One single duck will be slaughtered by the Boiron pharmaceutical company to manufacture a flu-fighting drug called Oscillococcinum. The heart and liver of the duck contain antibodies against flu virus.
You may ask why such a small quantity of the drug is being made, but you would be wrong. From that one duck, Boiron expects to generate sales of somewhere near $20 million.
Boiron expects to cure so many with so little by taking advantage of the "law of infinitesimals." Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic drug which means that increasingly small doses produce increasingly potent cures.
For most homeopathic drugs, the active agent is diluted a million billion billion times. In simpler words, approximately one in every million doses can be expected to have even a single molecule of the miracle substance.
However, Oscillococcinum is special. It is diluted a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion. trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion , trillion, trillion times (approximately). In other words, there will be enough for each person on the planet to take a dose every single day for the better part of a decade. During the course of that decade, each person can expect to receive two or three molecules of the active agent.
While this might seem a distribution nightmare for Boiron, the company is unconcerned because "strength is a nonissue in homeopathic medicine." Gina Casey, of Boiron, explains that "Just because we can't detect the molecular activity doesn't mean it doesn't work."
Of course, that doesn't mean it does work either. IF there is anything to this homeopathic nonsense, IF the "drug" is only half as effective as Boiron claims, IF it is even a million times less active than advertised, then why can't we dangle this magic heart and liver in the Great Lakes, allow dilution, evaporation, condensation and rain to take their normal course, and eradicate flu from the planet entirely?
Well, Boiron wouldn't be happy about losing the $20 million. But the Fib Finder is just optimistic enough about human nature to believe that we could pass the hat around the globe and scare up the money--IF it worked.
The Fib Finder is not optimistic enough to believe that it will work. After all, any number of ducks die natural deaths each day in the wild. The return to the earth of all those hearts and livers hasn't eradicated flu yet. Boiron will not succeed in even reducing the incidence of flu. It will succeed only in raising $20 million.