Gov. Roy Cooper prompted loud cheers, whoops and a standing ovation during his state of the state address on Monday evening when he mentioned Medicaid expansion.
The governor came to the General Assembly as part of a biannual tradition to provide lawmakers and the people of North Carolina his take on how best to approach the future.
In his fourth such address, with a little less than two years left in his second term as governor, Cooper told lawmakers that he thinks the state is poised for “once-in-a-generation opportunities.”
That includes stepping up efforts to extend broadband to the rural-most reaches of the state. He called for double-digit raises for teachers and enhanced funding for North Carolina’s children, from cradle to career.
Cooper hearkened back to the past as he heralded the future.
“Time and again, overcoming adversity, our leaders had the foresight and the resolve to invest in new ideas that have revolutionized our state, impacting the generations that followed,” Cooper said. “And while we stand on their shoulders, we also stand at an altogether new crossroads.
“Our moment to build enduring prosperity is now,” Cooper added.
Part of that construction, for some 600,000 low-income residents in North Carolina, is something Cooper has been advocating for since he became governor in 2017. Just last week, after years of facing opposition from Republicans to his pitch to extend the subsidized health care benefit made possible through the Affordable Care Act, Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) and House speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) made a long-awaited announcement: They had negotiated an agreement that would include a provision to expand Medicaid in the budget for the next two years.
Federal dollars at risk
Cooper reveled in the whoops and applause at his mention of Medicaid and the news from the previous week.
“I’m grateful for our unified Democratic legislators — and some of the Republicans who have been relentless for years in this effort to expand Medicaid,” Cooper said, acknowledging those across the aisle who had joined Democrats to make it happen.
“I commend the hard work of this Republican legislature for embracing this and coming together in agreement,” he said.
He thanked advocates who shared his commitment to making health care more affordable and accessible to residents who were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Expansion will cover many low-income workers who made too much money to get traditional Medicaid but didn’t earn enough for private insurance and could not get subsidies offered through the Affordable Care Act.
“When we get Medicaid expansion across the finish line, it will save lives,” Cooper said. “Tonight I bring a message of urgency that I hope all of you will keep at heart as we go through these legislative weeks.”
By tying Medicaid expansion to approval of the budget, the Republican leadership puts Cooper in a difficult position. If the lawmakers pad their spending plan with policies and budget items the governor is loath to support, he will be less likely to veto it and jeopardize the Medicaid expansion bill that only will be enacted once the budget passes.
“Every month we wait to expand not only costs lives but costs our state more than $521 million a month in federal health care dollars,” Cooper said. “If we don’t expand soon, we will forfeit an additional $1.8 billion in Health Care Access and Stabilization, or HASP funds, that our hospitals never will get back. That would be particularly hard on our rural hospitals. No business would make that kind of financial decision.”
The hospitals can claim retroactive HASP funding to cover care already delivered back to mid-2022 if the Medicaid expansion bill passes before the end of the state fiscal year on June 30.
“Guys, finally, we now all agree on Medicaid expansion,” Cooper added. “We now all agree on how to do it, and we all now agree on what other health care laws will be changed with it.
“For mental health, for working families, for rural hospitals, for a healthier North Carolina, for $1.8 billion that we cannot afford to leave behind, let’s expand Medicaid now,” Cooper said loudly.
Members of the General Assembly applaud during Gov. Roy Cooper’s State of the State speech on Monday evening. Credit:PBSNC/ Screen shot
Mental health projects
Many of Cooper’s special guests embodied some of the health care issues facing the state.
Meredith Draughn, a school counselor at B. Everett Jordan Elementary School in Alamance County and the National School Counselor of the Year, sees the problem firsthand.
“Her support is critical to their well-being and can be life-saving,” Cooper said, pointing to Draughn, who was sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives. “All our counselors, teachers and school staff play a vital role in student mental health.”
Cooper said he already has directed “tens of millions of dollars” in federal funds to Mental Health First Aid that helps teachers and school staff recognize the signs of a child in crisis and other efforts. The governor hinted at more resources to come.
“I’ll propose a plan that makes historic investments in the whole-person health of every North Carolinian,” Cooper said. “It will save lives, save government resources and pay dividends for decades to come.”
Telecommuting to the doctor
Cooper singled out Kim Schwartz, CEO of Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center, and Phyliss Pillmon, an Ahoskie resident, to show how extending broadband can play a key role in telemedicine and providing better health care to residents in rural North Carolina.
“Phyllis has a hybrid plan of care, where she sees her regular doctor in person while connecting with specialists as far away as Charlotte,” Cooper said. “That’s a 280-mile gap that Phyllis and her specialist can span in just seconds.”
Additionally, Cooper called attention to Russell Devane, an Ivanhoe resident, who worked with the state to repair aging pipes and an inadequate system with a $13.2 million investment in a modern water and sanitation system that now delivers clean water to the Sampson County community.
