Hey, Guess What!?
Dec. 7th, 2010 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillP.Z. Myers said Christopher Maloney was a quack.
As a result, nine months later (not quick off the mark, this guy), PZ got a letter from a lawyer (one Maeghan Maloney--if Chris had to court and marry a lawyer for this I withdraw my snark about how long it took; a few months delay is perfectly understandable) accusing him of libel.
In my effort to find out more, in particular to find the original source for the claim that Maloney recommended giving kids elderberry instead of vaccinating for flu, which shows up as secondary quotes all over the place, I Googled Christopher Maloney's name and "elderberry."
While i did not, alas, find the original article, I did find this: what appears to be a letter to the editor (of a paper that gets a lot of communications from Christopher--his local paper, perhaps?) in which Christopher defends homeopathic medicine.
Not only that, but when I saw him report that zinc solutions can cause "asomnia" I went "Huh? Uh...lack of sleep? Don't we already have a word for that?" A quick check verified that what he actually meant was anosmia--loss of sense of smell.
Something you might want to keep in mind if you need to go to the doctor because there's something wrong with your sense of smell. Christopher doesn't even know how to spell that--go to a different doctor. Err... "doctor." Since he's not a doctor, he's a naturopathic doctor. As you can see, it looks like there are some important differences in training.
I do particularly like this part though:
As a result, nine months later (not quick off the mark, this guy), PZ got a letter from a lawyer (one Maeghan Maloney--if Chris had to court and marry a lawyer for this I withdraw my snark about how long it took; a few months delay is perfectly understandable) accusing him of libel.
In my effort to find out more, in particular to find the original source for the claim that Maloney recommended giving kids elderberry instead of vaccinating for flu, which shows up as secondary quotes all over the place, I Googled Christopher Maloney's name and "elderberry."
While i did not, alas, find the original article, I did find this: what appears to be a letter to the editor (of a paper that gets a lot of communications from Christopher--his local paper, perhaps?) in which Christopher defends homeopathic medicine.
Not only that, but when I saw him report that zinc solutions can cause "asomnia" I went "Huh? Uh...lack of sleep? Don't we already have a word for that?" A quick check verified that what he actually meant was anosmia--loss of sense of smell.
Something you might want to keep in mind if you need to go to the doctor because there's something wrong with your sense of smell. Christopher doesn't even know how to spell that--go to a different doctor. Err... "doctor." Since he's not a doctor, he's a naturopathic doctor. As you can see, it looks like there are some important differences in training.
I do particularly like this part though:
Homeopathic remedies that have been diluted greater than 12 times have not been shown to be harmful. At that dilution, less than 1 quadrillionth of the original substance remains.I like that part best because it is quite correct. At this dilution the "remedy" is water, and water has not been shown to be harmful. Although I wouldn't recommend taking it instead of getting real medical treatment. From a doctor.
