Prince Charles congratulates homeopaths who try to treat AIDS with homeopathy
Posted by gimpy on July 1, 2011
The School of Homeopathy are celebrating their 30th anniversary this weekend. Amongst the attractions are talks from some of homeopathy’s leading lights including Jeremy Sherr, a patron of the school who is somewhat infamous for attempting to conduct unethical trails on HIV/AIDS patients in the developing world. Pride of place amongst the school’s programme is a very special announcement from a very special supporter.
There will be a special written announcement from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
“This is one of the largest most exciting events ever held in homeopathy. Never before have so many influential homeopaths come together to present at one free online event – it is truly world class! We are honoured and proud by the added endorsement from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. We are so pleased to be bringing all of this to UK and our local community”.
Mani Norland, the School’s Principal
This is somewhat inappropriate as the School have endorsed the use of homeopathy for HIV/AIDS and Africa as well as the work of Mr Sherr. The activities of Mr Sherr have been condemned by the World Health Organisation and Sense About Science. While the work of Mr Sherr and the School of Homeopathy in Africa is small scale their beliefs, when found in governments, can have devastating consequences. In South Africa, where then Prime Minister Thebo Mbeki was influenced by unconventional theories, there have been devastating consequences with preventable deaths being measured in the hundreds of thousands.
While Mr Sherr’s ideas remain unpopular their harm, although real, will not be on this scale. However, should Mr Sherr or the School of Homeopathy gain the endorsement of prominent figures, such as HRH The Prince of Wales, the consequences may be devastating should this increase their influence on the governments of the countries in which they work.
Given the support of HRH The Prince of Wales, and his family, for organisations that seek to ease the hardship faced by those who are victims of HIV/AIDS it is concerning that he should lend his name to the School of Homeopathy.
I wrote to the Clarence House, the Prince’s residence, to express my concerns as laid out above. Their response was brief and to the point.
The Prince of Wales has sent a letter of congratulations to the Stroud School of Homeopathy’s [sic] on their 30th Anniversary. The Prince has not endorsed any particular individuals or treatments.
This is to miss the point somewhat. Prince Charles is a man who has and uses influence. Sometimes he uses it to prevent building projects, other times he uses it to try and fire academics who challenge his beliefs on alternative medicine. He can apply his title to a charity by honorary appointment or endorsement and this is seen as increasing both the profile and fund raising ability of that charity. For the prince to act as though a formal letter of congratulation has no influence, and is not an endorsement, is at best staggeringly naive.
However, when you consider his long standing support for alternative medicine, and his meddling in academic appointments in this field, it is hard not to think that he is a man whose belief in alternative medicine have blinded him to the worst behaviours in that field, such as the delusional attempts to treat AIDS in Africa. The Prince, should he continue to support alternative medicine, should look closely at those he lends his name to. It is not in his interests, or those of the country which he will one day head, to be seen to lend his name and congratulations to the kind of people who see Africans as subjects for their medical fantasies.
Madnomad said
I think your missing the point,. I agree that Homeopathy is nonsense and I have heard it is used in some parts of Africa as a placebo as there are no doctors or pharmaceutical drugs mainly due to the greed and corruption of the west. When visiting parts of Africa I have seen that people only have the option of hope when they get sick as there is no medicine, When you get ill you have a choice to visit the Doctors, chemist or hospital, but they can’t. All they have is the option of praying to a God that doesn’t exist, visiting a witch doctor, who could make matters worse or putting there faith in magic water(homeopathy) that can work as a placebo and give them hope. What would you do, take that away from them as well as everything else. You need to see the bigger picture here, you don’t seem to have any comprehension of the realities of living in the third world.
Kausik Datta said
“Realities of living in the third world” are not, and cannot be, a ringing endorsement for plying the unfortunate HIV-infected populace with magic water. There is no guarantee that the usage of worthless magic water (read, homeopathy) is going to engender hope in these people. Instead, homeopathy would cause both measurable and immeasurable harm to these people, as is the wont of the alternative medicine nonsense. HIV-infected poor people in Africa are not guineapigs for homeopathy experimentation; they need real medicine that will help them.
