Elena,
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"If someone chooses to attend a homeopath, is not harmed, feels better for the experience and pays for the service and feels it's money well spent" - you do not feel the need to look into that matter further. However, if the same person does the same - under the public health insurance system - you feel that they've taken your money. Maybe, you forget that this person also pays into the system, and as the study in France that I mentioned suggests, the people who visit homeopeopaths spend LESS of public money, so it might well be that they get paid back even less than they've paid into the system, although, this needs to be looked into, but that's what I feel myself here.
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Remember that my focus is evidence based medicine. The health dept, in my opinion, should only subsidise evidence based medicine. Of course this is an ideal and there must be a bit of give and take, the nature of evidence being what it is (ie rarely ever is there 100% proof). However, if a treatment has no known mechanism and no evidence base to support its use, it should not be subsidised in my opinion.
Whether or not it is cheaper for the government fo subsidise homoeopathy is a separate issue and, in my opinion, it is not a sufficient reason for them to do so. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it is the wrong reason. The decision to subsidise should be based on evidence for its effectiveness (actually "cost effectiveness" is the correct term to use here, but this could lead us into another discussion about "the greatest good for the greatest number" v "individual rights", so I will leave that stand) Also, I have read a paper somewhere that conclude the opposite: that homoeopathy only adds to existing cost. Who is right, I do not know but, as far as I'm concerned, it is irrelevant
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We have not visited a doctor not once in 10 years, the children were born with the midwife and no medication at all, still we pay into the local scheme, obviously we are now paying for someone's conventional treatment... Although I'm not that attached to money and do not mind this at all.
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I have been attended to by a doctor only three times in my life. The first resulted in an unnecessary operation, the second resulted in a clever diagnosis of malingering by the doctor when I tried to get a day off school, and the third resulted in an embarassing (for me) misdiagnosis of an STD which was actually an impossiblilty, if you know what I mean.
I have been lucky though.
I don't think my father would have survived without his cholecystectomy, or my brother with his osteomyelitis, without appropriate medical care. And my mother has totally new lease on life after her total hip replacement and no longer has to live with chronic severe pain (never mind that her heel ulcer took twleve months to heal :( ).
Coincidentally I was also born at home by a midwife. However this is the way things are done in my country of birth.
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ANd re "homeopathic vaccinations" I personally am totally against the idea, and while I think there will not be much harm, I also think that it's not how the homeopathy is done in the classical way. You can only treat people when they have symptoms, not before that.
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There is potentially great harm to be done.
A few years ago the health dept here introduced the HIB vaccine. The HIB virus is the cause of epiglottitis which can cause death by choking in infants and young children. These days the illness is hardly ever seen and there are no longer any deaths due to epiglottitis.
Homoeopathy cannot immunise against HIB, so promoting it can obviously prove harmful to those who remain unvaccinated as a result. Fortunately, as long as about 90-95% of the population remains vaccinated, the disease is unlikely to reappear and, fortunately less than 5-10% believe the false claims of some homoeopaths regarding vaccinations.
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And I would never suggest anyone to forgo usual vaccinations either though I avoid vaccinating my own children completely. If the people feel safer that way, they should make their own decisions, if they ask me what homeopaths think about the issue I'll tell them, if they'll ask me why I do not vaccinate my children, I will tell them, but I'll certainly add that they are in no way obliged to follow my advice, but should weigh all pros and cons themselves - and bear the responsibility for their choice.
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With all due respect, I hope they don't follow your example, because the evidence is clear regarding childhood vaccinations. If "herd immunity" from vaccinations drops below 90-95%, all unvaccinated children will be at risk.
It is okay, even wise, to look at the pros and cons, but you have to know where to look for reliable information. There is a small, but fairly influential, anti-vaccination lobby worldwide who spread misinformation about vaccinations because they do not understand how to evaluate the evidence and they have gotten themselves into such an entrenched position that they cannot even see the truth any more.
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I know a woman whose child, when he was 2, was hospitalized in coma after receiving a flu shot. The mother has learned something from this incident, needless to say, he did not get any more vaccinations after that. He's 7 now, so far he had no big problems from lack of vaccinations.
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I empathise with her and I understand her reaction and her decision.
I don't know if the coma was the result of the flu vaccine or not, or whether it was coincidental. There are possible allergic reactions to flu vaccine and he amight have had a strong allergy, so it's certainly possible. However, the possible benefits have to be weighed against the possible side-effects. If 10 children die because of the flu vaccine, but 100 die if no child gets vaccinated, what should we do, vaccinate or not vaccinate?
In Australia we do not have routine flu vaccines for children (only for the elderly and those with chronic heart or lung disease, or diabetes - though anyone else can get them if they wish). In the USA, they do. So the risk/benefit ratio is probably not clearly in favour of vaccination in this age group.
regards,
BillyJoe