homeopathy action & campaigns

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: WLH Committee >
Date: Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 3:31 AM
Here below is a message from Carol Boyce, homeopath, teacher, journalist, filmaker, activist. Please read this, read her blog regularly and take action if you can.
Best to all,

Helen
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I had a meeting with my MP Ian Stewart today who serves on the Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee and has been part of the Evidence Check.
The remit of the Committee was to have been a short enquiry into the relevance of government funding and policy - in this case related to provision of homeopathy within the NHS. The Committee's remit was NOT to investigate whether homeopathy works or not.
Needless to say, given Evan Harris MP who serves on the Committee and his association with Sense About Science, it was a foregone conclusion that this is exactly what the focus of the Evidence Check would be.From the Chairman's opening question to Paul Bennett, Professional Standards Director and Superintendent Pharmacist from Boots : "You ... sell homeopathic remedies. Do they work beyond the placebo effect..?" the focus on "does it work or not" throughout.
The panel giving oral submissions was hopelessly unbalanced - and included the well-known public critics of homeopathy: Ben Goldacre from The Guardian's Bad Science column, Tracy Brown from Sense About Science and Prof Ernst - Dr Thallon from Kent PCT who had forced the recent closure of Tunbridge Wells Homeopathic Hospital, and Prof Lawrence, Chief Scientific Advisor from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Those with any homeopathic training at all numbered 3 in total (4 if you count the closed minded Ernst) and did not perform well under questioning (with the exception of Robert Wilson Chairman of the British Association of Homeopathic Manufacturers who held his own despite Evan Harris' best attempts to ridicule him.)
Mr Stewart made a valiant attempt to bring some balance to the proceedings but was hopelessly outnumbered.
The Evidence Check report has now been written and is due to be published any day.
A question needs to be asked in parliament about the conduct of this Evidence Check and its inherent bias.
We should ask how many of those on the Science and Technology Committee had closed minds to the issue of homeopathy? How many of those invited to give oral submissions were specially selected for their closed minds? How many of the staff servicing the Committee had closed minds?
Before the Committee meetings I sent a letter advising Mr Stewart of this inherent bias and the letter was circulated to all the Committee members by him. A similar letter sent directly to the Committee was put into additional information which I am sure was never read.
Since the report is yet to be published Mr Stewart was unable to reveal its contents but I can predict given the serious bias that when the report is published there will be headlines about government recommendations to stop funding NHS homeopathy - and an outpouring from the new anti-homeopathy campaign 10:23 which is launching / unleashing itself later this month in the UK to "educate the public" so that the public "can make informed choice about homeopathy".
The campaign tag line is: Homeopathy - there's nothing in it. 10:23 is a reference to their obsession with Avogadro's number. And: it can't work so therefore it doesn't work. http://www.1023.org.uk (best not to go here too often as this will only push their Google ranking up).
The same people pushing this anti-homeopathy campaign in the UK have already fired a warning shot into the US via JAMA.
The Homeopathic community everywhere needs to get very busy promoting the truth about homeopathy - starting NOW.
Demand your professional organisations take action to mobilise the base immediately.
Carol Boyce MCH, CCH, RSHom (NA)
For much more on the Evidence Check and how it went down and articles about the history of this orchestrated homeopathy campaign see:http://www.vonsyhomeopathy.wordpress.com including a telling pic of MP Evan Harris in "Evidence Check the Committee Meets the Big Wigs"

[Tanya Marquette]

Thanks for posting this . I have been calling for people to take the threats against our freedom of health choice and
right to access for several years now. Codex is the umbrella trade type agreement that is being used by most countries
to create a 'harmonization' between nations regarding food and health laws. All nations are required to change their
laws to limit the availability of herbs, nutritional supplements and other holistic products such as homeopathic remedies.
Nutritional supplementation is to be so severely limited that we will virtually not have free access to these products, especially
in natural forms. In other words, health standards are being set so low that illness and dysfunction will be rampant in the
population, the idea being that people will be forced to rely on drugs for survival.
Little by little we are seeing the changes creep in. GMO's are promoted. Antibiotics given to all animals is required under
Codex. Hormones and chemical agriculture is the standard promoted. The head of the Codex nutrition committee was
heard to say in a meeting that nutrition has nothing to do with health! Amazing but true. This is what we are up against.
The so-called quackbusters, or denialist as some of us call them, are an organized body that pretends to talk science
but in reality promote the antagonism of large chemical corporations that promote the Codex guidelines which in turn
promote the pharmaceutical corporations sale of drugs and their efforts to kill off any competition.
If we are to survive as a profession our vigilance is required. It cannot be viewed as an 'extra' or a 'luxury' in our lives.
We need to pay close attention, and develop a level of activism in our lives and practices. Our clients need to become
informed and directed to do things such as phone calls, petitions, even demonstations to protect our right to chose
how we create health and have access to those choices.
tanya