After Western Sydney University’s collaboration with the Indian health ministry that has promoted questionable COVID remedies and pseudo-science, experts worry that Australian scientific integrity may be in jeopardy.
It happens at the same time as Deakin University announced the opening of its first teaching campus in Gujarat and Australia and India signed a historic agreement to recognise each other’s qualifications.
In November of last year, Western Sydney University and the Ministry of Ayush of the Indian government established a joint academic chair in Ayurveda medicine to promote the study of traditional Indian medicine.
The study methods used by the ministry were not thorough, and the conclusions were not published in recognised publications, according to neuroscientist Dr. Sumaiya Shaikh, who expressed doubts about the ministry’s legitimacy.
She claimed that Ayush’s experiments were flawed since they occasionally lacked controls and the proper statistics.
“The studies were planned really badly. It’s almost like they planned to set up for failure,” added Dr. Shaikh.
Prominent Indian health and science journalist Vidya Krishnan claimed that despite a lack of evidence, the present Indian government continued to promote Ayush remedies as a means of preventing COVID-19 infections.
The ministry recommended taking Coronil, an unproven herbal medicine, Arsenicum Album 30, which contains minute levels of arsenic, as well as a variety of other untested procedures.
According to Ms. Krishnan, India’s chronically underfunded public health system has been harder for the average citizen to access over the past eight years, particularly since the pandemic.
He said, “Combined with an unprecedented scale of science denialism, we have a dangerous situation where a lot of quackery is state-sponsored.”
When called for comment, the Ministry of Ayush did not even respond.
Associate Professor Shrikrishna Rajagopala from the All India Institute of Ayurveda was named the academic chair in Ayurveda medicine by Western Sydney University in November of last year.
The institution was questioned about its evaluation of the partnership’s integrity, including whether it took the Ministry of Ayush’s history of spreading false information into account.
A university representative said, “Western Sydney University is committed to delivering high-quality, world-class research and maintains the highest standards of integrity in research governance and legislative requirements.”
“The chair’s role is to provide leadership to develop collaborative research strategies for the scientific base of Ayurveda, and the translation and integration of evidence-based Ayurveda interventions into conventional healthcare.”
According to the spokesperson, Associate Professor Rajagopala was chosen following a competitive selection procedure and will begin serving in his new position in June 2023.
“Western Sydney University will support the local expenses of the visiting professor during his stay in Australia. Funding for this initiative will be sought from various research grant schemes,” added the spokesperson.
According to reports, vice-chancellor of Western Sydney University Barney Glover did not meet with any officials from the Ministry of Ayush during his recent trip to India.
To encourage closer educational relations between Australia and India, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Education Minister Jason Clare, and a group of university leaders from Australia visited India.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the organisation was aware of the partnership with Western Sydney University and that the Guidelines to Counter Foreign Interference in the Australian University Sector provided assistance to all Australian universities in reducing the risk of outside interference.
Sanjaya Senanayake, an associate professor of medicine at Australian National University, emphasised the significance of conducting adequate clinical trials before recommending traditional medications to patients.
Professor Senanayake said, “If Ayurvedic practitioners want to show that their medications work and can be used more widely in a Western medicine setting, then you have to prove it. You have to go through the same rigorous trials that all the other medications and operations and interventions we use to do.”
According to Professor Senanayake, Ayurveda therapy may be able to treat non-life-threatening health issues including clogged sinuses, persistent back pain, or sciatica. If the organisation promoting that style of medicine was also supporting a study, he claimed, there might be a conflict of interest; but, this could be resolved through the peer-review process.
Professor Senanayake said, “I’ll keep an open mind as long as you can show me the evidence because, at the end of the day, I have to pass this on to a patient who’s trusting me to make the right decision in their interest.”
Dr. Shaikh expressed her hope that the project would be subject to the same rules and guidelines as other forms of treatment. She said, “Get them to go through the same processes. And if there’s evidence, great. If there isn’t, there isn’t. It’s as simple as that.”