Kim Schwartz, CEO of Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center, and Ahoskie resident Phyliss Pillmon acknowledge applause from the gallery after being called out during Gov. Roy Cooper’s State of the State speech on Monday. Credit:PBSNC/ screen shot
Guns and children
Cooper also highlighted gun violence in North Carolina and the state’s place on a list that does not instill pride.
“A recent report found that in 2021, children in North Carolina were 51 percent more likely to die from gun violence than children in the U.S. as a whole,” Cooper said, referring to a recent report from the Child Fatality Task Force.
This legislative session, Republican lawmakers considered bills to end requirements that handgun buyers first obtain a permit from their county sheriff. Republicans advocating for the change have argued that it is not necessary because handgun buyers already go through a background check to purchase their guns.
Critics argue that not all purchases require such checks, while advocates point to research that shows the checks save lives.
“If you support the responsible gun ownership that we are granted under the Second Amendment as I do, then we cannot accept this,” Cooper said. “In the weeks to come, let’s move forward to fight gun violence, not backward.”
Cooper acknowledged the differences that he and the Republican-led General Assembly have had over the years.
“In my six years as Governor, you legislators and I have found plenty to disagree about,” Cooper said. “But we have found areas of common ground to strengthen our communities, create opportunity and make our state more resilient and prepared for the future.”
“This has always been North Carolina’s story: good people from diverse communities coming together to build a common future.”
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by Anne Blythe, North Carolina Health News March 8, 2023
I know that, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I keep repeating the mantra, “Everything old is new again.” I even know that I probably repeat it so much that it sometimes gets annoying. So be it. It’s a message that is important to me due to my simple hope that, if the newbies who have joined “our side” understand that none of this is new, they will learn the recurring themes, narratives, and forms of quackery, misinformation, and disinformation, the better to be prepared for the future. That brings us to homeopathy.
Remember ivermectin? Who can forget it, the repurposed drug used to treat helminthic (round-worm) diseases in animals and humans that COVID-19 quacks quickly repurposed to claim as a miracle cure for COVID-19 as evidence mounted that the last repurposed “miracle cure,” the antimalaria drug hydroxychloroquine (which is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis), didn’t work against COVID-19, leading me to refer to it as the “Black Knight of COVID-19 treatments.” Basically, ivermectin was the new hydroxychloroquine, but its being the new hydroxychloroquine didn’t stop both drugs from remaining in the armamentarium of COVID quacks everywhere, immune to evidence, complete with conspiracy theories and dubious meta-analyses—even an appeal to the Nobel Prize!—to explain its lack of acceptance by “mainstream medicine.” Personally, I came to the conclusion that ivermectin was the acupuncture of COVID=19 treatments (a highly implausible treatment from a basic science standpoint supported by the flaws in the evidence-based medicine paradigm) and a perfect example to explain how science-based medicine isn’t just for “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) or “integrative medicine” or whatever advocates of combining quackery with evidence-based medicine are calling it these days.
Which brings us back to Dr. Tess Lawrie.
Lawrie, you might remember, first made her name as one of the founders of the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development (BIRD) Group, a group that teamed up with the US group the COVID Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) to vigorously promote ivermectin as a highly effective treatment for COVID-19, despite all evidence to the contrary, including basic pharmacokinetics. When last I discussed Lawrie, she had done what most quacks who believe in a particular treatment eventually do and embraced ivermectin as not just a highly effective treatment for COVID-19 but as a potential cancer cure.
Given that background (and the title of this post, which gives it away), I suspect that you know what’s coming next. That’s right. Lawrie has now embraced The One Quackery To Rule Them All for COVID-19, long COVID, and a number of other things. That’s right, it’s homeopathy time, baby!
Homeopathy: The air guitar of medicine
Advocates of science-based medicine like to refer to homeopathy as the “air guitar of medicine,” because, like an air guitar, it’s performative and can appear impressive, but, just as pretending to play guitar doesn’t produce any actual music, homeopathy doesn’t produce any therapeutic effects because almost by definition it can’t. I realize that our regular readers know what homeopathy is and why it’s quackery, but whenever discussing homeopathy I always feel obligated to provide a brief explanation for those who’ve never encountered this blog before, rather than just links. I hope our regulars will bear with me.
To reiterate, homeopathic remedies are the purest quackery, and I frequently refer to homeopathy as “The One Quackery To Rule Them All.” I also generally think it’s always worth a brief explanation of why. Basically, homeopathy was invented by a German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796 and is based on two “laws” that have no basis in science. (I suppose calling them “laws” made them sound more important, like Newton’s Laws of Motion.) The first is the Law of Similars, which states that you treat a given symptom using something that causes that symptom. No matter how much homeopaths try to claim otherwise and cite cherry picked examples, there is no physiologic, biochemical, or medical basis for such a broad general principle, and in fact what the first law of homeopathy resembles more than anything else is the principles of sympathetic magic, specifically Sir James George Frazer’s Law of Similarity as described in The Golden Bough (1922) as one of the implicit principles of sympathetic magic.
