Why phoney medicine has such lasting allure

Why phoney medicine has such lasting allure

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We puny humans just can't seem to deal with the idea of a disease for which there is no treatment. We'll always find something to believe in, no matter how tenuous. Since the Sars-Cov-2 virus was discovered, people have been circulating "cures“, from avoiding iced drinks (nope) to using special red soap (soap is good, its colour irrelevant).

Some speculative treatments have been pushed by politicians. The UK's former Brexit supremo David Davis has urged the use of high-dose vitamin D supplements, while Donald Trump advocated hydroxychloroquine. Alas, a high-quality randomised trial has shown that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective treatment. Low-dose vitamin D is a useful supplement to take in winter, but there is no good evidence that high doses can treat Covid-19.

Then there is the pure quackery: inhaling hydrogen peroxide, using a USB flash drive as a "bioshield“, or drinking a suspension of silver particles in water. There is a lot of money to be made by selling snake oil to the fearful or desperate.

Phoney treatments are not new. Indeed, their enduring popularity is a puzzle. In 2010, the economist Werner Troesken published a study of the US market for unproven