Kaitlyn Burch: Time columnist Leon Jaroff predicts the end of homeopathic medicine, after reading a study from British medical journal The Lancet, proving the inefficacy of homeopathic medicine. Though Jaroff begins his piece by repeating the Royal Family’s endorsement of homeopathy, he goes on to gloat that homeopathic medicine is about to get its comeuppance, finally, after 150 years of duping sick people all over the world into thinking they were well. But Jaroff fails to go deeper into that important and interesting territory: Why do these folks feel so good, after all, if there’s no medical benefits to homeopathic treatments? And why is Jaroff so emphatically against homeopathic medicine if it does bring comfort to some sick people? Jaroff seems to believe that if there is enough scientific evidence to prove its ineffectiveness, the users of homeopathy will simply stop believing that it works. And as we all know, all it takes to dissuade believers is scientific proof, right? What Jaroff seems most upset about is that this is a million-dollar industry that might be fooling people out of money. He could have had an interesting piece if he investigated why people continue using homeopathic medicine despite evidence against it, but Jaroff goes the easy route, siding with science through and through and saying of homeopathic practice, “What nonsense!” What is nonsense is Jaroff’s idea that the study in The Lancet might actually make a dent in the number of people who use homeopathic medicine.
Attempting to Dissuade Believers
11 October 2005