The first major guest from our MonHoméoMonChoix platform, Dr Daniel Scimeca, a homeopathic general practitioner in the Paris region, is back in a lockdown interview, to talk about the importance of homeopathy in the current pandemic climate.
The MonHoméoMonChoix team – Dr Scimeca, hello. How are you doing during this difficult time?
Daniel Scimeca – I’m doing much better than my patients, than some of my colleagues who have succumbed to COVID-19, so I cannot complain. I also have a huge amount of work, since teleconsultations take much longer than you would imagine.
MHMC – What do you have to say about this unprecedented health crisis?
D. S. – There are so many things to say about this crisis, but as regards the coronavirus, I can say that it is a virus that does not follow the rules, which presents itself as pretty ordinary, but is sometimes capable of sending healthy young people to intensive care. It does not follow the rules of a respiratory virus that attacks only the respiratory tract as it can also cause kidney or skin damage, create the famous cytokine storm, and cause many other different symptoms. Nor is it a tuberculin virus, it is a luetic virus (author’s note: reactional mode of Lues), which destroys, changes, is versatile and can cause the economic destruction of an entire society.
MHMC – And from a public health perspective?
D. S. – I am somewhat annoyed with all these endless controversies. I am a scientist and I cannot understand it, for example, whether people are for or against Professor Raoult; it is not constructive and above all, it is not that simple. Some of the things Professor Raoult says on the subject of epidemics is actually quite sound – this is his field after all, but I am not convinced when he talks about hydroxychloroquine. We find the same meaningless debate when it comes to Roselyne Bachelot. Indeed, people now think her management of the H1N1 crisis was “great”, forgetting she was also behind the HPST law (author’s note: Hospital, Patients, Health, Territories Law) which is now actually causing harm to hospitals, to put it mildly. I am therefore very frustrated with this categorisation into those who are right and those who are wrong. Let us instead say that there are scientists who are expressing their views and that we are analysing them. From a public health perspective, this health crisis seems to me to be the result of negligence on the part of the successive powers. As the philosopher Hobbes said, adherence and obedience to a power is achieved when it ensures the safety of the people.
Nobody says that homeopathy can treat COVID-19. What people do say is that homeopathy can act on the symptoms of COVID-19.
MHMC – The hostility of some of these statements is similar to what all homeopathy professionals, and homeopathy itself, have encountered for 2 years now. What are your thoughts?
D. S. – Effectively, what we are seeing is a strong divide, yet in life not everything is completely black or white. The prevention and treatment of COVID-19 cases is a particularly striking example of this. If we are bold enough to say homeopathy can play a role, then people make oversimplified hasty conclusions and we get criticised. Nobody says that homeopathy can treat COVID-19. What people do say is that homeopathy can act on the symptoms of COVID-19. Acting in a similar way to the symptoms, it can therefore act on these symptoms thanks to appropriate medications.
MHMC – Does homeopathy also have a role in post-infection?
D. S. – Absolutely, because COVID-19 causes extreme cyclical and depleting fatigue. Patients feel they are relapsing when this is not the case. There is a lot of collateral damage due to the virus’ passage in the body. In these cases, there are some very useful homeopathic medicines to help people get back on their feet. – What are your patients mainly suffering with during this COVID-19 period? Firstly, of course, there are those who caught the coronavirus. I did not see any serious cases, so fortunately I did not have to request their hospitalisation. However, I have had some very fragile patients… And then, there are those people who have come to see me because they are suffering from fear. The fear of getting sick, the irrational fear of not understanding or being able to control the situation, a little like the fear of the big bad wolf. Then there is the fear of going to the doctor. Our surgeries are empty! Lastly, there is the fear of the future, financial ruin, and fear related to the lockdown, with all that this causes: fear of leaving the house, sociophobia, etc.
In prevention, the role of homeopathy is essential to optimising people’s overall health.
MHMC – When faced with these problems, especially anxiety, how can homeopathy help?
D. S. – Strangely, it is not necessarily homeopathic medicines that are usually thought of as being able to help. A response can be found with more profound and rarer medications, such as those for sociophobia, that is, when the patient has a huge fear of contagion, contact with others and deconfinement. Other homeopathic medicines will be able to help with the acute phase of COVID-19, when there is dry cough, pain and aches aggravated by movement, and when there is fear of the future or financial difficulties. Lastly, some homeopathic medicines will help with the effects of anxiety and agitation.
MHMC – Are there cases of sleep disturbance?
D. S. – No, not really. What I am finding in large numbers is a shift in each person’s sleep pattern during lockdown. Everyone is going to bed at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, with video platforms, playbacks and teleworking… It is more of a delay than a disorder. – Does this crisis change our society’s view of health? The view of health seems blurry to me, we see it in the way everyone is getting this deconfinement wrong. Deconfinement means “returning to the life we had before”. However, in this previous world, we could die from influenza, cigarettes, high blood pressure and diabetes. People refer back to a golden age that never existed.
MHMC – Patients often ask members of the MonHoméoMonChoix group what they can do to defend their freedom of choice and maintain easy access to homeopathy. What do you advise? What is the next action to take in your opinion?
D. S. – On an individual basis, I cannot see what more can be done because we collected more than 1.4 million signatures last year and that did nothing. In my opinion, a new avenue to take would be the legal route. I strongly believe in patient associations and their actions, in lodging complaints. People are insured under the social security system and I am convinced it would be worthwhile for patient associations to ask the social security system to freeze salary social security contributions for those treating themselves with homeopathy. The next step would be a more aggressive action involving the legal system.
MHMC – To end this short interview, is there anything you would like to share with our readers?
D. S. – I would like to share a slogan, which I think is appropriate and fair: “And yet, the granules are still rolling!” This slogan implies that we continue to treat people despite all the controversies, that homeopathy continues to work, and that it continues to win people’s support. Including – and this is a surprise – support from new patients who have come to me somewhat by chance, via a teleconsultation, and who were not necessarily looking for a homeopathic GP. When, in addition to monitoring their temperature, I offer them homeopathy, they say yes straight away! An enthusiastic and unanimous “yes” for homeopathy, when they came to see a regular GP…
MHMC – Dr Scimeca, thank you so much.
D. S. – Thank you. Take care!
Important: Homeopathy should not be recommended for use alone for severe forms. It is not an alternative to hospitalisation and should under no circumstances delay hospital treatment.
