Prescribing antibiotics where they will be nothing more than a placebo is undesirable, but prescribing homeopathy where it will be nothing more than a placebo (i.e. in every case except dehydration) would have a number of undesirable consequences, including a predictable increase in the number of people who will turn to homeopathy when antibiotics are needed for themselves and, more importantly, for their children.

This reminds me of a cartoon (in the New Yorker?) where a patient is demanding a better placebo as the current one is not working.