Boots Watch

It is a fact that homeopathy is a con designed to extract money from the gullible, the stupid, and the desperate.

So this anecdote would not be surprising to anyone in the profession.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dangerous advice from Boots: a small sting.

I have been into several Boots stores, sought out the most senior pharmacist that I can find, and asked them the following question. “I have a 5 year old son who has had diarrhoea for three days now. Please can you recommend a natural remedy”. The response was interesting. In every case but one, the pharmacist reached for a copy of the Boots pamphlet on homeopathy, and thumbed through it, while desperately, but unsuccessfuly, trying to retain an air of professional authority. Then one or another homeopathic treatment from the booklet was recommended. In only one case out of six did the pharmacist even mention the right answer (GP and rehydration). One pharmacist, who turned out to have qualified in Germany, was very insistent that homeopathic treatment was inappropriate and that I should should start rehydration and take the child to the GP. The other five, including one who had an impressive-looking badge saying “consultant pharmacist”, did not even mention rehydration.

Conclusion The education of the pharmacists was clearly insufficient for them to give reliable advice. On the contrary, their advice was downright dangerous.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a degree in what was mostly science, with the odd bit of communications skills toss thrown in. I've also been asked about homeopathic things by patients. My response is along the lines of "Why are you wasting your money on this crap?"


For some reason, the general public seem to think that Boots is a Good Thing. Which just goes to show that no-one ever lost money by underestimating the stupidity of the general public. As well as marketing snake-oil, Boots have also been guilty of introducing the fabulously non-confidential open-plan dispensary. This means that any member of the public can see what medicine any other patient is picking up by the simple task of sticking their head over the waist high barrier and having a nose about. Which must be great fun for the patients on certain types of medication, who would rather not have their woes shared with the whole world.

Quote above taken from the rather good Improbable Science site http://dcscience.net/?p=191, where there's a bit more about how anti-scientific Boots can be.