The Czech Republic has long taken a prohibitionist approach to drug policy, but one man has been leading the call for change based on science rather than moralistic assumptions. Jindřich Vobořil, the country’s National Drug Coordinator, has argued for a more balanced approach founded on risk reduction rather than zero-tolerance.
For the last month, the Czech media have been running sensational articles about a new polio therapy practiced by Peter Olšák, MD, at the world-famous Vesna Children’s Hospital in Janské Lázně. On February 1, Czech Radio ran the headline “Czech doctor treats paralysis with a combination of acupuncture and electrotherapy. His method is in demand abroad”. A few days later, Dr. Olšák was sitting in the Czech Television studio and talking about “his” method of electroacupuncture.
It should be noted at the outset that for some reason acupuncture has been a lege artis method in the Czech Republic since 1981 and its practitioners are associated in the Czech Medical Acupuncture Society, which operates within the Czech Medical Association of J. E. Purkyně. Acupuncture can be performed by physicians who have obtained specialisation in one of the clinical disciplines, including general medicine, and have undergone special training.
The method of electroacupuncture has been used in patients for more than five years and in children for less than three years.
Olšák called his method Active ENF, or Electroacupuncture Neuromuscular Facilitation. In it, he pricks the patient with acupuncture needles and then uses his device to deliver an electric current to the acupuncture needles. This is perceived by patients as a tingling sensation, and with greater intensity there are also visible muscle contractions.
“The current helps pathways in the body that are damaged to function better.” Did he mean meridians?
Czech folk singer Hana Horká (57) from popular folk band Asonance died after catching COVID-19 on purpose in order to start having a “free life “. Catching the virus (as she believed) would allow her to avoid needing the vaccine, leading to her celebration upon learning she had contracted the virus.
It should be noted that Horká did not fall for any conspiracy theories, she did not believe that there are nanochips in vaccines and similar nonsense which is spreading on the internet. She just thought that the Omikron mutation is not dangerous and it is more “natural” to have the disease and get the antibodies this way than to be vaccinated.
Her son, musician Jan Rek, blames her death on the stars of the Czech antivax scene – namely actor and self-proclaimed shaman Jaroslav Dušek (winner of the Erratic Boulder Award from the Czech Skeptics Club Sisyfos for “good shamanic advice for every day”) and molecular geneticist Soňa Peková (also winner of the Erratic Boulder Award, who claimed in October 2020 that “Covid-19 will really disappear by Christmas” and who collaborated with the political far right and disinformation media). Hana Horká has frequently shared Facebook posts by these two personalities.
The information channels of the Zdravé fórum (Healthy Forum) show typical characteristics of a disinformation spreader. These characteristics are in particular:
1) Sharing disinformation and problematic websites.
Zdravé fórum intensively shares the content of the following disinformation or highly problematic media.
At first – quick numbers: 8275 confirmed cases, 5058 recovered and 290 dead in Czech Republic.
“SARS-CoV-2-CZ-Preval” Study shows that the degree of immunization of the Czech population is very low. In the most affected localities does not reach the value of 4% – 5%. 27000 tested people revealed 107 positive cases.
The big news is that “Scientists from the Czech Republic top institutes have joined forces to create the new vaccine”. As Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtěch (ANO) said 4.5.2020.
Homeopathy is not a medical service, there is no scientific evidence, the court ruled this month.
At the beginning there was a fine of almost €2.000 imposed by the Regional Council of the Zlín Region on a woman who provided homeopathy counseling.
The fine was confirmed by the Ministry of Health. Both administrative bodies assume that homeopathic services meet the definition of health care under the Health Services Act and can therefore only be provided by the holder of the authorization to provide health services issued by the Regional Council.
But the Regional Court in Brno annulled the decision of the Ministry of Health, and it filed a cassation complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court.
Minister of Health of the Czech Republic cautiously opposes the TCM and fails to fight homeopathy.
Even worse, he advocates it.
Let’s take a quick look into modern history of homeopathy in the Czech Republic:
There is (not only) one alternative medicine case in Czech republic which could be the igniter for an strong effort to a legislation change.
The Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic is preparing a law on healers in these days.
The ministry also wants to be able to examine if the healers did not harm the patients by their activities so this law should introduce the registration of healers and the obligation to keep the documentation. Those who will practice healing without the authorization or duty to compensate or the damage caused will be punished.
The ministry came with this regulation of healing after Czech TV broadcasts a document “Health Business” about Prague’s fraudulent Alternative Medicine Center Aktip.
(AKTIP holds Sisyfos silver Erratic Boulder award in the category of teams for the year 2016.)