The second “law” of homeopathy, the Law of Infinitesimals, is even more ridiculous and pseudoscientific (or even mystical). I also find it the easiest to explain to the uninitiated why this “law” is utter bunk. In brief, the Law of Infinitesimals states that homeopathic remedies become stronger with dilution. Indeed, the process of making a homeopathic remedy involves serial dilution, usually 1:100. The mother tincture (or original compound or medicine) is diluted 1:100 and then shaken vigorously (succussed), the succussion step being claimed by homeopaths to be absolutely essential to “potentize” the remedy. After that, the remedy is diluted again in the same way. Each 1:100 dilution is designated by “C”, such that a 6C dilution equals six 1:100 dilutions. The problem comes with the higher dilutions. For instance, a 12C solution is on the order of a 10-24 dilution ((10-2)12 = 10-24). Many homeopathic remedies are on the order of 30C, which is a 10-60 dilution, or more than 1036-fold greater than Avogadro’s number. Some homeopathic remedies go up to 100C or more, or 10-200. Here’s a hint: The number of atoms in the known universe is estimated to be around 1078 to 1082. The math just doesn’t work, and remedies over around 12C are basically water. “Lesser” dilutions contain so little remedy that it’s highly unlikely that they have a pharmacological effect.
Even though these days Richard Dawkins gets on my nerves for a number of reasons that I will not go into here, I do have to give him props for perhaps the best two-and-a-half minute explanation why homeopathy is quackery ever committed to video:
With that explanation taken care of, let’s move on.
Tess Lawrie embraces homeopathy for COVID-19
Yesterday, as I was looking for topics to blog about, I came across an article on Tess Lawrie’s Substack entitled Homeopathy for long Covid. It is, unfortunately for my purposes, one of her articles only for paid subscribers, but, as is her wont, Lawrie had posted a promotional Substack newsletter three days before entitled There’s a reason why the Queen had a homeopath. I was half-tempted to retort that there’s a reason why King Charles III is heavily into homeopathy—something we used to criticize him harshly for when he was Prince Charles—but it’s not because homeopathy works. Instead, I noted how Lawrie had bought into the usual homeopathy narrative about its being “suppressed,” with a tagline reading: “On the pernicious rewriting of homeopathy’s history, and how well-crafted research is revealing what many have known all along: homeopathy works.”
Where have we heard that one before? Also, as our very own Dr. Mark Crislip has described, there is no good evidence that homeopathy is effective against COVID-19. As you will see, that is not unexpected given that homeopathy is basically quackery, mostly water or ethanol diluent with no medicinal value.
Lawrie, as is the case with most quacks, is not happy with Wikipedia. Indeed, she starts out by looking at Wikipedia:
Let’s start with the lies and misinformation about homeopathy. Here’s how the internet’s propaganda factory Wikipedia currently defines it:
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific[1][2][3][4] system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a disease in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in sick people; this doctrine is called similia similibus curentur, or “like cures like”.[5]
The entry then describes homeopathy as ‘quackery and fraud’ and goes on to state:
During the 1970s, homeopathy made a significant comeback, with sales of some homeopathic products increasing tenfold. The trend corresponded with the rise of the New Age movement, and may be in part due to chemophobia, an irrational preference for “natural” products, and the longer consultation times homeopathic practitioners provided.
Reader, are you suffering from ‘chemophobia’? I think I may be, though I would argue that a preference for natural products is entirely rational. Out of curiosity, I thought I’d look at what the Wikipedia entry for homeopathy used to say. Here’s what it said on 31 October 2003:
Homoeopathy is a method of treating diseases and medical conditions invented, or at least popularized, by the German Samuel Hahnemann in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is based on the theory that each naturally occurring element, plant, and mineral compound will, when ingested or applied, result in certain symptoms. Hahnemann believed that, by diluting these substances in a standardized manner, one could reach the true essence of that substance. Hahnemann described this process of dilution as “potentizing” (German: “potenziert”) the substance. These dilute amounts could then be used to treat the very symptoms they were known to produce.
Hahnemann and his students approached their treatments in a holistic way, meaning that the whole of the body and spirit is dealt with, not just the localised disease. Hahnemann himself spent extended periods of time with his patients, asking them questions that dealt not only with their particular symptoms or illness, but also with the details of their daily lives.
Well, that’s quite a shift in perspective isn’t it?
Gee, Lawrie says that as though it were a bad thing to have quackery properly described as quackery and pseudoscience on Wikipedia!
It is a shift in perspective, but the shift doesn’t show what Lawrie thinks that it shows. Rather, it shows just how much alternative medicine practitioners dominated Wikipedia entries. Indeed, back in 2004-5, when I first started blogging, one of my biggest complaints about Wikipedia was that cranks and quacks had a lot more time and believers to edit entries like the one on Wikipedia, far outnumbering skeptics, leading to credulous Wikipedia entries just like the one that Lawrie posted. At this point, a shout out to Susan Gerbic and her Guerilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project is obligatory, to express gratitude for working to change that.
