The Ebola virus is currently spreading across West Africa and has infected as many as 10,000 people accross the region with approximately 4,922 fatalities. It is one of the most serious disease outbreaks in recent history. There is a vaccine being rushed through development, but there isn’t adequate time to test it because it’s needed immediately. However some protection is better than zero protection. But like all things medical there are always scoundrels out to cause harm with scaremongering, denial and general advocacy against health care.
HomeopathyPlus a sham operation based in Australia has reared it’s ugly head with a petition to the World Health Organisation titled: WHO: End the suffering of the Ebola crisis. Test and distribute homeopathy as quickly as possible to contain the outbreaks.
The petition contains the usual lies and nonsense that we have come to expect from HomeopathyPlus:
We call on those within WHO in positions of authority and influence to:1. Look at homeopathy’s record in the treatment and prevention of serious epidemic disease2. Engage with qualified representatives from the homeopathic profession to formally identify thebest-indicated remedies3. Test those remedies to determine which are best for the treatment and prevention of Ebola4. Obtain supplies of those remedies from waiting and concerned homeopathic pharmacies5. Bring the outbreaks under control by distributing these remedies as quickly as possible throughout the affected areas.Finally, please end the suffering of those in the Ebola crisis by using the tried and proven homeopathic option.
It may come as I surprise to some readers of this blog to learn that I am actually an expert on Homeopathy. I also hold the necessary qualifications needed to legally administer it; as in fuck all. So back in 2011 I used my expertise to strange a public suicide attempt, whereby members of Perth Skeptics took a large overdose of Homeopathic sleeping pills and still lived to tell the tale.
I filmed the event here:
We were able to conduct this overdose safely because Homeopathy is a placebo product. The pills we took contained nothing more than a little sugar, and a hefty price tag. Yet, shonks like HomeopathyPlus and the Homeopathic industry in general are lining up to make some fast cash from the suffering of Ebola victims. The real harm to the victims are not only financial but sometimes a patient will forego medical treatment in favor of witchcraft as was the case with Penelope Dingle.
There are currently 4,652 signatures on the petition calling for Homeopathy to be used in place of medicine. That’s 4,652 people who support taking advantage of the Ebola outbreak to cash in on the scam. Perhaps if these people got a good dose of Ebola themselves they might not be so quick to take advantage of the situation. I wouldn’t normally wish Ebola upon anyone, but in the case of scammers and cheats I’ll make an exception.
See Also: Not even a trace of evidence for homeopathy -Australian Medical Association