Madnomad said
No it can’t and I agree, but don’t you understand that it’s just water and it can’t do them any physical harm as it has no active chemical ingredients(its not magic either). Clinical trials by Doctors in the UK have proven that it works as a placebo and as no alternative placebo like a sugar pill are available to these peoples, I am presuming that it is being used to ease their suffering in this manner, by psychological effect. Would you prefer that they were offered nothing and suffered even more. What would you do if you were caring for someone who was terminally ill and had no access to meds to relieve their suffering, wouldn’t you do anything in your power to try and make them feel a little bit better psychologically even if you couldn’t help them medicinally. I can’t understand the cold, sadistic, emotionally detached kind of attitude people seem to have towards those less fortunate than themselves. I can only assume that they have never suffered or felt pain or they would appreciate the lengths of delusion people will go to to alleviate their symptom’s.Some people even pray to a God, how ridiculous is that! I suppose Homeopathy is similar to that in a way, except it exists as Water were as God doesn’t exist at all. In a perfect world these people would get the proper medical attention that we have the privilege and fortune of receiving. That’s not going to happen while people sit at home on their backsides blogging about a load of crap and slagging of others when they should be out there doing something useful.
gimpy said
The harms associated with promoting the use of alternative therapies as a solution to HIV/AIDS are well illustrated in South Africa. Practitioners of these also, in many cases, have a deep seated disapproval of pharmaceutical products that work. This causes them to actively undermine healthcare by distorting peoples understanding of the facts.
anarchic teapot said
“greed and corruption of the west”
Err… local greed and corruption don’t help either. We are all human, and there are b*st*rds everywhere.
Acleron said
Well done for publicising this.
A ‘world class’ meeting of homeopaths? Irony.
Dr Richard Rawlins said
No, an oxymoron. Squared.
robomum said
when we had no active therapy for HIV this sort of thing was rife in the UK. Now we do have ready access to drugs, and most of the African continent does too, I am slightly surprised that there is much scope for homeopathy for AIDS anymore. It is really sad that somene might see that investing their hope and cash in homeopathy is the only option. We do see many African community members with strong Christi
an faith. A minority have been influenced by pastors that their AIDS and HIV can be cured by prayer- and a number of these have dropped out of conventional medicine to their significant harm- even death…
Madnomad said
You are joking! most of the African continent does not have access to drugs, a third of the worlds population has no access to drugs. What planet are you living on in your ivory tower.
Acleron said
The way to enable them access to drugs is certainly not trying to convince them that water is an effective treatment. In the field of vaccines, pressure has been generated to convince pharmaceutical companies to supply cheaper preparations. These efforts are undermined by delusional homeopaths.
Earlier you mentioned the ‘Greedy and corrupt West’. Who is more greedy and corrupt? Those who are trying to supply effective remedies or those who sell completely ineffective snake oil at vast profit margins.
Helen said
As a doctor looking after patients with HIV in the UK, many of whom are originally from the developing world, I’d like to thank you for publicising this important issue. The best way to fight HIV is to test as many people as possible to ensure earlier diagnosis and therefore a better prognosis and then to treat those who are infected with HIV with antiretrovirals. I meet far too many individuals who, when finding that they are HIV positive, decide to put all of their faith in alternative healing methods including prayer, homeopathy and “cures” from the internet. All of these people have needlessley suffered sometimes terrible consequences for this and most accept antiretrovirals in the end, sometimes when it is too late for them to save their lives. I like to think that I treat my patients holistically and find that open discussions about alternative treatments are an excellent way of improving my understanding of how my patient views their condition. My challenge is to embrace these complementary therapies so that they can do just that, complement the HIV treatment that these people so desperately need and to make sure that in turning to these practices my patients do not come to undue harm.
Nichol said
Doesn’t magic and homeopathy work at least twice as good when it has been blessed by a king?
Professor Woland said
I like Madnomad’s view that it’s ok to fool poor dying brown people.
Noe er råttent i homeopatiland | unfiltered perception said
[...] homeopatiske preparater, det vil si sukkerpiller og destillert vann, mot alt fra malaria til AIDS, noe som medfører enorme lidelser og unødvendige dødsfall, så kan man ikke annet enn å bli [...]
