Snake oil salespersons are people who profit from saying or doing anything to convince you that something other than the facts are true. 2020 has been a banner year for snake oil salespersons.

“Snake oil” is a pejorative term referring to an artificial or fictitious entity that is sold to the public on the basis of belief or wishful thinking. It promises the “cure” of both real and perceived problems, when all it really does is to rid you of your money and your free will.

Those gullible enough to buy these promises victimize themselves and the people they care about.

Snake oil contains its own venom that poisons those associated with it. When it is sold by politicians and elected government officials, it poisons our belief in our own government, and more recently, in our electoral process. When it is sold by doctors, it poisons the medical profession.

Snake oil salespersons who are doctors are particularly odious. Such doctors, during a pandemic, can wreak sickness, suffering and death on an immense scale. It often takes years for the medical profession to regain the public’s trust afterwards.

The most recent examples of such people are Drs. Scott Atlas, Ramin Oskoui, and Jane Orient.

These three doctors used their medical credentials and authority to promote reckless practices that continue to endanger the lives and health of Americans.

Until recently, Dr. Atlas was a member of the White House COVID response team and openly cast doubts about physical distancing and the effectiveness of face masks. Because of his statements, millions of Americans, mostly Donald Trump followers, eschewed face masks and demonstrated against their state government mandates on face masks and physical distancing (including here in New Hampshire).

Sadly, the pandemic has affected Trump Republicans disproportionately as a result Dr. Atlas’s words.

Drs. Oskoui and Orient recently testified before a Senate congressional committee at the request of (Republican) Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson against the wearing of face masks and physical distancing and in favor of promoting the potentially lethal use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine.

All three doctors defended their words by stating that these were “opinions” rather than citing any specific study or clear data to prove their point.

While everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion, it is an entirely different matter to represent that opinion as a medical “fact” when the actual data indicates just the opposite. Professional opinion should be based upon actual data, not personal belief as was the case with Dr. Atlas or in the congressional testimonies of Dr. Oskoui and Dr. Orient.

(Note: Trump also played a major role in spreading false information about the COVID virus, but as he has had no medical training, his opinion cannot be misidentified as a medical opinion.)

We can see from the tragic statistics what effect these snake oil doctors have had on the sickness and death rates in America. It is too early to tell what effect these misleading statements from those doctors will have on the medical profession as a whole, especially now that vaccines are becoming available.

It’s time we Americans stop believing in snake oil and look for the data and evidence in official statements. Only then will we be able to separate fact from fiction.

(Dr. James Fieseher lives in Dover.)