Society of Homeopaths: more dirty tricks

Today is World AIDS Day, and the Society of Homeopaths have decided to mark the occasion by holding a seminar talking about how best their mystical magical sugar pills can treat HIV and AIDS patients. To remind everyone that such a monumental event of importance was happening, they issued a press release yesterday. It’s very long-winded, so I’m going to concentrate on the last bit:

The Society is committed to a strategic goal of the establishment of an independent single register and regulatory body for homeopaths. This would offer the public just one register of homeopaths in the UK alongside the reassurance that they meet the required standards.
Jayne Thomas
Symposium Chair
Vice Chair, Board of Directors
National AIDS Trust: www.nat.org.uk

Now, there are two problems here. One is the claim that a single register under the SoH would enable the public that the homeopaths contained on it meet the required standards. As we’ve seen time and time again, the SoH are incapable of regulating their own homeopaths (specifically, the ban on making claims to treat named diseases, which neatly brings us back to this press release…)

Secondly, anyone skim reading the document, as I did, would think that Jayne Thomas is Vice Chair of the National AIDS Trust board of directors. That little link has just been tagged onto the end. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the Society of Homeopaths referenced at the end? It’s almost as if Jayne Thomas wants us to think she works for the National AIDS Trust.

When the real National AIDS Trust found out about this sleight of hand, they were not amused. One phonecall later, and the reference no longer appears on the press release.

So there you have it. The Society of Homeopaths: your one-stop quack shop for bogus medicine, ineffective management, and dubious deceit.

6 comments December 1st, 2007