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.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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