31st January 2010 by Louise Mclean

Helen Kimball-Brooke and I representing Homeopathy Heals Campaign, decided to attend the main event on Saturday 30^th January being held at Red Lion Square, Holborn, London, where a bunch of assorted skeptics were collectively attempting to ‘prove’ homeopathy doesn’t work by each swallowing a bottle of Boots homeopathic pills at precisely 10.23 am.  The 10:23 name refers to Avogadro’s number http://www.answers.com/topic/avogadro-s-number

The protest was to send a message to Boots that as a pharmacy, it should not be selling homeopathic medicine ‘with nothing in it’ and simultaneously being staged in other cities around the UK, notably in Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Glasgow, Birmingham, Southampton. 

When we arrived from Holborn tube station, we found about 30-40 people gathering, including all of the main UK skeptic bloggers, except for ‘Gimpy’ who was apparently in France.  Andy Lewis (‘Le Canard Noir’) of Quackometer was there, as well as Simon Singh who frequently appears in debates attacking homeopathy.  Chris French who has appeared in programmes debunking psychics was present and the whole thing was being led by Dr. Evan Harris who is the LibDem’s Shadow Science Minister http://bit.ly/dcDOuC and a leading member of Sense about Science, along with other SaS members.

It was freezing cold and a little snow lay on the grass of the Square, though the skeptics all wore their 10:23 teeshirts!

At around 10 am, Evan Harris addressed the crowd berating and belittling homeopathy, who responded with cynical laughter.  He quoted Dr. Peter Fisher’s comments from the Evidence Check on Homeopathy which was held on 25^th and 30^th November last year.  Dr. Harris is the main protagonist on the Science & Technology Committee having turned it into something of an inquisition.  He was also recently spotted at the Dr. Andrew Wakefield trial two days before, where once again he spoke to the Press in between running in and out of the GMC after a guilty verdict was announced.

Evan Harris said he expected the Report on the Evidence Check to be announced in about 2 weeks’ time.  From other sources, it seemed that the conclusion had been decided before Christmas.  If the Report states that there is no evidence for homeopathy, then there will probably be a massive uproar from homeopathy supporters.

As I had recently predicted, as soon as the countdown to 10.23 a.m. occurred, all of the assembled skeptics found they could not get their Boots remedy bottles to release the contents in one go for the ‘mass overdose’!  This is because once you unscrew the top of the bottle, there is a small hole which dispenses them one at a time!  It is not possible to lift this part off, so they ran like lemmings to the railings of the Square in the hope of prising the top of, which was quite a funny sight!  They were forced to end up dropping the pills out one at a time in order to take any quantity.  There were lots of cheers and whoops as they swallowed their pills.

At the same time an old fashioned Morris Minor with banners and a loudspeaker drove around the square loudly broadcasting the Campaign and anti-homeopathy stance.  Later it played a campaign song they had recorded.

The motley crew appeared to be taking a variety of Boots remedies. Evan Harris took Arnica and I saw Natrum Mur., Arsenicum Alb and Belladonna being taken, which would make it hard to appraise the results.

Of course homeopaths know that one dose of however many pills taken together in one go, is the equivalent of only one dose, because each dose is a stimulus and it is the time frame that counts.  So if they had repeatedly taken a dose every hour for the rest of the day, the skeptics would most certainly have felt the effects our undergone a Proving.  Therefore this little stunt means little, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them sheepishly confess that they did experience some symptoms later, because after taking a homeopathic remedy, especially 30c or above, the effects can be felt for days afterwards.

Evan Harris had managed to alert a number of the Press to attend to make sure there would be good coverage of the Event and was seen to be energetically giving his point of view.  At the last minute a couple of other homeopaths turned up and Lyndsey Booth was filmed speaking to the press, whilst Helen and I spoke to Hadley Freeman from the Guardian (normally a fashion journalist!) and we did our best to put our side.

We were so overwhelmed by the opposition that in the end we did not unfurl our banner, there being only Helen and I to hold it up but Helen brought her camcorder and managed to film a lot of it, including Evan Harris’s address to the crowd.

This was a depressing scene to witness, attended by people involved with Sense about Science, an organisation which is funded by vested interests.  One wonders why there is such a media frenzy to attack something that is apparently harmless and doesn't work!