Tag Science

The Alliance for Family (Aliance pro rodinu, APR), a Czech ultraconservative interest group, has recently found itself embroiled in multiple controversies. This organization, known for its opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, same-sex marriage, and abortion, has been criticised for its undemocratic practices and potential ties to international ultraconservative movements.

Legal Dispute and Russian Influence
In a recent development, Olga Richterová, Vice-Chair of the Chamber of Deputies, won a legal dispute against APR. Richterová has drawn parallels between APR’s rhetoric and that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, particularly concerning given Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine and attempts to divide Europeans through hybrid warfare tactics.

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In recent years, the debate surrounding home births has intensified in the Czech Republic, a country known for its excellent perinatal care outcomes without any religion-driven bias. Debates about home births on social media are often very heated. Women who choose to give birth at home are considered irresponsible and called with disdain eso-mothers (esotericism) or bio-women, that rely on the dubious practices of alternative medicine and anything “natural”. As skeptics committed to evidence-based approaches, it’s crucial for us to examine this issue critically and unbiased, considering the available data and expert opinions from the medical community.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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The situation is not critical but also not good. Vaccination rates are declining, the number of cases of infection is rising.

94 patients has measles just in Prague since the beginning of the year:

• • children and adolescents up to eighteen – 31 cases (9 children vaccinated, 6 was under 13 months of age and 16 was not vaccinated because their parents rejected or postponed it, 7 was vaccinated in Ukraine, parents of 2 (foreigners) did not find necessary information about the vaccination of their kids)
  • adults – 63 cases

There are 154 cases of measles in Czech Republic from January to the end of October 2018. 

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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.)

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