Oot and Aboot with Some Canadian Skeptic

**Update, when you're done reading, click here, because the offending paper has responded**

So, there's this online news site operating out of Vancouver, called "Straight.com". A few months back, in their 'Health' section, they published a credulous article advocating Homeopathic preparations (I refuse to call them 'remedies' or 'solutions') for what might ail' ya during the summer months. The article hurt so many parts of my brain, and most of the comments reflected the author's narcissism ("Aysha, my very mature and independent 5-year-old..."), ignorance ("For more chronic conditions, you may have to consult a classical homeopath."), appeals to authority ("Prince Charles is a very loyal and vocal advocate for homeopathy"), appeals to anecdote ("Half an hour after she was stung, I sent her back to school with a few doses of Apis in her pocket. Later that night, all traces of the bee sting were gone") and just plain awful writing ("If your child is running around the beach or park barefoot and steps on glass or a rusty nail that pierces the skin, think of Ledum").

Despite the ignorance of the article, there were some great skeptical comments written by some of my skeptical peeps (skeeps?). Sadly, the skeptic voice was in the minority...probably because anecdotal testimony is very compelling to hear. People can be very easily be convinced by an emotional story or special pleading ('you're a closed-minded materialist, and that's why you think homeopathy is bunk. Didn't you know that Quantum Physics means anything can happen for no reason?' is the general tone in many comments).

Well, the author of that article, one Sonya McLeod, is at it again. This time, she's extolling the virtues of homeopathy to combat the H1N1 virus.

You heard me: Placebo water-pills using magic and sorcery to vaccinate against one of the deadliest flu-strains to hit Canada in generations.

The article itself is almost too stupid to deconstruct. If you're familiar with this blog, you probably are very familiar with homeopathy anyway, so you don't need me to do what others have done better. As a quick example, she sites how in 1918, homeopathy saved thousands of lives (citing statistics from a Homeopathic journal three years later). Well, Orac knows how to deconstruct that kind of claim.



McLeod vociferously advocates that worst kind of CAM rhetoric. She's not saying that you should supplement your actual medicine with homeopathy, she's advocating that you use homeopathy largely instead of seeing your doctor, or getting vaccinated!

People could die because of this kind of talk.

I wonder why Straight.com would allow such a horrible lapse in what we would expect to be a source for professional journalism. An editor would have done an even cursory background into McLeod's background.

Well, since the editors and journalists over there are too afraid/lazy/apathetic to do their job, I did some digging for them.

As it says on the bottom of the article, McLeod is a practicing homeopath. This, by itself does not denote conflict-of-interest, as registered clinicians and physicians write all the time. But I wonder if her staunch advocacy for homeopathy comes in part from the fact that she owns/operates her own homeopathic 'clinic' in Vancouver, and sells homeopathic preparations, first aid kits, and yes, immunizations.

That 'basic' homeopathic first aid kit will set you back $120. No wonder McLeod insists that "Some homeopathic clinics also sell homeopathic first-aid kits, which I strongly believe no household should be without."

Horrible, horrible conflict of interest? Yeah. I think so. It doesn't take a skeptic to see where her motivations for homeopathic-exclusive treatment comes from.

Straight.com: I recommend you either a) disavow yourselves entirely from the damaging profiteering done by Sonya McLeod, or b) invite actual doctors to write several counter-articles warning that H1N1 is a VERY serious flu strain, and for people to get proper medical treatment/vaccinations that have been proven not in a single homeopathic court, but by multiple, independent sources.

Otherwise, if people start dying in the Greater Vancouver Area because they've opted to vaccinate their kids with silica diluted in water to the point that there is no silica left, you will also be to blame.




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