Complete with the narrative that homeopathy is being unduly “suppressed,” Lawrie continues, likening this “suppression” and “redefinition” to various narratives about COVID-19:
It continues to amaze me how successfully nefarious influences can redefine how we see the world. We have seen this in technicolour over the past three years, with respected dictionaries redefining words such as ‘vaccine’ to comply with a big pharma narrative, and people described as ‘variant factories’ in a clear attempt to demonise a specific group.
The claim that the word “vaccine” has been somehow “redefined” in order to encompass mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines is, of course, a favorite conspiracy theory of antivaxxers. Let’s just say that the word “vaccine” was not “redefined,” although the definition was clarified to try to prevent misunderstandings, basically changing a very specific definition of “vaccine” to a more general accepted phrasing of the definition. There was no nefarious intent, but Lawrie, being the conspiracy theorist that she is, imputes nefarious intent.
She then likens that “redefinition” to what she perceives as having happened to homeopathy:
I was reminded of this recently, when I spoke to Dr Philippa Fibert, my next Tess Talks guest. Philippa is a practising homeopath, and also Research Fellow at St Mary’s University, Twickenham here in the UK.
She pointed out to me that the intense scepticism about homeopathy is actually a recent phenomenon. It wasn’t that long ago that homeopathy was fairly mainstream, and is still available on the UK’s National Health Service, albeit in only two locations: the NHS Centre for Integrated Care in Glasgow, and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine.
The latter used to be called Royal London Homeopathic Hospital; this was where Philippa’s great aunt, Dr Lena Banks, and her great aunt’s partner, Dr Marjorie Blackie, worked. Dr Blackie was the Queen’s Homeopath.
Only someone utterly devoid of knowledge of history can claim that skepticism about homeopathy is a recent phenomenon. Whenever I see that claim, I like to refer to a classic essay entitled Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions. The author? Oliver Wendell Holmes. The year? This essay was based on two lectures that he presented to the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge—in 1842! It is an essay worth reading in its entirety. Other than the lack of knowledge in the 1840s of Avogadro’s number, whose first accurate measurement was at the time of Holmes’ lectures decades in the future and whose magnitude lets us know that in 30C dilutions it is unlikely that even a single molecule of starting substance remains, its devastating critique of homeopathy as pseudoscience is relevant today.
That must be why Lawrie invokes the fantasy of future vindication, which is a favorite of quacks and supporters of quackery everywhere—and writes:
Like many safe, natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals, homeopathy has been under a sustained and calculated attack for some time. But I do believe that is about to change – and Philippa is playing a key role in its rehabilitation as an accepted and respected form of medicine.
So what is Fibert claiming. I think you can predict. Again, as I pointed out, there is no evidence that homeopathy can effectively treat COVID-19—not that homeopaths would ever admit that—and it’s equally improbable to think that homeopathy could be used to treat long COVID. None of this stops Fibert or Lawrie:
Those suffering from Long Covid have been turning to homeopathy – and so Philippa has led a service evaluation project to document the outcomes. The results have shown that people are experiencing improvements with homeopathic treatment so now, Philippa is spearheading a well-designed randomised controlled trial to evidence the outcome of the homeopathic treatment of the symptoms associated with long Covid.
It is not my purpose to discuss all the ins and outs of why homeopathy is quackery and will not be useful for COVID or long COVID. It’s homeopathy, and we at SBM have spilled so much digital ink explaining why homeopathy is quackery that I don’t want to reinvent the wheel here yet again. Rather, what interested me is the inevitable progression we have seen in Tess Lawrie. First, she started out promoting ivermectin for COVID-19, helping an army of quacks cement the narrative that ivermectin is a cheap, safe, and “suppressed” cure for COVID-19 in the public’s mind. Then she decided that COVID-19 wasn’t enough; ivermectin should also be used to treat cancer, because of course she did. Now she has gone beyond ivermectin for COVID or cancer and embraced The One Quackery To Rule Them All, homeopathy.
I will revisit this observation. First, however, who is Philippa Fibert, besides being a homeopath?
How medical academia can promote COVID quackery
At this point, I’m going to shift gears a bit and refer to an article by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling that appeared in this month’s issue of The New Republic entitled, A Doctor’s War Against the Right-Wing Medical-Freedom Movement, which carries the tagline, “As alternative medicine infiltrates mainstream health care, one physician is fighting back with everything he has.” I’ll come clean right here. The doctor in the article is me, and the article is basically about how alternative medicine quackery has infiltrated medicine over the last couple of decades, laying the groundwork for a lot of what we are seeing now. As the “main character” in the article, I will say that I’m (mostly) happy with the narrative and how I come off. (My quibbles might be a topic for a future post sometime. For example, I get the impression that I come across like the aging gunslinger played by John Wayne in The Shootist, whom all the young guns are looking to knock off and who is on the declining side of his career, which, come to think of it, might not be that inaccurate. I do prefer, however, to look at myself more like G’Kar in Babylon 5 episode The Long Twilight Struggle, if only because G’Kar does ultimately triumph even if he does later die a tragically foretold death. But I digress, as I often do.) What Hongoltz-Hetling gets right is how alternative medicine has infiltrated academic medicine:
Between 1999 and 2017, NCCIH had spent a total of about $2.2 billion “for clinical trials [that] produced no sound, consistent evidence for the efficacy of any alternative therapies,” Dr. Donald Marcus of the Baylor College of Medicine pointed out in a 2020 article in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. The National Library of Medicine lists 49 different NCCIH-funded studies that reference homeopathy; some of the study authors lack medical degrees, and yet have associations with top-tier medical institutions—for instance, Ted Kaptchuk, an acupuncturist who went on to direct an alternative-medicine program at Harvard Medical School; or Gary Schwartz, whose research at the University of Arizona is focused primarily on mediums and energy healing.
