BBC television does good documentary films. It broadcast one on the Spanish Flu Epidemic from March 1918 to January 1919 entitled "Spanish Flue. The forgotten fallen" on Monday 24th September 2018. It was excellent, except for one exception. I watched the film intently to see if they would bother to mention two known facts about that epidemic - the the failure of conventional medical treatment, and the success of homeopathic treatment.
Perhaps there should be no great surprise - it did the former (it could hardly avoid doing so) - but it neglected the latter.
The film did outline some stunning medical facts. If focused on the number of deaths the epidemic is thought to have caused. The figure of 100 million was mentioned. And it explained what the conventional medical establishment tried to do in response to the carnage it caused. The film admitted there was no treatment for flu beyond the most basic.
So the cupboard, 100 years on, would appear to be equally bare! Little has changed. However, there was one comment made in the film's commentary about the difficulty conventional doctors faced at the time.
"Without knowing the true cause of the killer epidemic' doctors could not develop effective drugs or vaccines".
Homeopathy also did not know 'the true cause of the killer epidemic' in 1918, but this did not prevent homeopathic doctors from coming up with remedies that were infinitely more successful
But the history of homeopathic treatment during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 was not mentioned in the film.
It might have been a more interesting film if it had mentioned the evidence. But it would not be a film that the BBC (alongside other media organisations, bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical companies) would have wanted to publish! So, let's have a look at the evidence for homeopathic success here. This is what one homeopathic doctor, Arthur B Hawes, reported in 1918.
"I have been so busy fighting "Spanish Flu" that I have found time for nothing else for several weeks. I want to tell you my experience with the disease, for I am proud of my record; proud of what homoeopathy was able to do out here in this small city in South Dakota. In all, I treated 188 cases of Spanish Influenza. Of the above number I treated 169 cases from the initial fever and 19 cases who had been unable to get a physician during the early stage, or who thought they could carry it through alone and called me only when the disease got the best of them. Of the 169 initial cases I lost not one, neither did I have a relapse; but I am sorry to say that one lost his mind, which I hope is only temporary. All of the others recovered without relapse. Of the 19 late cases all but three recovered. All of the three were pneumonic. One lived but eight hours after pneumonia set in; one, two days; the third had endocarditis which ended the scene five days after a relapse.... I commenced every case with Gelsemium and Bryonia, which seemed to rob the case of its tendency toward pneumonia. Other remedies I used in my cases were Phosphorus, Tartar Emetic, Hepar sulphur and Pulsatilla. In not one case did I find it necessary to use any of the old-school remedies. In one or two cases I found it necessary to resort to Passiflora and Cratoegus.
It is interesting to note that homeopaths, today, are still be using the same remedies. They work, so there is no reason to change them, and they are, of course, entirely safe.
Doctor Hawes experience was not just a one off. The general figures seem to suggest that patients treated by homeopaths during the epidemic fared dramatically better than those treated by conventional doctors. Mortality rates for flu patients using homeopathy averaged less than 1%, compared to 6% of conventionally treated patients. For patients whose illness was complicated by pneumonia the average death rate with homeopathy was under 4% whilst the mortality rate for the patients treated conventionally was between 25% and 30%.
Julian Wilson, a leading a homeopath, investigated the treatment of Spanish Flu all over the world. A short synopsis of what he found can he found on this Homeopathy World Community website. One source he used was was an article entitled "Homeopathy In Influenza- A Chorus Of Fifty In Harmony" by W. A. Dewey, MD., published in the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1920.
Perhaps there should be no great surprise - it did the former (it could hardly avoid doing so) - but it neglected the latter.
The film did outline some stunning medical facts. If focused on the number of deaths the epidemic is thought to have caused. The figure of 100 million was mentioned. And it explained what the conventional medical establishment tried to do in response to the carnage it caused. The film admitted there was no treatment for flu beyond the most basic.
- drinking hot drinks, like bovril
- bed rest
- the use of Opium (for the cough)
So the medicine cupboard was quite bare in 1918! Beyond this there was quarantine, isolating the victims so that other people did not come into contact, and infect them. Australia, apparently, virtually closed its borders to prevent infection. The film focused on the story of Dr James Niven, Manchester's medical health officer, and his efforts to combat a second wave of fatal influenza as it spread across the UK.
- So the film's main story was about an 'Heroic' doctor, struggling against the conventional medical 'wisdom' of the time, which failed to not understand the benefits of quarantine.
So out of this abject medical failure came a heart-warming story about one man's insight and 'success'. Moreover, the film's message was that now, 100 years on, conventional medicine would do much better if there was a similar epidemic.
- Conventional medicine now had vaccines (so the film completely failed to point out that the flu vaccine has proved to be almost totally ineffective, especially in recent years).
- And there are now, of course, antibiotic drugs for pneumonia (so completely failing to point out that resistance to antibiotics is now reaching 'apocalyptic' proportions).
- Antiviral drugs were also mentioned (and even the NHS in the UK has questioned just how effective these drugs are).
"Without knowing the true cause of the killer epidemic' doctors could not develop effective drugs or vaccines".
Homeopathy also did not know 'the true cause of the killer epidemic' in 1918, but this did not prevent homeopathic doctors from coming up with remedies that were infinitely more successful
But the history of homeopathic treatment during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 was not mentioned in the film.
