It's time again for the annual "miracle fish cure". You've all probably heard of the amazing fish "medicine" that the Bathini Goud family offers to people who suffer from Asthma. This year's event has recently started in Hyderabad1.
Asthmatics gather in Hyderabad for "miracle cure"
Thousands of asthmatics have lined up in Hyderabad to take the ''fish medicine'' that the Bathini Goud family has been administering since 1845.
It's a purported miracle cure, where patients swallow a live fish whole, to be cured of asthma.
...
One memember of the family which gives the "medicine", claims (emphasis mine)
Cheating means to cheat someone. Here the crowds have come themselves, ask them if they are being charged without getting cured. That would be cheating. These people do not even know what cheating is,''
That's the pity. But, I think he should know. Raising hopes with a false claim, whose efficacy has never been verified in any test, and potentially endangering the lives of asthmatics who move away from conventional (yet exteremly effective) inhalers and corticosteroids, is very much cheating.
It saddens me somewhat, that such rubbish is still being practised freely. How hard would it be to conduct a double blind experiment to see if the drug really works? And if it works, to analyze the ingredients and try understanding the chemical basis for it's efficacy, and improving it? Why doesn't any one in our government intervene to put an end to this nonsense2?
I long for the day when the majority of our society wakes up from a demon haunted world. IMO, public awarness of science can play a large role and serve as a candle in our dark, superstitous society.
Notes
[1] - Asthmatics gather in Hyderabad for "miracle cure"
[2] - Purely rhetorical. The answer, obviously, is votes.
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