The alternative-health industry also influences academia through overt lobbying. And even as it enjoys the financial benefits that come with being embraced by the political right (Americans spent $34 billion on products and services in 2007), it has aggressively wooed the academic circles that are usually dominated by the political left. For example, in 2017, after receiving a $200 million gift from the Henry and Susan Samueli Foundation, the University of California Irvine earmarked funds for up to 15 faculty chairs supporting a curricular focus on integrative health in its College of Health Sciences. Deep-pocketed alternative-medicine groups have also funded partnerships with University of California San Francisco, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. As of 2017, 15 research medical schools had begun offering alternative medicine to the public, according to Marcus. Johns Hopkins offers Reiki “to transmit Universal Life Energy to the client”; Duke University offers acupuncture for stroke victims.
I am a Research Fellow with a particular interest in improving long-term outcomes for children, and assessing the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments.
I started out working with children with special needs as a teacher, then as a parent educator. I then came across a treatment that seemed to be really helpful for them, however few think it can work apart from those who have experienced it first hand. So, to start untangling the evidence, I embarked on research into this area. I completed a psychology research MSc at Goldsmiths University where I conducted a comparative case series examining the effectiveness of this treatment for children with ADHD. This was partly funded by Turner’s Court Youth trust, an ex borstal supporting crime prevention measures (1:4 prison inmates have had a diagnosis of ADHD).
The treatment is called Homeopathy. The Case Series findings were significant, and in several cases, life changing. Patient stories are available in articles in Green Parent and Autism Now Magazines, case reports in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine, and the full case series in the journal ‘Homeopathy’.
Quelle surprise. She plied her quackery on autistic children and children with ADHD, and Goldsmith University supported this research as part of her degree program. But let’s get to the quackademic medicine that allowed her to test water on children with significant medical conditions:
A pilot randomised controlled pragmatic trial was then conducted at the University of Sheffield to provide more substantial information about the long-term effectiveness of non-pharmacological approaches. It assessed the effectiveness of homeopathy and nutritional therapy. Results suggest that both treatments may be helpful: in particular nutritional therapy for restlessness/inattention, and homeopathy for emotional dysregulation (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00431-019-03374-z).
I now work at St Mary’s University, Twickenham: within the department of Psychology and Pedagogic Science where we’re running a trial exploring the effects of Kefir on ADHD, sleep and the microbiome; and I teach on the MSc in Chronic Disease Management.
Meanwhile I continue to pursue my research interests in improving health outcomes. A recent study explored the effectiveness of the homeopathic remedy bacillinum for ringworm in rural Africa, and found it better and cheaper than conventional care over the long term. A service evaluation of homeopathic treatment for long COVID suggests that patients feel 47{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} better after 2 consultations (12 weeks).
Let’s look at her study cited above. Basically, it claims to be a randomized trial of homeopathy and nutritional therapy in ADHD, but it was not blinded, much less double-blinded. Those assessing the subjects after interventions knew which child was in which group. So basically, it was a useless trial, even as a “pilot” trial.
As for bacillinum? I hadn’t heard of this particular homeopathic remedy before, but a quick Google search revealed that it is purported to be made from the sputum of a patient with tuberculosis. I kid you not. It is claimed to be useful for:
If you ever want more of an indication that homeopathy is quackery, just look at the list of the diseases supposedly treated by a homeopathic remedy claimed to have been made by diluting the sputum of a patient with tuberculosis! Then be thankful that the sputum was diluted to nonexistence and bacillum is basically water, just as I was thankful to learn that Lyssinum, a homeopathic remedy purported to have been made from the sputum of a rabid dog, is also generally diluted to 200C, far beyond nonexistence. Ditto a homeopathic remedy to treat Ebola made from the sputum of Ebola patients. Again, you can’t make stuff like this up. (At least, I can’t.) It makes me wonder why the homeopaths didn’t use diluted SARS-CoV-2 to treat COVID.
Quackademic medicine, COVID, and homeopathy
We at SBM have been writing about quackademic medicine ever since the very beginning of this blog. Although I wish I could claim to have coined the term “quackademic medicine,” unfortunately I can’t. (Dr. R. W. Donnell has that honor.) The point, however, is how before the pandemic quackery had so thoroughly infiltrated itself into medical academia that even “hard core” academic medical centers, like Duke, Stanford, the Cleveland Clinic and even my alma mater, the University of Michigan, have embraced quackery, to the point where U. of M., for instance, has a naturopath in a high-ranking faculty position in its Department of Family Medicine who promotes homeopathy there.
