Uncategorized Andy L 24th August, 2011 32 Comments

Jeremy Sherr: Daktari wa mchawi na dawa yake mbaya

The Society of Homeopaths in the UK has constantly refused to engage in any meaningful way about how western homeopaths are travelling to Africa and setting up clinics that use homeopathic sugar pills to treat and prevent dangerous diseases, such as TB, malaria and HIV.

This is a murderous practice. People will die if they are told that homeopathy is a ‘side-effect free’ way of treating or preventing these diseases. People will die if they are told that homeopathy is an effective medicine.

Very often it is their members who are involved by either volunteering at these clinics or donating money. The Society has responded to these criticisms with bluster and obfuscation. A typical statement from them might read as,

The Society of Homeopaths, the UK’s largest register of homeopaths with 1,500 members, does not endorse the use of homeopathic remedies with a view to preventing serious tropical diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.

These are hollow words. Recently, the Society held their annual seminar in York where they invited Jeremy Sherr to talk. Sherr is one of the most notorious homeopaths in Africa (read about him on gimpy’s blog.) He has no shame in promoting his sugar pills amongst some of the most vulnerable people in Africa. For this, Sherr is lauded and treated like a god by UK homeopaths. The Society used the seminar to raise funds for Sherr, being helped along by Helios pharmacy and Lockton’s Insurers.

This is how Sherr promotes his clinic. It is not easy watching.

Like Abha Light in Kenya, Sherr’s clinics need to be shut down. These deluded zeolots want to ensure that homeopathy is “gonna go everywhere in Africa”. They tell people with HIV that sugar pills can treat their conditions. ‘It is a good medicine with no side effects’.

According to their enlisted rapper ‘Rhymes B’, “Homeopathy is the only medicine that God wants.”, and that you should “Take it for malaria and gonna feel alright”.

The song lyrics tell people that homeopathy is ‘made naturally from natural plants.’ It does not mention that those plants do not treat illness and that in any case all traces of them have been removed by the homeopathic process of massive and repeated dilution. Homeopathy is just sugar pills and water.

It makes explicit claims that a person with HIV will see their CD4 count improved. “For malaria is not a problem. For HIV not a problem either”. These are murderous words that will kill people.

Sherr will not listen to his critics. Western homeopaths, deeply deluded and besotted with this individual, can only obfuscate and mislead whilst actively supporting him. If he is not stopped soon, then homeopathy might well take a deep grip within African countries and just be one more massive burden that this continent has to carry.

Andy L

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32 comments

Ron Lewis 24th August, 2011 4:49 pm

Can you propose a practical method for stopping him, and soon?

Phil 24th August, 2011 5:46 pm

This has been going on for far too long, yet the international aspect makes it difficult to see how it can most effectively be challenged. Perhaps if a number of MPs could be briefed about it (Julian Huppert?) to bring more pressure to bear… But on whom? Could the Nightingale Collaboration help (I know it’s ‘done’ homeopathy, but this is something on an entirely different level).

This is murder. It’s chilling.

Jerry H. 24th August, 2011 6:33 pm

YouTube helpfully provides a “Flag Video” function. One of the options for flagging videos for review is called “Scams/fraud”. Methinks that may apply in this case?

Badly Shaved Monkey 24th August, 2011 9:46 pm

Has someone taken a copy of that video before it disappears in the face of unfriendly gaze?

Nauseating.

Badly Shaved Monkey 24th August, 2011 10:05 pm

Done it. Used zamzar.com

It’s 52.1Mb so not easy to e-mail, but easy to get a copy for yourself.

le canard noir 24th August, 2011 10:14 pm

Thanks. But I think the homeopaths are very proud of it.

Badly Shaved Monkey 25th August, 2011 8:20 am

Nobody’s started asking them awkward questions about it yet…

jon 25th August, 2011 9:13 am

where is the WHO ? anybody know ?

Kulvinder Singh Matharu 25th August, 2011 10:20 am

For malaria as well. Shameful.

