The original "snake oil salesman" (the caricature is familiar in many old western movies, etc.) was one, William Avery Rockefeller. He started taking oil-scum from the top of swamps in Western Pennsylvania and Western New York in the mid 1800s, bottling it into those little rectangular-shaped brown-glass bottles, loading it into his wagon, and traveling from town to town, hawking it as a "cure" for "whatever ails you."
Oddly enough, it was his son, John Davidson Rockefeller who was one of the first to see the potential of this "snake oil" for also lighting lamps, that hitherto, had always been lit by whale oil--an industry requiring much capital and risk of life and limb to procure. Of course, from that time, refined petroleum products began to explode in number, utility and importance...starting with gasoline for the nascent automobile industry, heating oil, lubricants, etc. Then, after the turn of the 20th century, John D.--remembering the history of his father--began to look for ways to revisit "snake oil" uses, to gussy it up into all kinds of new medicines (some equally quackish, some legit.) He used his enormous wealth to begin turning the scattered and very "unofficial" medical practices of the day (especially via grants to a few key "medical schools"--such as Johns Hopkins, and the University Chicago, and their own Rockefeller University) to turn western medicine to PETROLEUM-BASED pharmaceutical "remedies" for "All that ails ya."
(Image courtesy of thefitnessskeptic.com.)
It is very fair and accurate to say that so-called "Western medicine" is truly "Rockefeller medicine," with no exaggeration. From the pharmaceutical-based "medicine" craze of the past hundred years, an adjunct industry began to develop following the "successful" roll-out of the polio vaccine. Now, a couple generations on, we have hundreds of vaccines for every possible "whatever ails ya," and 271 more new ones currently in Big Pharma pipelines. All of this is being forced on people with little justification other than (to be honest) drug company profits.
(Nurse Practitioner Elizabeth Donahue, RN, MSN, NP. Image courtesy of the link below.)
Here is an article that is kind of amusing as it relates to all of this-- particularly relating to one particular vaccine-- the HPV vaccine-- that has a particularly bad, and well-deserved- reputation:
In summary, this is about a nurse who attended a drug-salesman seminar and learned to squelch her own innate proclivity to feel like she was/IS acting as a "snake oil salesman" every time she sought to push this notoriously unsafe vaccine on women. Sadly, she has drunk the Kool-aide and feels better now about putting young women at risk. Check out this excerpt:
"I particularly feel like this (edit to add: like a snake oil salesman) when it comes to recommending the HPV vaccine. Attending a lecture last week, I was relieved to hear that other providers feel similarly. The talk was given by an expert in STD prevention and treatment. As the conversation around HPV turned to the vaccine, and we were reminded of indications, insurance coverage, and other practical pearls, one pediatric NP asked others to share techniques they found successful in convincing parents to vaccinate their children. To be clear, low HPV vaccine uptake isn’t a case of anti-vaxxers refusing the intervention as part of an overall philosophy; rather, HPV vaccine refusal is repeatedly found in practice among a staggering number of patients and families who do opt for other vaccines. In my internal medicine setting, I see adult women, previously unvaccinated and about to age out of coverage, continuing to decline the vaccine. They do so because they recall their mothers declining it on their behalf during a shared office visit 10 years earlier."
(Image courtesy of amc.com.)
Pretty sad that her generation is so easily bamboozled, huh? One seminar changed her whole outlook. That's a result of what Charlotte Iserbyt (former Reagan Education Department whistle blower) in her seminal work "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" would label as the Pavolvian susceptibility. The type of Pavolovian/Skinnerian "education" that most medical professionals get today, is designed to make medical practitioners, FIRST AND FOREMOST, into unquestioning recipients and SPOUTERS of received "wisdom." The emphasis, despite some more holistic inroads in recent years, remains with surgical and pharmaceutical interventions rather than proper living techniques, immune system maintenance, herbals, etc.
Here is how this well-intended nurse practitioner closes her sad little essay:
"Since attending that lecture, I have come to see the conundrum more clearly. I think that I had taken on my patients’ reticence to the vaccine by osmosis, which was negatively affecting my communication. I was almost apologetic when bringing up the vaccine recommendation and as a result was presenting my customers with a “soft” sales pitch. I would start off with something like, “I understand your concerns, but…” And when they would decline, I would leave the room wondering why I hadn’t closed the deal, while my rational brain was still screaming about the power of prevention, the data, the efficacy! I now realize that negative patient views of the HPV vaccine had subtly affected my approach – made me timid in my discussion and gave validation to their concerns, weakening my argument from the start. Now I am more adamant, I go in for the close right away: Here are the studies, the vaccine works, now let’s get down to business."
(Image courtesy of upwellness.com.)
And there you have it...another one bites the dust. Another person with an innately skeptical and honest conscious squelched by Big Pharma propaganda. She is now ready and able to go after her "patients" (READ: customers) with new boldness and vigor. Another snake oil salesman now has her wings. How touching.