August 6, 2016

Health Care Journalists Love Homeopathy

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


From Alex Tabarrok:

This isn’t even the worst of it. I once got randomly assigned to a doctor who listened to my complaints and suggested some exercises. I went back two weeks later for a follow-up, and told her that nothing had changed. She was perplexed, and suggested a couple of other things I might try. Also this: “Or you might want to try homeopathic remedies. You can find them at most health food stores.”

I got out of there as fast as I could and never saw her again.1

Also, it turned out the exercises she assigned me were making things worse. When my regular doctor came back from vacation, he ordered me to stop immediately.

1One friend, who obviously tries to see the bright side in people, suggested that she didn’t really believe in homeopathy, but just wanted to prescribe some kind of placebo. Since lots of people seem to believe in homeopathy, she tossed it out in case I was one of them.

Maybe. But I didn’t feel like staying around to find out.

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate