Stuff that occurs to me

All of my 'how to' posts are tagged here. The most popular posts are about blocking and private accounts on Twitter, also the science communication jobs list. None of the science or medical information I might post to this blog should be taken as medical advice (I'm not medically trained).

Think of this blog as a sort of nursery for my half-baked ideas hence 'stuff that occurs to me'.

Contact: @JoBrodie Email: jo DOT brodie AT gmail DOT com

Science in London: The 2018/19 scientific society talks in London blog post

Sunday, 14 February 2021

Invitations to book for an NHS Covid-19 vaccine may come from "accurx.thirdparty.nhs.uk" and are legitimate

tl;dr - the NHS is using "accurx.thirdparty.nhs.uk/r/" to send out invitations to book Covid-19 vaccines and the link is genuine. At the end of that link you'll have your own 10 digit unique code (don't share that publicly).

https://accurx.thirdparty.nhs.uk/r/ - enter the 10 digit code you receive in your text message, book your vaccination - get injected and protected, not infected :) Continue to be careful afterwards as you can still get Covid-19 though it is likely to be less severe and I think you can still transmit even if you're not affected.

 

Sunday, 7 February 2021

The Salisbury Homeopathy College appears to have shut its doors

It's always cheering news when something comes to an end in the world of homeopathy. We've seen University courses close, websites taken down or amended, and of course the numbers of homeopathic items prescribed on the NHS have been dropping precipitously for a couple of decades (it's still clinging on though). 

Recently things have taken an even worse turn for homeopathy with bad news for homeopaths appearing in newspapers every few months, following a series of undercover reporting finding homeopaths making misleading claims and offering fake treatments or preventatives.

In January this year the Society of Homeopaths (SoH) lost its accreditation from the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). The PSA was concerned that the SoH had failed to prioritise public safety over the interests of its members and suspended accreditation, to be reviewed in one year. 

The Salisbury Homeopathy College was one of several colleges to have a course accredited by the SoH, which keeps a list of accredited courses on its website. This listing appears to have been removed some time after October 2020, though the College's own website still carries SoH logos and the suggestion that its courses are accredited. 

However it appears that the Salisbury Homeopathy College has now permanently closed. Its website says that it's no longer accepting applicants and its listing on Google indicates closure beyond mere opening hours. I don't know why it's closed or when that happened, but sadly the SoH still lists plenty of other places which will charge people fairly large sums of money (several thousand) to teach them nonsense. 

You can read about one skeptic blogger's visit to the College on its open day in 2018. One of its courses cost nearly £10,000 - I'm amazed its former students don't sue.