Robert Kennedy Jr., snake oil salesman

 

Headline:  New York Times, 6/5/2025

Christine Jewett reports:

Mr. Kennedy cited his own experience at a clinic in Antigua, where he said he received a stem cell treatment that “enormously” eased his neurological condition, spasmodic dysphonia, which affects his voice and has few treatment options. 

If Mr. Kennedy does permit broader use of unauthorized or experimental therapies, he would be reversing longstanding efforts by the F.D.A. to monitor and sometimes police the emerging field. Experts, including some who support alternative medicine, worry that without safeguards, an expansion of such treatments could undermine legitimate development of new therapies.

Related reading:

NPR, 8/26/2013

According to Merriam-Webster, the first-known use of 'snake oil', as in any of various substances or mixtures sold (as by a traveling medicine show) as medicine usually without regard to their medical worth or properties, occurred in 1917.

Other coinages from the same year include:

1. antiaging
2. bubblehead
3. end-time
4. herd immunity
5. merchandising
6. pep pill
7. shock therapy

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