Paul Offit of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia states in "Science in One Room, Homeopathy in the Next?" (2011-01-11)[vsc 2011-01-11]:
"children's oscillococcinum [...is] a product [...] that is completely, not in any sense, science based, and whose claims are specifically that it treats flu-like symptoms such as feeling rundown, body aches, chills, and fever. These claims are certainly not supported by what's in that product, which is simply 1 g of sugar. The FDA [...] does have the capacity to regulate this if they choose to [...] it is marketed as a drug, and there is a homeopathic pharmacopoeia. I think it's upsetting that there is such a thing as children's oscillococcinum when, in fact, it's just a gram of sugar. You could argue that there is value in something like placebo, given that one then doesn't have to expose a child to cough-and-cold preparations, which certainly do have side effects and can be dangerous [...] it is disconcerting when you see a company that advertises its product as being better than placebo when, in fact, it is placebo."
Note: oh snap.
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