Tony Ryan – Coffee Loving Skeptic 25th August, 2011 12:55 pm

Many of my friends are unaware at best (and ignorant to the dangers of) homeopathy and other alternative treatments. I’ve done a quick beginner’s guide to why alternative medicine isn’t just ineffective, but actually harmful. http://wp.me/p1u5Um-bt And I hope it helps people start on the path to learning about this problem.

Dr Richard Rawlins 25th August, 2011 2:46 pm

Gimpy’s blog is so full I am using Mr Quack’s

I note Prince Charles has sent congratulations to the Society of Homeopaths. For what did he congratulate them/ Merely existing or for providing some covert benefit of which only PC has knowledge.

We should be told. Can someone find out?

I am gratified to learn that PC “does NOT endorse any particular treatment”.

So, we can all now boldly state “Prince Charles does NOT endorse homeopathy”.

Good news at last.

GrannyWeatherwax 25th August, 2011 5:30 pm

” No side effects ” ?!
Personally I would count death as a pretty significant side effect.

Wendy Pearman 25th August, 2011 8:10 pm

Thank you again, Andy.

The sheer egotism involved in this video is horrific. Jeremy down with the guys? Even more horrific in the context.

I join Ron Lewis in asking is there anything, that I could do, practically, to help stop this? If so, please tell me and I will do my best.

I’ve persoanl reason to care for Africa and I’d like to help.

Rita 27th August, 2011 12:29 pm

What about pointing out (in Muslim areas) that homeopathic sources also include pig parts and embryos (look on the provings pages if you don’t believe me)?

Euclidiana 8th November, 2015 2:16 am

Oh Rita, you so demonstrate the ignorance that so many have.
Remedies are made from any substance. The final product in its ultra-dilution, contains none of the original substance, or very little in low potency. Remedies are energetic expressions of the original substance
So a part of a pig, and the important thing is not the part, but the fact that its made from a pig, is indicated for a very specific totality of symptoms with a qualitative expression that reflects the substance.
Occasionally, but less than you’d think, we can understand that expression by knowing the substance. For example, we might think of a pig remedy for someone with a ravenous indiscriminate appetite. This is what I mean by qualitative. But the picture of the pig remedy goes way beyond anthropomorphizing the substance, which is why we do provings.
Embryo’s qualitatively express its function of providing safety and nutrients for a fetus, and you can see this in the proving, but again there are many aspects of the energetic expression we could not infer.
When we see these aspects specifically express themselves in a patient, we may prescribe the remedy. Fascinating, don’t you think?

Andy Lewis 8th November, 2015 11:58 pm

There really is no need to go on explaining homeopathy after correctly saying that the remedies contain none of the original substance. All the talk of ‘energetic expressions’ is just bullshit. You have no idea what this means because it is meaningless.

Roger 13th September, 2011 7:21 am

Has anyone gone and seen the results of J.Sherr’s work? They are documenting before and after treatment. Its not top secret. Seems like that might be the first step before this frantic mobilization.

Sounds like colonial paternalism to me, that Africans arent to be allowed to make their own decisions about what treatments they want to take. They can certainly walk away from what he is offering. And the Africans could drive him away if they didnt like his work; lets give “our little brown brother” some credit for making adult informed decisions based on the results that they see.

Homeopathy made one remedy from a few grams of pig (extracted once); I dont think conventional medicine would want it pointed out that it uses many pigs (as experimental subjects and genetically modified organisms) to develop and produce medicines. Lets leave this inflammatory stuff alone, for everyone’s benefit.

R.Flemming 7th February, 2012 1:20 pm

These people who criticize homeopathy, they are similar to deaf children at a music concert. They see the musicians, and they see the instruments, but they can not hear the music.
Note that these homeopaths referred to, operates among poor people, people who barely have clothes on their bodies. What do they earn on this, except the pleasure of being able to help sick people?
I wonder, would the pharmaceutical mafia do the same?

Badly Shaved Monkey 11th March, 2012 10:21 am

“These people who criticize homeopathy, they are similar to deaf children at a music concert.”

