27.2.10:
Read more about Evan Harris and Phil Willis’s friends in Sense About Science
The Mail and Telegraph ran stories on Sunday night, which was interesting since the Science and Technology Committee were adamant that details of the report should not be released to the public until after 11am Monday.
Bloggers had already written detailed posts directly quoting the report and published them at precisely 11am.
Leaked?
Surely not, Read the rest of this entry »
With thanks to the Independent 26.2.10:
“Save NHS homeopathy”, it says. Another poster urges supporters to join a lobby of parliament. Long before MPs from the cross party Commons committee on science and technology gave the thumbs down to homeopathy on Monday, people here knew what was coming. The remedies worked no better than a placebo, the committee said, and the NHS should cease funding.
Read about more scientific research into homeopathy
Overall 713 patients were referred to the project by their GP. Patients presenting to their health centre with musculoskeletal and mental health conditions, were referred for a range of CAM therapies including acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, homeopathy, reflexology, aromatherapy and massage.
The project was commissioned by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety with a view to exploring the potential for CAM within existing primary care services in Northern Ireland.
Homeopathy was an integral part of this CAM Pilot Project
Read more about Scientific Research into homeopathy
With thanks to The Times Online 26.2.10:
Sara Eames, President of the Faculty of Homeopathy says YES.
Homeopathy should be available on the NHS. I am a trained doctor and I have used homeopathy in general practice and in a homeopathic hospital. I am able to help more patients with an appropriate mixture of homeopathy and conventional medicine than with either system alone.
Homeopathy has been practised safely and effectively for more than 200 years. It has been part of the NHS since its inception in 1948. Read the rest of this entry »
With thanks to the Guardian 25.2.10:
The Society of Homeopaths estimates £4m a year; health minister Mike O’Brien put the spend at £152,000 a year.
Is that the whole problem here?
Can homeopaths just not count? Read the rest of this entry »
With thanks to Carol Boyce, Alan V Schmukler at Hpathy.com 18.2.10:
The homeopathic community scrambled to make written submissions before the deadline passed and waited for invitations. They never came. Read the rest of this entry »
I am appealing to the British Public on a matter of urgency regarding the Science and Technology committee Evidence Check into homeopathy due to report on 22.2.10.
Why the Evidence Check into homeopathy was considered important at this juncture given all the challenges facing the nation is not clear, that the balance of witnesses called to give evidence was heavily weighted in favour of those against homeopathy there is no doubt, and several of those witnesses had no specialist knowledge of homeopathy at all.
Read about more research on other topics
Read more about Evan Harris’s friends in Sense About Science
Evan Harris is the Liberal Democratic MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, and he is also a principal investigator in the Science and Technology Committee’s Evidence Check on homeopathy. Evan Harris completed his IPT Fellowship with GlaxoSmithKline Ltd.
So why is he leading the sceptic anti homeopathy 10.23 campaign? Evan Harris also has links to Sense About Science, which he declared to the Science and Technology Committee’s Evidence Check on homeopathy.
Phil Willis is the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrowgate an Knaresborough, and he was a Member of the Science and Technology Commission into homeopathy, and he also has links to Sense About Science,
This is a scandalous conflict of interest!
Read more about Evan Harris and Phil Willis’s friends in Sense About Science,
So let’s get this straight – the Science and Technology Committee report into homeopathy and its recommendations that led to the media snow this week, and the dramatic assertion that the public have been duped since 1948 by NHS placebos masquerading as medicine, is the result of a report ratified by THREE MPs: TWO of whom were NOT EVEN PRESENT AT THE COMMITTEE MEETINGS – and ONE of the two was NOT EVEN A MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE when the hearings were held, and is due to stand down at the election in May this year.
This Science and Technology Committee investigation into homeopathy was a set up and a sham from its inception to the final meeting and delivery of the report to the UK press. And there’s no “surely not” about it.
With thanks to the Daily Mail 26.1.2010:
Sales of alternative medicines are booming as consumers shake off their cynicism – proving the old adage there is no such thing as bad publicity!
Analysts say the market has grown by 18 per cent in two years and is worth £213million a year. And they predict sales will increase by 33 per cent to £282million over the next four years as more patients reject prescription drugs in favour of natural remedies. Read the rest of this entry »
With thanks to the Guardian Journalist Zac Goldsmith 5 January 2010:
Every few months, an organisation called Sense About Science (SAS) issues a pamphlet that makes fun of celebrities getting their science wrong. It is full of what it regards to be false assertions by celebrities about the benefits of homeopathy and so on, and ends with an offer by the organisation to act as a fact-checking service.
Newspapers always lap it up. The problem is that they have fallen into a trap again. While they quote Sense About Science with the kind of deference usually reserved for the Royal Society, the organisation is at best suspect. Read the rest of this entry »