Across the pond, Philippa Fibert is fundraising £40,000 to do a “pilot RCT” of homeopathy for long COVID. with this preliminary data:
Dr. Fibert told HINT: “This trial provides an excellent opportunity to develop much-needed evidence for the effectiveness of homeopathy at a time when other healthcare providers are struggling to develop effective protocols for the treatment of Long-COVID.
“In a prelude to the pilot RCT, we have already been collecting the MYMOPs (Measure Your Own Medical Outcome Profile) of Long-COVID patients and found a 36{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} improvement after just one consultation. After their second consultation the improvement climbed to 48{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}.”
We hope this project will put homeopathy front and centre as the medicine of choice for the symptoms associated with Long-COVID. You can be part of this ground breaking project by helping us raise the funding needed.
We have the enthusiasm, now all we need is £40,000 and with your help we know we can do it!
There’s nothing like subjective outcome measures in a survey as “evidence” that magic water helps a poorly understood condition that often has vague symptoms and whose diagnostic criteria aren’t fully solidified yet to guarantee that placebo effects will provide a seemingly positive outcome to justify raising money for a pointless RCT. Let me remind you what the remedies used in the “preliminary trial” were:
If this is what homeopaths treated hospitalized COVID patients with, what else will they add to the list to treat long COVID?
Basically, it’s just a grab bag of common homeopathic remedies, including the quite rightly mocked Oscillococcinum®, which includes extract of duck liver and heart. Basically, it’s a “throw everything but the kitchen sink” approach to COVID-19, if that everything is the water in the kitchen sink without the actual, you know, kitchen sink.
I argued in Matt Hongoltz-Hetling’s piece that quackademic medicine is both a cause and symptom of what led so many doctors to embrace COVID quackery, antimask stances, and antivax beliefs. Certainly, homeopaths in universities and medical schools doesn’t help. It should thus be no surprise that people like Philippa Fibert exist and are now promoting homeopathy for long COVID, after having promoted it for so many other conditions.
Unfortunately, this example of Tess Lawrie expanding her quackery suggests two things that seem new but are not. First, once a doc starts down the dark path of quackery, forever will it dominate her destiny. Consume her it will (with only rare exceptions). This has clearly happened to Lawrie, who started out embracing the then “sort of” quackery of ivermectin, which is now COVID quackery because the evidence clearly shows that it does not work, and then progressed to embracing ivermectin quackery for more diseases (like cancer), and then ran headlong into the arms of The One Quackery To Rule Them All. It is incredibly likely that there is any coming back from this for her. The question is: Is there any coming back from this, period?
Whether or not you’re off to campsite getaway or traveling to an additional nation, receiving unwell disrupts your getaway. Patrick Courtney, MD, family medication provider atMercyOne North Iowa Relatives Drugs Residency,shares his ideas to holding you and your family members wholesome when touring.
1st-assist for households
When it arrives to packing for your loved ones, possessing an suitable initial-help kit is necessary. But not all to start with-help kits need to be designed the exact same.
“If you are likely to a metropolis, vacation resort or someplace nicely populated, only pack the mild matters. If you’re likely to a campsite, provide a big chunk of your kids’ medicine cupboard,” states Dr. Courtney.
Frequent very first-assist treatment includes:
Acetaminophen/ibuprofen
Adhesive bandages
Fluids for diarrhea
Listing of medications and healthcare conditions
Prescription medications
Sanitizer
Sunscreen
“It’s also a fantastic plan to know area harmful critters – fire ants, jellyfish, mosquitos, and many others.” says Dr. Courtney.
Essentials for very first-help kit
Airports and germs
Airports have tons of higher contact surfaces. The finest point way to avoid picking up germs at the airport — sanitizing and hand washing.
Wash your fingers or sanitize:
Before eating.
Just after likely by means of security.
Just before touching your deal with.
After making use of the bathroom.
“Killing the germs with sanitizer or cleaning soap is the most helpful matter to do,” claims Dr. Courtney.
Rest agenda on vacation
Continue to keep on your own nutritious whilst on vacation with a great night’s rest.
“You want to make guaranteed you’re acquiring ample high-quality snooze,” suggests Dr. Courtney. “Drinking far too substantially alcoholic beverages will make you truly feel additional worn out and decrease your slumber good quality.”
If you’re touring to a diverse time zone, you can alter your sleep by:
Setting alarms.
Obtaining and being out of mattress.
Shifting your snooze plan by 20-30 minutes per working day.
Rest perfectly for your wellness
Vacation constipation
Vacation constipation transpires when you are not able to poop on your normal timetable even though traveling. Constipation can be prompted by various things together with:
Adjust in things to do.
Transform in eating plan.
Adjust in regime.
Ingesting extra alcohol.
Having much less fiber.
