The last two years of the pandemic have exposed a deep ignorance of public health among our countrymen. As evidenced by widespread, conspiracy-minded resistance to vaccination — plus the constant trickle of pandemic misinformation, from social media, pundits and podcasters alike — contemporary Americans might appear possess a weak grasp on statistics, biology, and the scientific method.
Yet it turns out this distinct brand of medical ignorance is nothing new. Rather, it is as American as apple pie. More than 200 years ago, one of the most famous doctors from the revolutionary period committed the exact same logical fallacy as Joe Rogan, who fallaciously attributes his Covid recovery to a "kitchen sink" cocktail of snake oil drugs and supplements.