Andy said
I don’t get it. Aren’t the royal family leaders in the Illuminati? Aren’t they supposed to be against miracle cures and in favour of big pharma? Didn’t Charles get the memo?
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Old Rockin' Dave said
The royal family has been descending into idiocy for about five hundred years now, and Prince Chuckles is simply one step lower on the ladder of decline. They haven’t produced any sovereigns with the brains God gave a goose since the Nineteenth Century.
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Jonathan said
As far as I understand it, once he is on the throne he WILL be prevented from commenting and interfering in such matters.
I also understand that the monarch is automatically the Patron of the Royal Society. When Charles’s time comes, that should be interesting. Maybe that will be an ideal opportunity to hold him to account on his scientific “knowledge”.
Jonathan
Dr Richard Rawlins said
So someone – Gimpy, Mr Quack, David Colquhoun, Ezard Ernst, or all, should write to the Roayal Society expresing concern that a future patron should be so deeply un-scientific and ask if they are happy about that.
No matter what their reply – it will make for a good press release!
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Brian Haw, the protester whose dogged presence outside of parliament turned him into a cause célèbre, has died of lung cancer. Mr Haw was a divisive figure, with often unorthodox opinions, whose determination to camp outside parliament became a matter of considerable political debate on the right to protest. In recent years Mr Haw’s supporters dwindled to a hardcore group with fringe opinions. They have let him down badly.
Dr. Kumar Prashant said
we all celebrated world AIDS day on 1st december this year too. I trually admire what prince charles said. As an homeopath I know that only homeopathy is capable of doing miracles in AIDS and one day the world will admire it too. Homeopathy is a vast science and it is something sort of vaccination like treatment. I am in way of making a homeopathic medicine based on the nosodes of our HPI. I will update you all within few months with all my researches.
acleron said
Can’t believe anyone could get so much wrong.
Only a woo meister out to get as much money as possible from the ill could ‘celebrate’ an awful disease. It was a day of awareness. The only celebration could possibly be that modern medicine has, with proper treatment, made it survivable.
Homeopathy doesn’t work, after all, people drink water all the time and that’s all you are doing Kumar, selling them water (or little lactose pills lol)
Don’t waste our time with your researches, waste your own and try getting them published in a reputable journal. Not a homeopathy or complementary medicine rag, a real scientific journal. Even better, send your patients to real doctors for treatment.
Dr. Kumar said
It is amazing to hear from a person like you, who is already prejudiced and has done nothing towards development of any kind of medical science either allopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda or any other pathy that exists. The science is an ever developing field where nothing is always true and nobody could say that it is a “full-stop”, no further progress is possible.
We are working for the betterment of mankind. we are working with 835 patients at present and 42 doctors are generously giving their best to discover a great medicine. Furthermore everything is self-funded.
We just shared our job in this forum. Have you ever done anything new for the development of any science either successful or unsuccessful ? You are behaving as if you have won a NOBEL Prize in the field of medicine !! You are commenting as if you are the most brilliant and intellectual person in the world !! Just GO and do something first of your own either successful or unsuccessful, then comment on anybody else’s efforts.
We are not against any pathies. We do support efforts of every pathies. But we know it too that every pathy has their own advantages and limitations. So, rather than commenting against any particular pathy and wasting your time in just blogging, try to do something new for any science and better for the mankind.
Now about journals you said… What do you mean by reputable ? Will the whole world start believing your way as you wish ? Do the views on reputed journals in everybody’s mind will be the same as you think ? Definitely not..!! So be smart…Even the so called reputable journals also publish rags. It is on the world whether to follow or not.
rw23 said
Earlier Dr Kumar:
> As an homeopath I know that only homeopathy is capable of doing miracles in AIDS
More recent Dr Kumar:
> We are not against any pathies. We do support efforts of every pathies. But we know it too that every pathy has their own advantages and limitations.
So it’s only your particular ‘pathy’ which offers any true hope? And you must fully understand the advantages and limitations of all other possible ‘pathies’, else you wouldn’t be able to reach that conclusion.
> The science is an ever developing field where nothing is always true and nobody could say that it is a “full-stop”, no further progress is possible.
Consistency isn’t your strong point, is it?
> I will update you all within few months with all my researches.
Paracelsus is quaking in his boots. Aristotle might want to punch you.
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