Great question!<p>There certainly is a connection to homeopathy and the wider context of alternative spiritual beliefs, some of which were invented and/or have deep roots in Germany.<p>But there is a recent study (German only, sorry) [1] which investigated precisely this hypothesis and came up with a more nuanced view:<p>- There is a synergy between valuing opposition for opposition's sake and alternative spiritual beliefs<p>- Those beliefs include fringe christian sects, radical anthroposophic believers, oppositional well-off citizens and traditional political opposition<p>So there is an amalgam of all of these, and they're currently linked by a shared opposition against a perceived over-bearing state.<p>[1] <a href="https://boell-bw.de/sites/default/files/2021-11/Studie_Quellen%20des%20Querdenkertums.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://boell-bw.de/sites/default/files/2021-11/Studie_Quell...</a>
Ah Homeopathy its like vaccination but without the science:<p>"A popular homeopathic treatment for the flu is a 200C dilution of duck liver, marketed under the name Oscillococcinum. As there are only about 10^80 atoms in the entire observable universe, a dilution of one molecule in the observable universe would be about 40C. Oscillococcinum would thus require 10320 times more atoms to simply have one molecule in the final substance."<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathic_dilutions" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathic_dilutions</a>
See also "Wer Globuli sät, wird Impfgegnerschaft ernten": <a href="https://www.spektrum.de/kolumne/grams-sprechstunde-wer-globuli-saet-wird-impfgegnerschaft-ernten/1953463" rel="nofollow">https://www.spektrum.de/kolumne/grams-sprechstunde-wer-globu...</a> (in German)
The vaccination rate isn’t “low”. Portugal is an exception in this regard and can’t be used as an example since most countries in Europe are similar, give or take 10%.<p>When one looks at the rate by age, we see that 60+ is at almost 87% and 18-59 is at almost 78%. 12-17 is dragging the average down and for good reason: it was only recommended by the vaccine commission since August <i>and</i> the kids have to have a discussion with the doctor about risks/benefits for their particular case. Biontech is to be used exclusively and there were issues with availability, as the new health minister was complaining last month.<p>One has to also consider that in Germany people who were sick have the same rights as the vaccinated because of the natural protection they got from the disease and there was no strong incentive for them to get the vaccine.<p>I don’t get this obsession with hitting some arbitrary numbers. Herd immunity’s been off the table since Delta. The vaccines don’t protect well from infection with Omicron. And getting those 20% vaccinated (which is not going to happen) will be too late to make a difference.<p>This obsession with the unvaccinated has caused more harm than good in European societies. If you want to see what low vaccination rates look like, watch Eastern Europe. Interestingly enough, they’re also surviving and haven’t gone extinct. Food for thought…<p>* <a href="https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1258043/umfrage/impfquote-gegen-das-coronavirus-in-deutschland-nach-altersgruppe/" rel="nofollow">https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1258043/umfra...</a>
I found one sympathetic use of homeopathy. My mother in law had cancer and had several years of treatment (really excellent treatment in a variety of hospitals and clinics around Germany over the years) but eventually they ran out of things that might work and sent her home for good. I noticed that she was quite diligent with her homeopathic medication, and as she became more disabled, her kids and the Diakonie nurse continued this right up to the end.<p>Why would they bother? Why would the insurance continue paying for this (she certainly couldn't have afforded it)? I think they did this because it gave her a sense of agency, and therefore increased the quality of her life at the end. She was sent home to die, but she remained a human being up to the end.<p>This radically changed my view of homeopathy, mainly because I think it provided (IMHO) good value to her. Before that I considered it an unmitigated scam.<p>However if this article's thesis is correct, it's worse than merely a scam.
COVID and the previous US Presidential cycle have fundamentally changed my view of almost everything: populism, reason, public welfare, media.<p>And now Germans ... who could otherwise be relied upon to do the fairly rational thing.<p>It just doesn't stop.<p>That said, here is the provincial breakdown [1]<p>Germany is mostly not very urban, they are a big more spread out. Even Munich proper is not very big, people live in surrounding regions.<p>The urban and denser areas are vaccinated at higher rates.<p>It could be this 'not a lot of urban core' type living where people are a bit more spread out that puts them at ease.<p>I know that my colleagues who live out of town where COVID rates are lower are less often vaccinated, they just don't feel the pressure, perhaps this is the same in Germany.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1195589/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccinations-number-federal-state-per-1000-germany/" rel="nofollow">https://www.statista.com/statistics/1195589/coronavirus-covi...</a>
I took homeopathic Byronia Alba for three weeks as a loading dose before the vaccines were available. I also formulated my own constitutional homeopathic remedy 12 years ago from a specific snake venom after trying various other snake remedies.<p>I have used it on my animals too. Not just pets like cats and dogs but also horses. I have saved dozens of animals while the vets insisted that euthanasia was the only option. In India, without resources while volunteering at an animal shelter, I learnt it to help street animals and feral cats. I mix and match homeopathic and allopathic modalities all the time.<p>I am not willing to cut off my nose to spite my face in the name of ‘scientific thinking’. So I don’t reject any healing modality that works.<p>There is literally no science that proves homeopathy doesn’t work. A lot of anti alt medicine rants is just as unscientific as medicinal quackery(this also exists). YMMV.<p>I was also willing to participate in the mass experimentation of covid vaccines even though I didn’t know much about it..none of us did..we all acted on the basis of faith. I was under no illusion about the alleged effectiveness of the vaccines. It was a crapshoot. It is the same attitude that I had when I first adopted homeopathy. In balance, I have had more success with homeopathy than with allopathic (or even herbal/Ayurvedic) modalities and I tend to favour homeopathy over all else.<p>Also: let’s not forget that it’s cheap and somewhat open source. Anyone with time and effort can learn it. So it’s not a profit gusher. If anything, it diverts profits from Big Pharma. I adore Big Pharma, but I am not going to shell out thousands of dollars and hours of my life in waiting rooms for a headache or flu or a broken arm or asthma or migraines if I can figure it out myself. I can. Many can’t. I am glad that they have other options. Just don’t want others to diss mine. Especially by those who don’t want to educate themselves about other healing modalities and would simply parrot others in the name of ‘science’.<p>I have literally never met a scientist who disagrees at once with someone who carries a different point of view. Scientific temperament is one that is ever searching. I have known intelligent, thoughtful and highly educated scholars who would at the most crinkle their foreheads with not so much as a smirk ..and they’d very politely ask for reasons why..this is how I filter scientists from non scientists. Not by the degree they earn from books and parroting lecturing professors. The trademark of science is curiosity and a questioning attitude. When that dies, science dies. IMO..even within my relatively short lifetime..scientific temperament has dimmed considerably and I expect it to die soon..with only the gatekeepers managing the flow and direction of new discoveries and science.<p>Edited to add: that is an idiotic article. Equating homeopathy to ‘nazi medicine’ and an anti Semitic motive is just bad journalism. I find it repulsive that this author is published.