Placebo is a name for procedures and drugs that have no direct effect. They might have indirect effects, such as alleviating anxiety by convincing the patient that you are taking care of them. Or, it might just be indirect effects where people try to be helpful and report some improvement in their conditions, even if none has occurred. Or, it might just be reporters fudging the data to support the medicine's effectiveness. They may also change patient behavior through effects such as 'sunk cost' or more complex ones, like circumcision possibly reducing sexual pleasure, therefore decreasing the chance of risky sexual behavior.

But there is 0 evidence of placebos having actual positive effects aprt from the first one about subjective symptoms.

Yes, but almost all of the studies referenced in the guidelines took place in Africa, where proper genital hygiene and sex-ed is not taught. If you teach your kids to properly clean under the foreskin, circumcision largely loses its advantages.

That's kinda the point - the healthcare bureaucracy is up to its ears in precisely this kind of bullshit. The "studies" demonstrating the beneficial properties of circumcision are often backed by groups with obvious biases (eg, Jewish or Islamic religious groups) and almost never mention the possibility (and likely correct explanation) that the causality behind the improved health correlation goes the other way: healthy people are simply more likely to be circumcised (more likely to be from or join a religion that values cleanliness, restricted sexual behavior, etc.), rather than circumcision itself causing improved health.

How surprising that in a country where cutting off parts of baby infants is culturally acceptable, the national associations recommend it. Its just shocking to me that anyone can defend the practice, health benefits or not.

If you cut off your arms will you no longer have to wash your armpits?

Washing regularly also helps hygiene. As a bonus it doesn't require cutting off a body part according to the suggestions of a fairy tale.

Circumcision for hygiene is a bit like shaving your whole head so you don't need to use shampoo(Edit: with the difference that hair can actually grow back and doesn't have countless sensitive nerve endings).

Not because genital mutilation of children is just barbaric?