Better late than never – Australia finally gets it on homeopathy

You knew this would get me back to the typewriter, right?

Bottom line: the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council has concluded that:

“…there is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective for treating health conditions”

Well, better late than never in coming to the same conclusion that ordinary folk like me have years ago. This excellent article in The Conversation summarises the issue nicely.

So, will health funds stop covering this sort of nonsense and costing the rest of us more? Will the government stop funding universities who teach this quackery?

Well, here’s my tip: Fresh from reinstating knighthoods, the Liberal government will:

• disband the NHMRC as part of its response to the ‘budget disaster’
• Replace GP Superclinics with holistic medicine centres because, let’s face it, homeopathy is much more cost effective
• Increase funding to research into complementary medicine (that is, medicine that doesn’t work), and
• Make complementary extras in private health care compulsory.

After all, millions of people use homeopathy, right? And millions of people are ‘the market’. And the market is speaking, so let’s get on with it.

Someone has to stand up to these scientists, and the Libs are the ones to do it.

I now look forward to that flood of comments about how misguided I am in disbelieving homeopathy, and being sucked in by the medical industrial complex. I especially look forward to the anecdotes which people cling to to justify wasting money and avoiding actual medical care.