Homeopaths go to Haiti

The situation in Haiti following the 13th January earthquake is desperate.  Official estimates suggest that 230,000 people have died, around 300,000 injured and up to a million are left homeless, this in a country with approximately 9 million inhabitants.  Red Cross workers in Haiti are posting blogs describing the difficulties of working in Haiti, with particular emphasis on the serious issues regarding the provision of healthcare and effective sanitation in order to prevent disease outbreaks claiming more lives. What Haiti and aid workers need are financial and medical support.  They are getting this thanks to the generosity of individuals, organisations and governments.  But this generosity also has a dark side.  While the Red Cross make clear that an operation of the scale needed in Haiti relies on the established logistics and organisation of international aid agencies, this is why donations of cash are more useful than well meaning gifts of food, clothing or medicine, there are individuals and organisations with strong ideological convictions prepared to ignore the well reasoned arguments of others and favour their own prejudices.  This includes Scientologists, church groups accused of kidnapping children, and now homeopaths.

These include Harry van der Zee of the AHRF:

At College Ste. Pierre we treated hundreds of people from the tent city and instructed 40 priests and 10 deacons how to treat the people in the areas they represent. Diane is following up on this to realise the goal of treating all those connected to this church, so we hope that many thousands will receive the few drops that can get their internal clock into motion again, relieve them from the past and bring them back in the here and now.

Similar to treating epidemics in Africa I’ve used the simplest approach possible so others can easily, safely and effectively disperse the remedy. 555 stands for banging the bottle 5 times, giving 5 drops in the mouth that should be kept there for 5 seconds. As this is not a chronic conditions but trauma from an acute event giving one dose is usually enough.

By epidemics in Africa van der Zee means treating and claiming to cure AIDS.

The Homeopathy World Community who helpfully tell their members:

Dear Friends. To assist the HWC Group to reach their destination we are providing this donation button to PayPal. Please use the words “HWC Travel & Supply Support.” Due to the numerous people trying to use Haiti as a scam, do not use the word “Haiti” in your payment.

and Homeopaths Without Borders – North America:

In the initial phase of its mission in Haiti, Homeopaths Without Borders-North America (HWB-NA) overcame many obstacles to send a team to Haiti. With the airport closed in Port au Prince, six volunteers, led by Sushila Lalsingh, executive director of HWB-NA, flew to the Dominican Republic and made the arduous travel overland to lend their healing skills to the stricken people of that city. They returned to the U.S. on February 10 after having treated more than 2000 people.

While these groups are likely to have limited impact in Haiti and are a minor distraction to the efforts of legitimate relief efforts it is worth reminding ourselves that this is further proof that homeopaths have no concept of the limit of their abilities.  Professional societies are prepared to countenance theories that homeopathy can treat and cure AIDS, cure autism, and provide protection against malaria, yellow fever and more via homeoprophylaxis, their attempts to provide relief to Haiti is just another example of this critical failure.  While the debate over the evidence base for homeopathy has been at the forefront of criticism of homeopathy of late, in part thanks to the House of Commons Science and Technology Evidence Check on Homeopathy, it is perhaps time to agree to disagree with homeopaths regarding their evidence base but demand that they rein in the excesses of the profession.  We need to see the professional societies confront their members and tell them in no uncertain terms that homeopathy is not an alternative to mainstream medical practice and appropriate standards of ethics and behaviour must be upheld.  We also need to see the medical homeopaths, as exemplified by the Faculty of Homeopathy, put pressure on lay homeopaths to quash the behaviours above.  A failure to do this will be disastrous for homeopathy and those it treats.

You can donate to the Red Cross here.