Let's not forget what's in a homeopathic remedy.
It can be plain water
It can be plain alcohol.
It can be a plain sugar pill
The other ingredient is always magic. Because homeopath agrree. the chances of there being a single molecule of whatever the original remedy was in the homeopathic remedy you've bought is zero.
It's a funny kind of magic because banging it around while you dilute it makes the magic stronger. Does science think this magic is possible? There's no mechanism (other than making it up or faking) that explains how nothing can prevent or cure disease. Be smart: get vaccinated. If you don't get vaccinated, at least don't waste your money on magic.
Please provide the reference to the formally published paper on the results of giving 2 million people in Cuba a homeo vaccine for lepto.
I don't think there is one, even in a homeo journal. I don't think there ever will be one, because this wasn't a study or a trial.
Take a disease that responds to public health measures and individuals can cut down greatly if they follow prevention rules.Add in a REAL vaccine. Add in an infection whose rate depends on the weather.
Now give 95% of a population a vaccine --- either a real one of a magical one. And count the number of deaths and infections. And compare that to an earlier year.
How can you tell if the vaccine was effective? At the very minimum, you've got to do an awful lot of work to eliminate all the factors. I don't think it can be done. But there's no evidence that those who reported on the homeo vaccine even tried to do this.
Does this prove a homeo vaccine for lepto didn't work? No.
Does this prove a homeo vaccine for lepto worked? No.
So it's useless.
On the other hand:
The Cubans are very proud of their vaccine for leptospirosis that was developed at the Finlay Institute and then tested for safety and effectiveness. Although the dosage is a bit higher than the 200 CH from the homeopathic presentation (200 CH means 0 molecules of anything effective). In a vial of vax-SPIRAL® (probably contains 10 doses) you get 3 x 50-80 x 10 raised to the 6th power cells of lepto plus an old style adjuvant of aluminium hydroxide gel with the addition of 0.01% thiomersal as preservative. Between a 150 and 240 million cells in a small vial.
http://www.finlay.sld.cu/english/products/vaxspirale1.htm
http://www.medicc.org/publications/medicc_review/1004/pages/cuban_medical_literature_2.html
In a blog entry, Dana Ullman goes gaga over recent work by Tom Jefferson calling into question the effectiveness of flu shots, especially in the elderly. But what evidence does he supply that Homeopathy works?
Sure homeopathic remedies are much safer. Do you know how safe they are. In Cuba, they mixed up a homeopathic (close enough here) vaccine, didn't do any trials and gave it to 2 miilion people without a single side effect. No one would do that with a real vaccine.
What could be safer than a little bit of water, a little bit of alcohol or a plain sugar pill PLUS magic. One of the reasons homeopathic remedies are successful is that people don't know how they're made. If you don't know, check it out and you'll see that all that's added is magic.
On his own Huffington blog, Ullman takes pleasure in using a serious but very much minority view coming out of some major, recent, peer reviewed and good quality studies questioning the effectiveness of the flu vaccine. Notice these words: major, recent, peer reviewed and good quality.
So what does Ullman use as evidence that homeopathic and naturopathic medicines work on infectious diseases ? Impressive results that are over a 100 years old. If that's convincing, then you'd better reconsider sending $8.000 to cover some advance expenses before they deposit 5 million dollars in your bank account.
Do antibiotic drugs simplify the bacteria in your body? Yes, along with killing what we want to kill, some other bacteria are killed. On the other hand, you're not getting very, very sick or dying because of an infection. Take your pick. The same is true for anti-virals.
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No, I'm not asking to be redirected around the internet. I would really like for you or Josephius to tell us why so many kids are disabled today - or chronically ill with the conditions I mentioned in my original comment. You come across as well read - I'd like you to read your response. I'd like to hear your scientific findings.
And...don't claim "genetic conditions" or "improved diagnostic methods"...we don't have autism and allergies a generation back in our family tree. We do have them now - with my children's generation. I'd like someone who is exonerating vaccines to tell us - if vaccines don't cause autism and allergies (learning disabilities, asthma) - what does?
It is insulting that posters are minimizing the side effects of vaccines...when some of us are living with dramatic consequences of a largely untested and bloated vaccination program.