It might have been a more interesting film if it had mentioned the evidence. But it would not be a film that the BBC (alongside other media organisations, bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical companies) would have wanted to publish! So, let's have a look at the evidence for homeopathic success here. This is what one homeopathic doctor, Arthur B Hawes, reported in 1918.
"I have been so busy fighting "Spanish Flu" that I have found time for nothing else for several weeks. I want to tell you my experience with the disease, for I am proud of my record; proud of what homoeopathy was able to do out here in this small city in South Dakota. In all, I treated 188 cases of Spanish Influenza. Of the above number I treated 169 cases from the initial fever and 19 cases who had been unable to get a physician during the early stage, or who thought they could carry it through alone and called me only when the disease got the best of them. Of the 169 initial cases I lost not one, neither did I have a relapse; but I am sorry to say that one lost his mind, which I hope is only temporary. All of the others recovered without relapse. Of the 19 late cases all but three recovered. All of the three were pneumonic. One lived but eight hours after pneumonia set in; one, two days; the third had endocarditis which ended the scene five days after a relapse.... I commenced every case with Gelsemium and Bryonia, which seemed to rob the case of its tendency toward pneumonia. Other remedies I used in my cases were Phosphorus, Tartar Emetic, Hepar sulphur and Pulsatilla. In not one case did I find it necessary to use any of the old-school remedies. In one or two cases I found it necessary to resort to Passiflora and Cratoegus.
It is interesting to note that homeopaths, today, are still be using the same remedies. They work, so there is no reason to change them, and they are, of course, entirely safe.
Doctor Hawes experience was not just a one off. The general figures seem to suggest that patients treated by homeopaths during the epidemic fared dramatically better than those treated by conventional doctors. Mortality rates for flu patients using homeopathy averaged less than 1%, compared to 6% of conventionally treated patients. For patients whose illness was complicated by pneumonia the average death rate with homeopathy was under 4% whilst the mortality rate for the patients treated conventionally was between 25% and 30%.
Julian Wilson, a leading a homeopath, investigated the treatment of Spanish Flu all over the world. A short synopsis of what he found can he found on this Homeopathy World Community website. One source he used was was an article entitled "Homeopathy In Influenza- A Chorus Of Fifty In Harmony" by W. A. Dewey, MD., published in the Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy in 1920.
- Dean W. A. Pearson of Philadelphia collected 26,795 cases of influenza treated by homeopathic physicians with a mortality of 1.05%, while the average old school mortality is 30%.
- Thirty physicians in Connecticut responded to my request for data. They reported 6,602 cases with 55 deaths, which is less than 1%. In the transport service I had 81 cases on the way over. All recovered and were landed. Every man received homeopathic treatment. One ship lost 31 on the way. H. A. Roberts, MD, Derby, Connecticut.
- 1,500 cases were reported at the Homeopathic Medical Society of the District of Columbia with but fifteen deaths. Recoveries in the National Homeopathic Hospital were 100%. E. F. Sappington, M. D., Philadelphia.
- "I have treated 1,000 cases of influenza. I have the records to show my work. I have no losses. Please give all credit to homeopathy and none to the Scotch-Irish-American! T. A. McCann, MD, Dayton, Ohio.
These reports have never been disputed, and since 1918, year by year, homeopaths have continued to treat flu with the same remedies, and in doing so, they have confirmed the same success.
Yet there were other contemporaneious reports about pharmaceutical drugs that were used, and which we implicated at the time for contributing to the high mortality of patients treated by conventional doctors.
- In a plant of 8,000 workers we had only one death. The patients were not drugged to death. Gelsemium was practically the only remedy used. We used no aspirin and no vaccines. Frank Wieland, MD, Chicago.
- I did not lose a single case of influenza; my death rate in the pneumonias was 2.1%. The salycilates, including aspirin and quinine, were almost the sole standbys of the old school and it was a common thing to hear them speaking of losing 60% of their pneumonias. Dudley A. Williams, MD, Providence, Rhode Island.
- One physician in a Pittsburgh hospital asked a nurse if she knew anything better than what he was doing, because he was losing many cases. "Yes, Doctor, stop aspirin and go down to a homeopathic pharmacy, and get homeopathic remedies." The Doctor replied: "But that is homeopathy." "I know it, but the homeopathic doctors for whom I have nursed have not lost a single case." W. F. Edmundson, MD, Pittsburgh.
So the BBC film, interesting as it was, continues the medical cover-up. If there is ever again a killer epidemic of influenza conventional medicine will have learnt nothing. It is difficult for anyone to learn anything about the 'true cause' of an illness, and conventional medicine, protected by the mainstream media, knows little more about the treatment of flu now than it did 100 years ago!
So you should ask yourself - how will you go about protecting yourself? If, or when, there is another epidemic, it will be the thoughtful, the open-minded, the more inquisitive, and more intelligent who will choose homeopathy. Conventional medicine, supported by the mainstream media, will ensure that no-one else will get to know about it. Homeopathy is the wise choose, based on the evidence of 1918. So what everyone needs to do is to compare the conventional and homeopathic treatment of influenza, and to make their own, informed choice about what treatment they want for themselves.
