'Homeopathy's' star product, 'Oscilloccinum,' is a harmless sugar pill

Shyam

Your free-thinking readers should be aware that, in response to my recent article, I have been sent some very alarming information about the 'homeopathy' racket collected by a group of French and Italian critics. 

The world's largest 'homeopathic' company, 'Boiron', is French, and last year an Italian Blogger, Samuele Riva, was threatened by 'Boiron's' aggressive echelon of attorneys when he posted two truthful articles about the company's most-profitable product, 'Oscilloccinum'  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscillococcinum . These malicious threats were subsequently withdrawn, when 'Boiron's' wealthy bosses quickly began to realize that such bully-boy tactics were only drawing more, unwelcome attention to their global deception; for Mr. Riva is not the only free-thinking person who has openly-challenged 'Boiron's' mystifying, corporate fairy tale.

Two US-based, associated organizations, the 'Center for Inquiry' and the 'Committee for Skeptical Inquiry,' have sent petitions to the US Food and Drug Administration denouncing 'Oscilloccinum' as latter-day snake oil. http://www.thepharmaletter.com/file/107384/citizen-petition-calls-on-us-fda-to-review-regulation-of-homeopathic-drugs.html. A class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of all Californians who bought the product within the last 4 years and who were led to believe that it contained an active ingredient which has been proven to stop flu symptoms in two days. http://www.topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/1309--boiron-oscillococcinum-class-action-lawsuit

Here is perhaps the best detailed-analysis of 'Oscilloccinum' by Mark Crislip (http://www.quackcast.com/ ) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/ososillyococcinum-and-other-flu-bits/ .

In brief, without any independent quantifiable evidence to support their absurd, non-rational narrative, the bosses of 'Boiron' have been allowed to peddle vast quantities of a misbranded, harmless placebo during the previous 65 years. This unoriginal fiction has been given the essentially-meaningless, but technical-sounding, made-up name 'Oscilloccinum.' Whilst the harmless placebo's alleged active ingredient, 'Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum,' is actually the rancid extract of duck liver and heart, impressively described in Latin. However, no matter what thought-stopping, pseudo-scientific jargon has been used to exclude the adult world of quantifiable reality, this cheaply-procured, common substance has been diluted in water to such an astronomical degree that (according to the fundamental laws of science) none of it can possibly remain present in 'homeopathy's' star product.

Sadly, the bosses of 'Boiron' continue to generate countless millions of dollars by steadfastly pretending that their company's harmless sugar pill contains water which, in turn, contains the 'memory' of an 'active ingredient' which, in turn, is a 'scientifically-based remedy for Influenza.'

David Brear (copyright 2012)