Ingesting more fats.
“If you normally poop soon after a specific meal, but now have an activity or a thing disrupting your agenda, you’ll keep it in,” suggests Dr. Courtney. “This causes your poop to dry out additional, creating it tougher to pass.”
Treatments for constipation
If it’s been a working day or a lot more passed your ordinary timetable, choose up a stool softener.
“If you presently have constipation, fiber and osmotic laxatives will add more bloating and bulk, but not soften issues to support go,” suggests Dr. Courtney. “A stool softener, or if desired a suppository or enema, will crack up the constipation dam.”
Protecting against constipation on trip
To stay away from constipation, try out to retain your ordinary consumption of fiber. Consume your fruits, vegetables and whole grains or acquire a fiber supplement.
Contact your main care service provider for any vaccination demands and if you have any issues right before or following your travel dates.
Reduced trust driven by issues about exterior affect and conflicting suggestions
For speedy launch: March 6, 2023
Boston, MA—In the initial nationally consultant survey of U.S. older people on causes for have confidence in in federal, condition, and neighborhood public wellness agencies’ details for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan Faculty of Community Health and fitness and colleagues discovered that the Facilities for Sickness Manage and Prevention (CDC) was remarkably trusted for information by far more than 1-third of U.S. grown ups, whilst point out and neighborhood health and fitness departments ended up remarkably reliable by about one-quarter. An supplemental 37-51{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of adults reliable these community wellbeing companies considerably, and <10{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} reported no trust at all in these agencies for health information.
High levels of trust were not primarily due to people believing agencies had “done a good job” controlling the spread of COVID-19, but rather to public beliefs that agencies communicated clear, science-based recommendations and provided protective resources, such as tests and vaccines. The survey found that lower levels of trust were primarily related to beliefs that health recommendations were influenced by politics or corporations, or were conflicting.
“Trust in public health agencies is crucial for enabling effective policies that save lives during emergencies,” said lead author Gillian SteelFisher, principal research scientist in the Department of Health Policy and Management and director of global polling at the Harvard Opinion Research Program. “Emergency programs have been underfunded for decades, but these data make clear how important it is to ensure public health agencies have appropriate stockpiles, have authority to make decisions based on scientific information, and have a stronger communication infrastructure.”
The survey’s findings will be published March 6, 2023, in the March issue of Health Affairs, a themed issue focused on public health lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. The survey was conducted in February 2022 among a nationally representative sample of 4,208 U.S. adults.
The researchers also found significant differences in reasons that the public trusts federal, state, and local public health agencies. Public trust in the CDC was related primarily to beliefs in their scientific expertise, whereas trust in state and local public health agencies was more related to their provision of direct, compassionate care.
In addition, the study found key differences in the primary reasons why adults had lower levels of trust. Among those who reported trusting public health agencies “somewhat,” concerns were focused on conflicting recommendations and the perception of political influence. By comparison, those who reported trusting agencies “not very much” or “not at all” raised many more concerns, including agencies’ recommendations going “too far” and limited trust in government generally.
The researchers used the results to suggest takeaways to inform public health leaders in COVID-19 and future emergencies. They suggested a need to enhance policies around stockpiles of protective resources such as masks to support a robust communication infrastructure in which public health agencies are given clear authority to disseminate science-based recommendations and to engage trusted partners, such as clinicians and religious leaders, to amplify agency communications. Such measures would allow public health agencies to develop strategies to more effectively engage different segments of the public who have varying levels of trust, the researchers said.
Other Harvard Chan School co-authors included Mary Findling and Hannah Caporello.
Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Health Policy and Management at Harvard Chan School, served as an issue advisor for Health Affairs, and co-authored a paper in the issue about public health workforce retention.
The study was conducted through a cooperative agreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, who subcontracted to the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
“Trust in US Federal, State, and Local Public Health Agencies During COVID-19: Responses and Policy Implications,” Gillian K. Steelfisher, Mary G. Findling, Hannah L. Caporello, Keri M. Lubell, Kathleen G. Vidoloff Melville, Lindsay Lane, Alyssa A. Boyea, Thomas J. Schafer, Eran N. Ben-Porath, Health Affairs, March 6, 2023, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2022.01204
Visit the Harvard Chan School website for the latest news, press releases, and multimedia offerings.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people’s lives—not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America’s oldest professional training program in public health.
The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (Fda) has declared that its latest regulatory framework is inadequate to management merchandise that contains cannabidiol (CBD), and as a consequence, the company will modify its regulatory oversight.
The late January announcement describes how the company intends to harmony the consumer’s need for CBD items with its mandate to control danger by implementing restrictions on CBD that would slide outdoors the standard purview of dietary nutritional supplement rules.
Cannabidiol is an natural and organic chemical uncovered in the hashish plant. CBD lacks the psychoactive chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) identified in marijuana that creates a feeling of staying “high.” CBD items occur in the form of oils, extracts, vaporized liquids, oil-based mostly capsules and edibles. Simply because these goods do not consist of psychoactive THC, CBD exists in a legal gray location, becoming neither explicitly unlawful nor wholly permitted.
