More alt-med nonsense smacked down

Oh, how I love hearing about things like this: CVS will have to pay nearly $2.8 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges for promoting "AirShield", a medicine that does nothing. They also must stop making the misleading claims that this dietary supplement can prevent colds, fight germs, and boost immune systems. AirShield, obviously, was named to take advantage of the AirBorne fad, another in a long line of alternative health products that don't do what they claim to do ("Airborne! Apply directly to credulity!"). Really all these so-called health formulas contain is a megadose of vitamins, which has not been shown in any actual studies to do any actual, y'know, good. So I'm glad to see CVS get slapped down ... but alternative medicines are a multi-billion dollar a year industry, so this fine is just a little tiny drop in the bucket. We could use a few thousand more such actions from the FTC. And I'm still seeing Kevin Trudeau infomercials on TV. What the heck is wrong with our system that such things are allowed to continue? Tip o' the 30C pure water solution to Amos at the Hive Overmind.