AntiViral Ep. 10: Rockefeller and the Snake Oil Myth
Episode ten of AntiViral examines the rise of the germ “theory” of disease despite the lack of scientific evidence in its support and in spite of the many influential voices who opposed it.
Prior to its widespread acceptance, the dominant explanation for disease was the miasma theory, which held that illness was caused by poisonous, foul-smelling vapors, so-called “bad air” or noxious effluvia, arising from decomposing garbage, sewage, and other forms of filth.
This explanation was not particularly convenient for those seeking to rapidly industrialize the world. The very industries driving economic expansion, including coal mining, metal smelting, and oil drilling, were simultaneously releasing enormous amounts of pollution into the environment. In such a context, a new explanation for disease that shifted attention away from pollution and toward invisible microbial invaders proved extremely useful.
Several powerful figures played key roles in shaping the medical system that would ultimately embrace the germ “theory” of disease in the West:
- Andrew Carnegie, the industrialist who helped build the American steel industry.
- John D. Rockefeller, the oil magnate whose fortune came from the petroleum industry.
- Abraham Flexner, hired by Carnegie and Rockefeller to evaluate and restructure American medical education through what became known as the Flexner Report. His brother, Simon Flexner, served as director of the Rockefeller Institute.
Through their combined influence, a new medical model was promoted, one that emphasized pharmaceutical treatments while pushing aside competing schools of thought. Targeted were the “snake oil salesmen,” such as Clark Stanley, who sold concoctions of mineral oil, beef fat, turpentine, camphor, and red pepper under the false pretense of containing rattlesnake oil. Osteopaths, homeopaths, chiropractors, and other holistic practitioners were increasingly marginalized, while allopathic medicine and the “pill for every ill” mentality rose to prominence. Alternative medicine practitioners were increasingly dismissed as “snake oil salesmen.”
Ironically, John D. Rockefeller himself relied entirely on homeopathy for his own healthcare for the last 50 years of his life. He was also the son of a traveling snake-oil salesman who posed as a deaf-mute peddler and hawked miracle drugs and herbal remedies. Critics have argued that Rockefeller ultimately perfected the same strategy on a much larger scale: redirecting public attention away from the pollution generated by industrial expansion while promoting pharmaceutical “remedies” derived from petrochemical byproducts. By consolidating influence across the oil, chemical, and medical industries, Rockefeller became one of the most powerful figures shaping modern medicine—and arguably the greatest snake oil salesman the world has ever seen.
For a more in-depth analysis, please see The Standard Oil Tycoon.
source viroliegynewsletter.substack.com