Vaccines are snake oil.

[varkam]

Wow. That's...em...huh.

eta Oh, and the more book deals that you have, the more scientifically sound your conclusions are.

Just a couple of things I learned today in the Health Lounge.

[AZCat]

1. Y'know, I've never understood that expression.

I'm not an ophiologist, but I have held a few snakes in my lifetime. And I have never found one that I would call "oily". Perhaps there is some sort of organ in them like the thing in a right whale that yields oil?

[Orrex]

2. If you squeeze while twisting them counter-clockwise, you'll get oil

And what kind of Liberal would ever associate with a right whale?


You do mean Limbaugh, don't you?

[AZCat]

14. Why yes, indeed I do.

Both for the oily snake and the oily whale reference, of course.

[Warpy]

4. Snake oil was any unctuous mixture

mixed with grain (if you were lucky, wood if you weren't) alcohol and sold by traveling medicine shows throughout the country before the FDA was established. All were specifics against rheumatism, lumbago, female complaint, and the common cold. Most featured weeds and a few featured rattlesnake rattles and none of them did a damn thing but get you drunk if you were lucky and make you go blind before they killed you if you weren't.

My own WCTU head grannie swore by Lydia Pinkham's vegetable tonic, one of the more benign concoctions and 80 proof.

Snake oil is any hazily medical nostrum that doesn't do a damned thing, named for the often nodding acquaintance with snake parts of the original rubbish.

[AZCat]

15. Ahh, thanks for the clarification.

I had a weird visual going through my mind from the post upthread.

If I could find a "natural" remedy that was 80 proof I'd probably swear by it, too. I wonder if they'd let me take my "medicine" at work?

[mr blur]

19. Get yer snake oil!:

[salvorhardin]

16. Chinese water snakes

As in, the stuff was literally made from Chinese water snakes which coincidentally are the biggest (living) source of Omega 3 fatty acids. So we can blame traditional Chinese medicine for yet another form of quackery.

[cosmik debris]

3. They are NOT snake oil

they are a clever poison created by the pharmaceutical companies who believe killing and injuring their customers is a good business model.

oh yeah its :sarcasm:

[Warpy]

5. I'm alerting on that cow every time she calls me or thee a shill

for any corporation just for posting scientific fact.

I'm a retired RN, ferkrissakes. Nobody's paying me a cent for posting.

I wish they would, my portfolio has taken a beating since September and I could use the income.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Not only am I not a shill..

I have something of a financial motive for having a grudge *against* Pharma-funded research. Because my area of psychology is not eligible for Pharma funding (at least until they find that yak urine improves the ability to do sums) whereas some of my more physiological colleagues are eligible. This means that the physiological psychologists get more funding, and therefore more status in the post-Thatcher business-model academic world, than I do. I'm jealous! *Inverted* shill here!

[Djinn]

21. personally I'd just laugh

as an ex PR hack I'm well aware that some pharma's are as unethical as hell or at least occasionally act in unethical ways. That is nothing more than a fact of money and power. What these numpties don't seem to get is that few skeptics argue for corporate pharma's as such - just for SCIENCE.

If their mumbojumbery could stand up to decent scientific investigation I'd be all for it. They don't though and for some reason they never apply there insane "they want to keep you ill for profit" conspiracy theories to the "alt-med" industries which are worth multi BILLIONS worldwide.

I'd rather pay for a medicine that has taken ten years in development and a further several in testing for safety and efficacy than spend a red cent on a vial of water "imbued with healing properties" or for some shaman to wave their hands over my body to "realign my qi"

At least there's a reason real medicine costs money - what's the alt-med's excuse?

[beam me up scottie]

6. Do you think you could get a book deal if you took off your clothes?

Only a fiction book, of course, non-fiction writers don't get book deals.

[Heddi]

7. you couldn't even get your naked toe in the door

and they should know...they're in the book industry, you know, because they read occasionally. Okay, so pamphlets that come in the box of tampons aren't technically books, but they have writing, and the picture of the woman with only one leg and half a uterus. WHY DO YOU HATE CHILDREN, SHILL???

[beam me up scottie]

8. Shows how much you know, Jenny McCarthy did it.

Hater.


By the way, can you tell me if I need a rectal vaccine booster?

[Heddi]

10. I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to give medical advice

but unless your pink eye is any shade OTHER than bright blue, you just might want to have a heart-to-heart with your medical industry paid-per-death Shill Doctor hint hint

Oh and Jennie MacKarthay has done TONS of things I've not done....and that's not necessarily a bad thing :evilgrin:

[varkam]

13. I'm going to have to go with a no on that one.

Now, maybe if I were to keep my clothes on....

:rofl:

[TZ]

9. Well thats a step up

I've usually found the crowd down their calling them poison...and me being accused of being a child poisoner...:eyes:

[Heddi]

11. wait...what?

are you telling me that you are NOT a child poisoner? Because if you're not you are SO off the payroll. SHILL

[Djinn]

22. I usually just repeatedly get asked

why I want to administer neurotoxins to their precious sprog, all the while they're promoting the use of neurotoxic herbs, flowers etc, these numpties get a hold of word they don't even come close to understanding and like to beat people about the head with it.

[Deep13]

17. I wish some of these assholes could live in the 19th century for 6 months. nt

[trotsky]

18. 6 months?

A day would probably do it for most of them. See what life was like when everyone used "natural" treatments (there were no others) and the sole disease management tool was quarantine.

[dropkickpa]

20. All I want to know

Is whose turn it was to watch woobzy's cage and who let woobzy out this time?

And the obligatory