3 ms·
> Wishful thinking, but next up should be homeopathic snake-oil. It sounds like it's serving a useful purpose. > "I know so many people… hell, I've done this
by Alex3917 3y ago
> Wishful thinking, but next up should be homeopathic snake-oil.
It sounds like it's serving a useful purpose.
> "I know so many people… hell, I've done this myself, I've bought [a homeopathic] product by mistake," Little said. In a trip to the drug store while sick or as a weary parent of a miserably ill child, it's easy to mistakenly pick up a homeopathic product in haste or the fog of infection.
If folks are going to irresponsibly take some random drug without having any idea what's in it, it sounds like funneling them toward something that won't harm them is a good thing. I mean would you really rather have them giving their kids something like tylenol without reading the dosage instructions?
- ekianjo 3y agoWe should give kids aspirin just like we used to and stop believing a ridiculous paper that claims that it causes some kind of rare disease.
- brandonmenc 3y ago> like we used to We haven't given aspirin to kids for like half a century. I know this, because my uncle died from Reye syndrome from aspirin when he was two years old right before the recommendation changed. I'm guessing a decent number of unexplained child deaths from back then can be attributed to Reye syndrome from aspirin.
- irons 3y agoIf you're assuming that the homeopathic stuff is incapable of harming anyone, you're mistaken. https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/fda-warns-amazon-to-stop-selling-bogus-anti-poxvirus-products-for-kids/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/fda-warns-amazon-to-s...
- derbOac 3y agoThe reason to remove such products is because they contain dangerous agents that aren't being disclosed. The same would be said of any scientifically well-validated product that was tainted. If bottles of paracetamol/acetaminophen were contaminated with toxic mold, those should be removed too I think. I personally think the FDA should be more focused on these kinds of things — contamination and labeling fraud — and less on regulation of efficacy or access. We need more access and competition in the US, not less.
- Alex3917 3y agoI'm definitely not assuming that homeopathic medicine is incapable of harming people, but for the sake of this specific argument I think it's reasonable to assume that we could find something that isn't especially harmful to fill the role of giving people who don't read the labels something to take.
- fzeroracer 3y agoI've mentioned this story before, but homeopathic medicine doesn't funnel people towards net-neutral treatments, it pushes them towards harmful ones. Like the time I was at a family meeting and a distant cousin's baby was crying (as babies often do). Another cousin offers a homeopathic tincture they bought earlier to calm the baby and when I took a look at the label, it was random spices and largely alcohol.