I’m always impressed when a homeopath finds new depths of stupidity to plumb.

We are simply telling you that the orchestra never arrived and you are sitting with your eyes shut humming tunes in your own heads.

Phil the Barbarian 11th March, 2012 5:19 am

That word “help”. I don’t think it means what you think it means. I’ll be blunt when I state that what the homeopaths are endorsing doesn’t work as advertised. People endorsing homeopathic medicines for conditions that are killing people is not helping, especially since it’s not solely to help people. This is trying to create a new market in places where people aren’t educated enough to know that what they’re getting isn’t the kind of “medicine” that does a lot of good.

Euclidiana 8th November, 2015 2:02 am

Hah, a ‘new market’. Right! in case you didn’t know, Jeremy and his team are not getting paid. They barely scrape by with their donations.
He’s not been able to find any big donators, and he’s not a Bill Gates.
And I’m sure the quack busting priests of scientism haven’t helped bring in any donors themselves, LOL
Their team are volunteers and have to pay their own way.
They’re not under any illusions that this will not make them any money anytime soon. Listen, homeopathy at present is not even a lucrative profession in most cases by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps there are a few MD homeopaths that do better, but believe me, its not like being a neurosurgeon. Homeopathic pharmacies make pitons relative to conventional pharmacies.
So come on, go back to you other conspiracy theory ideas.
See this is what I mean. You skeptics talk about homeopath’s fantasies, and clearly from a rational perspective, you people live the most convincing fantasies of them all!

Andy Lewis 8th November, 2015 11:56 pm

Let me remind you. Boiron – the French homeopathic pharmacy – market cap today stands at 1.5 billion euros.

Shannon 26th October, 2014 2:55 pm

Oh shutup you moron. Maybe you should try something before you condemn it.

Euclidiana 4th November, 2015 7:21 pm

The above article and the rest of the comment mob that supports it
are so far into a pathological skepticism, you really all need good homeopathic remedies big time! But of course you’d never try it yourself.
That would be too logical.
Funny how your skepticism has nothing to do with logic or critical thinking at all. If any of you claim to be scientists or physicians, its you that should be ashamed to create such mob-mentality and deny a real and valid possibility to dealing with tragic epidemics the Africans face.
Why not do some research yourself instead of relying on your delusion and fantasy that homeopathy cannot work.
I should be used to it but your blind ignorance continues to climb further and further.
Jeremy’s exemplary work is safe to the extent that he tells no-one to
get off their drugs. The fact is that most patients come in doing their ARV that have lost their effectiveness due to the problem of changes in prescription to pace with mutations. Many he sees have extremely low CD counts and are already on death’s door or rapidly descending there.
After homeopathic treatment their symptoms improve, CD goes up, they gain weight, energy, and are able to work again. There are clear video examples of this. What – do you think he’s set up a whole movie set hiring actors to pretend he’s doing something effective?
He’s saving lives and he’s collecting the data and doing the videos to demonstrate that. How dare you and the rest try to meddle with that simply out of your ignorant, arrogant and narrow-minded egos. Shame!

lecanardnoir 4th November, 2015 7:39 pm

It is attitudes such as yours that are pushing homeopathy to the point of disappearance within the UK. Whilst homeopaths continue their narcisistic fantasies that their 19th Century superstitious medicine has any role to play in the treatment of serious illness then they will be continue to be scrutinised, critised and held to account wherever they can be.

If Sherr truly believes he can treat people then he has an absolute moral resposnibility to take his beliefs through the formal processes of scientific examination, including setting out in the peer reviewed literatire his reasons and evidence and before treating patients ensure he has the full backing of indepedent ethics and research boards.

He cannot do this though and what he does without such things is deeply disturbing and morally repugnant.

