[pryce]

Homeopathic medicine is a discredited theoretical explanation for a phenomenon that empirical testing shows does not exist. For 'homeopathy' to be right, it would need the to become 'right' twice - first: new data would need to begin existing, and then second: the homeopathic mechanisms would need to become the most plausible explanation for that data

[qsera]

>empirical testing shows does not exist..

But what are the incentives of those who did those tests? That should be said in the same breath as you say "empirical testing/evidence".

[adrianN]

Imagine the number of citations you could get for a solid double blind study that showed homeopathy to beat placebo. The only better impact I could imagine would be showing that climate change doesn’t actually exist.

[qsera]

Mmmm..the question is..who would fund it. And if someone funded it, who would publish it...

[BLKNSLVR]

There's enough money in 'crank health' that, if it were possible to publish something that might have a chance of lending some credibility (and thus expanding the breadth of the vulnerable customer base), then I would think it would have been done already.

This implies to me that the counter-evidence is strong and complete enough to discourage 'investment' into such a pursuit.

[qsera]

>There's enough money in 'crank health' that,

But there is many order of magnitude more money invested in preventing the publication of something like that..

All the "reputed" journals who gets funded by pharma would not touch such a study, despite any merits it have. This is so apparent to anyone who is not completely oblivious of how the world work that no one in their right mind will even attempt to fund such a study...

[BLKNSLVR]

They need to wait for someone not in their right mind then. Has RFK been petitioned?

(this is not a serious reply, my apologies. I get that entrenched views are very difficult to change, hence the phrase "Science advances one funeral at a time", and funding sources are bias-generating - refer oil companies and climate change. Having said that, isn't any human that drinks any water taking part in homeopathy? I mean, dehydrated folks are likely to be less healthy than hydrated folks, but I think that's a case of correlation doesn't imply causation)

[adrianN]

You get funding for such a study the same way you get funding for anything else: first you run cheap small studies, perhaps in mice, perhaps observational, that show an interesting effect and motivate why you need money to run a proper clinical study.

[qsera]

Approximately how old are you? 20s? 30s? 40s? 50s?...

[pryce]

I think you should look into NCCAM funding[1], how much that was, and how many useful treatments came out of it, before speculating that 'funding for the research to be undertaken' is the issue stalling clinical acceptance of complementary/alternative treatments like homeopathy. I do believe the amount was about 2 billion US dollars.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_for_Complement...

[antoniojtorres]

Is this a bit? Please state your point clearly instead of conspiratorial innuendo.

[qsera]

I think the point is clear. If it is not clear to you, you are already beyond help...

[antoniojtorres]

More vagaries.