Global Outrage Over Australian Buried Report on Homeopathy

The first conclusions of the Australian Research Council were positive about homeopathy. As a result, known anti-homeopathy members of the Council squashed the report and then released a very negative report.

You can positively deal with this outrage now and get the Australian Government and Council (NHMRC) to release the first report. Releasethefirstreport.com  is a web site you can go to make your voice heard and read about the whole controversy.

The Society of Homeopaths in the United Kingdom reports: “Homeopaths in Australia have launched a global campaign calling on the government there to publish the first version of a review of homeopathy which they claim was deliberately ‘buried’.

The existence of the first report only came to light through a Freedom of Information request (FoI), although its contents have not been published. Campaigners say that the decision to suppress it and use a different methodology for the second review raises serious questions.

Justifying its decision not to publish the first report, NHMRC said its quality was poor, despite the research being carried out by the scientist who had written the council’s own guidelines on conducting evidence reviews.

The new campaign, Releasethefirstreport.com, is calling for the publication of the original, publicly-funded review in the name of transparency and to give the public access to all available evidence about homeopathy ‘so that they can make informed choices about their healthcare’.

An earlier Your Health, Your Choice campaign which highlighted the ‘flaws’ in the published report and drew public attention to the need to protect access to complementary and alternative medicines in Australia, led to 87,000 people signing a petition.

Releasethefirstreport.com is appealing for support from around the world and is asking people to sign up at its website.”

Serious Irregularities in Australian Flawed Report Surface

In 2015, the Australian National Health Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) authored a report that designated homeopathy ineffective.

But many serious methodological flaws, procedural irregularities, bias and conflicts of interest have come to light about the whole process. The Australian Homeopathic Association (AHA) has investigated and has taken their report of the serious irregularities to the Council. Because of the nature of the problems that have been uncovered the Council is now having an internal investigation. Probably the most serious being that the head of the NHMRC Homeopathic Working Committee was a member of a pro-pharmaceutical corporate medicine group called FSM.

“AHA, in collaboration with Complementary Medicines Australia (CMA), has been engaged in an active, formal process of making NHMRC accountable for its flawed ‘Review’, which was underpinned by unacceptable bias and conflict of interest.  The CMA/ AHA investigation has revealed a number of critical (previously unknown) procedural and methodological irregularities that invalidate the ‘Review’s’ findings.  Some of these are of a very disturbing nature, for example the undisclosed fact that a Friends of Science in Medicine (FSM) member was appointed as the initial chair of the ‘Homeopathy Working Committee’ in 2012, concomitant to the NHMRC CEO being personally warned of FSM’s lobbying of NHMRC reviewers to its anti-Complimentary Medicine agenda.”

Such factors, amongst many others, bode well for having the ‘Review’ and its findings permanently set aside, which is AHA/ CMA’s goal.

After a lead-up investigation period, in August 2015 CMA provided NHMRC with a dossier outlining critical methodological flaws, procedural irregularities, bias and conflicts of interest associated with the ‘Review’. This successfully brought NHRMC to the negotiating table on September 17, 2015, under threat of further follow up action underpinned by legal support. At the meeting, attended by representatives from the AHA, CMA and their legal representation, NHMRC agreed to undertake a formal internal review of its processes and consider a detailed (61-page) submission prepared by CMA/ AHA detailing these irregularities. NHMRC is currently undertaking this internal review.

AHA appreciates members’ and supporters’ patience in this matter. Now that a formal complaints process has been initiated via NHMRC, AHA is more able to keep everyone informed of progress with this situation as it develops.

To this end National Council has set up a Sponsorship Program to financially support our legal costs in the ongoing process outlined above. Any contribution you can make to this fund will directly support these ongoing activities and will make a real difference. For more information please visit the website.” —http://www.homeopathyoz.org