Euclidiana 8th November, 2015 1:44 am

Hah! “narcissistic”, talk about the pot calling the kettle black! If we want to talk evidence, first of all show me some evidence that homeopathy is inherently dangerous, and if you can, then this obsession many of you skeptics have about the ultra-dilution being fantastical, and the remedies being just water, obviously holds no ground because you can’t have it both ways. Ruling that out, show me the evidence that Jeremy is causing any harm whatsoever by helping HIV patients in Africa. Certainly there are no studies of this sort to indicate that people in the UK or anywhere else are harmed by being convinced by homeopaths that they should do homeopathy and not conventional medicine. I’m sure like in any field, there might be the odd practitioner that don’t have the ethical mind to suggests other options, and homeopaths work on cleaning that up. MD’s go even further and trash homeopathy acting unethically when they talk about homeopathy having no credible evidence of helping people, when that simply isn’t the case. This is disturbing. Where are the watchdogs on that?

If you watch even this video alone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us1DbMgbVAM
Can you really say you believe this story and patient outcome to be just made up? Come on!! Look with you eyes, there attached to your brain! If you know anything about how it goes for HIV patients with a CD count of 4, or if you any clinical experience period, you would have to be at the very least intrigued, and you would look into it. There are many other just as impressive outcomes.

And Jeremy’s data is being kept for research purposes. He is very careful not to tell anybody to go off their conventional drugs – Is that what you call unethical? He differentiates the 2 treatments as well, The ARV drugs are going nowhere and the homeopathy goes to huge improvements.

In general, there is a growing body of ‘gold standard’ evidence for the efficacy of homeopathy, even if its not the best kind of research for homeopathy’s mode of action which is directed more to the individual vs the disease as represented generally, requiring different research standards. And still, there are significant results past placebo!

Jermey shouldn’t have to “set this out” before he goes to help. Is that what Drs without Borders do? No.Do you call them unethical?
Jeremy and his team work in hospitals there for god sakes and they blow MDs minds with the results they get. Its being well received by the people and professionals alike there. That should bode well with you non-professionals. But it is you people in fact that are too narcissistic, biased and unprofessional to see it.

Andy Lewis 8th November, 2015 11:51 pm

Your insightless into the potential harms of homeopathy and the ethics of treatment show just how dangerous homeopaths can be. I will answer your questions, for all the good it will do, in that I do not expect you to acknowledge any of the issues I raise or engage with the arguments to any meaningful extent.

Firstly, any medical treatment has the potential to do harm. There are mant ways this can be so and homeopaths are not immune to them. Side effects are only one way harm can be done and we can both agree that homeopathy in principle is free from intrinsic side effects. However, extrinsic effects can be very serious. Let’s forst assume that the treatment has merit: incompetent practitioner can do harm nonetheless. Is the treatment effective in the situation? Efficacy and effectiveness are not the same. But for homeopathy there is no reason to that treatments are efficacious or effective. Treatments can harm by not being effective. They may prevent better treatments being used. Even if you believe in homeopathy, there is no good evidence to suggest homeopathy can ve effective as a treatment for serious illness in Africa. If Sherr is wrong then he will be doing much harm. All the science suggest he is completelty wrong.

You ask for me to show you the evidence that Sherr is doing harm? What planet are you on? The absolute onus is on Sherr to demonstrate what he is doing is safe and effective to a standard that would convince ethical review bodies and respinsible bodies of medical opinion. He does not even try to do this which is deepkly disturbing. Imagine if Big Pharma was saying that it did not need to do this and used anecdotes and youtube videos as evidence? You would be right to be outraged. Why are you not outraged at Sherr?

You say Sherr “is very careful not to tell anybody to go off their conventional drugs”. Did you watch the promotional video in the above blog post where he is happy telling people that homeopathy is the best medicine and that it is the medicine Gof woulf choose? How is that compatible with what you say? Do not kid yourself.

Yopu mention Doctors without Borders. There is a world of difference between MSF and Sherr. MSF have a strict code of conduct and an accountability program that ensures independent oversight and evaluation. Where can we see Sherr’s independent oversight and evaluation? Let me tell you. There is none. He is accountable to no-one but his own ego.

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