I apologise in advance if this is a tad too political for your liking. For the record, it is for mine too, but I just couldnt stand by and let this ridiculous matter go without having brought it to your attention.
You see, here in Australia there is this group that call themselves ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’, a bunch of more than 400 doctors, medical researchers and scientists who have taken it upon themselves to bully our universities into closing down all alternative medicine degrees. The many disciplines that this covers, such as traditional Chinese herbal medicine, chiropractics, homeopathy, naturopathy, reflexology and aromatherapy, have been called “quackery” and the vice chancellors of the universities that teach these courses have been told that their reputations are trashed by failing to support only evidence-based medicine and science.
How nice of these people to be so concerned for the reputation of our universities and how lucky we have them to save us from our ignorant ways….NOT!
The group, which names world-renowned biologist Sir Gustav Nossal and the creator of the cervical cancer vaccine Professor Ian Frazer among its members, is also campaigning for private health insurance providers to stop providing rebates for alternative medical treatments.
A co-founder of the group, Emeritus Professor John Dwyer, of the University of NSW, who is also a government adviser on consumer health fraud, said it was distressing that 19 universities were now offering “degrees in pseudo science”.
“It’s deplorable, but we didn’t realise how much concern there was out there for universities’ reputations until we tapped into it,” Professor Dwyer said. “We’re saying enough is enough. Taxpayers’ money should not be wasted on funding [these courses] … nor should government health insurance rebates be wasted on this nonsense.” Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/tertiary-education/scientists-urge-unis-to-axe-alternative-medicine-courses-20120125-1qhtm.html#ixzz1kdNpBzZW
Demand for courses in complementary medicine continues to grow throughout the country, surely this has to be a sign that the population WANT these studies to continue. I’m not sure where Prof Dwyer thinks his REAL science started out but I think that perhaps his education is not as complete as he might think.
Please people, as much as you can, support this matter. Let your voices be heard. Education is a right and let popularity dictate what is being taught and what is not. It is not a political matter and as such people like ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’ should keep their narrow little minds out of what they do not understand.
Friends of Science in Medicine are…. “actually not that interested in evidence, because the overwhelming evidence is that putting CAM into universities has increased the standards, decreased the fringe element, and improved public safety, so it definitely smacks of dogmatism,” said Dr Wardle” a NHMRC Resaerch Fellow at the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health and co-director of the Network of Researchers in Public Health and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NORPHCAM), an international group promoting clinical research in CAM.
No friends of people’s medicine is a post from: Herbology.com.au - For permission to reprint please contact admin at Herbology
