Prince Charles is paying us a visit soon.  Sadly, he is a notorious public health menace.  I feel sorry for the Brits.  This guy will be the British Monarch one day.

Yesterday, the article Prince Charles visits Washington, D.C. and Kentucky: Homeopathy and anti-GM keynote speech. was published in Slate Magazine, recounting his promotion of homeopathy.  The article speaks for itself.  For such efforts, he has acquired several deserving titles, e.g., the Prince of Pseudoscience, and Quacktitioner Royale.

Worse, he has endorsed homeopathic vaccination.  That’s where I draw the line.  According to some homeopathy practices, natural materials are diluted many fold and then consumed.  In the Slate article, the writer estimates the concentration of some of the ingredients is around 10 to the -36th power.  That’s a concentration well less than one molecule per liter.  Chemists refer to that as practically infinite dilution.

Thus, Prince Charles effectively encourages travelers to take highly diluted placebos and then expose themselves to extremely dangerous pathogens.  This would presumably substitute for getting an actual, effective vaccine.  I think a homeopathic medicine adherent is more at risk of water toxicity in order to get any effective dose of whatever it is that is being consumed.  (See my prior post on the fundamentals of acute toxicity)

I am sure that many will listen to Prince Charles for the same reason they like Downton Abbey.  I suppose that seeing the polish, the structure, the certainty, of the British upper class lends some type of cultural credibility to an underlying message.  Nonsense.  With respect to public health, Prince Charles is Jenny McCarthy in a fancy foreign suit.

Like Downton’s servants, I bet the working classes of Britain actually have their collective heads firmly planted on their shoulders and get their vaccinations regularly.  Let’s hope so, and that they ignore their Prince’s foolishness.

(The caricature is by Andy Davey – see AndyDavey.com)