The Fda assertion notes that “the use of CBD raises numerous safety worries, specially with extended-time period use.” The company cites experiments that show opportunity damage to the liver, perilous interaction with prescription drugs and potential problems to male reproductive organs. Furthermore, CBD is not vetted for use in vulnerable populations this kind of as youngsters or all those who are pregnant.
The FDA’s new regulatory pathway would provide safeguards and oversights to advantage individuals and minimize pitfalls. At this time, the agency’s existing foods and dietary nutritional supplement rules give only “limited tools” and have to now meet up with safety standards for dietary nutritional supplements or food stuff additives. Nonetheless, the Food and drug administration has denied 3 citizen petitions requesting that CBD be marketed as a dietary health supplement.
Some possibility administration applications of the new pathway include:
Very clear labels describing the product’s composition
Finest tactics for the avoidance of contaminants
CBD content limitations
Regulatory actions, these as making a bare minimum acquire age, to mitigate the hazard of ingestion by little ones
Generating a new pathway for CBD items would also allow the Fda to regulate CBD merchandise supposed for animal use. This pathway would allow for for the research of CBD publicity via the meat, milk, or eggs of animals who have been fed CBD.
In buy for the Food and drug administration to acquire a new regulatory pathway, it will need an act of Congress to increase the Food stuff Drug & Cosmetics Act.
Mark Hutchinson, MD, FACSM, professor of orthopedics and sporting activities medicine and head team medical doctor, University of Illinois Chicago president, ACSM Basis, Chicago.
CDC: “How significantly physical action do adults need to have?”
OrthoInfo: “Healthy Bones at Every single Age.”
ChoosePT: “Physical Therapy Guidebook to Osteoporosis.”
Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: “The Erlangen Physical fitness Osteoporosis Prevention Review: a controlled physical exercise demo in early postmenopausal women with very low bone density-1st-calendar year outcomes.”
Harvard Well being Publishing, Harvard Health-related University: “Declining muscle mass is section of aging, but that does not suggest you are helpless to prevent it.”
Intercontinental Journal of Environmental Study and General public Health: “The Effects of Significant-Depth Interval Coaching vs. Moderate-Depth Steady Training on Coronary heart Rate Variability in Bodily Inactive Grownups.”
European Journal of Cardiovascular Avoidance and Rehabilitation: “Association of actual physical action with all-induce and cardiovascular mortality: a systematic review and meta-assessment.”
American Journal of Epidemiology: “Does Strength-Marketing Workout Confer Special Health Positive aspects? A Pooled Examination of Facts on 11 Inhabitants Cohorts With All-Result in, Most cancers, and Cardiovascular Mortality Endpoints.”
British Journal of Sports activities Drugs: “The dose-response outcome of physical exercise on cancer mortality: conclusions from 71 possible cohort reports.”
Physiological Assessments: “Role of Inactivity in Chronic Diseases: Evolutionary Insight and Pathophysiological Mechanisms.”
Hashish and Cannabinoid Research: “A Systematic Review and Meta-Assessment on the Effects of Physical exercise on the Endocannabinoid Technique.”
Medicine & Science in Activity & Exercising: “Endocannabinoid and Mood Responses to Workout in Grownups with Various Exercise Levels.”
The Dialogue: “The ‘runner’s high’ may final result from molecules named cannabinoids—the body’s own model of THC and CBD.”
JAMA Psychiatry: “Association of Efficacy of Resistance Work out Education With Depressive Indications: Meta-evaluation and Meta-regression Examination of Randomized Scientific Trials.”
Sporting activities Drugs: “The Consequences of Resistance Work out Instruction on Stress: A Meta-Assessment and Meta-Regression Analysis of Randomized Managed Trials.”
Scandinavian Journal of Medication & Science in Sports: “Increased insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in each leg and arm muscle tissues soon after sprint interval and moderate-intensity teaching in topics with type 2 diabetic issues or prediabetes.”
British Journal of Athletics Medicine: “Exercise interventions for cognitive function in older people older than 50: a systematic review with meta-investigation.”
Preventive Drugs Reviews: “Dash-centered training and cognitive perform in adolescents.”
Mind Plasticity: “The Effects of Acute Work out on Temper, Cognition, Neurophysiology, and Neurochemical Pathways: A Evaluate.”
Countrywide Library of Medication: “Neuroanatomy, Parasympathetic Nervous Technique.”
The Journal of Alternate and Complementary Medication: “Effects of Yoga on Heart Price Variability and Depressive Indicators in Women” A Randomized Controlled Demo.”
Proof-Centered Complementary and Choice Medication: “Medical Students’ Strain Amounts and Feeling of Properly Getting Soon after 6 Weeks of Yoga and Meditation.”
CDC: “Facts About Falls.”
Medicine and Science in Athletics and Physical exercise: “Physical Exercise, Injurious Falls, and Actual physical Purpose in Getting old: An Umbrella Evaluate.”
