We’ve come a long way since the Hippocratic Oath
Doctors no longer take vows to Apollo
And call the gods and goddesses to witness
«Please let me do less harm than most physicians!»
Medicine was easier under polytheism
One god made you sick,
another relieved symptoms
Balance those humours,
it’ll take away your fever
Today’s version is the Declaration of Geneva
Which is good, but it needs one addition
«I will not ignore findings that are scientific
If that knowledge could possibly make a difference
In treating, understanding, or preventing my patient’s sickness»
Evidence-based medicine has been a panacea
Antibiotics, vaccines and anaesthesia
Despite their modern hypocritical critics
Who never saw somebody die from gangrene, syphilis
Or any other dangerous condition such as measles
Treatments need to be tested against placebos
And now for the next phase in medicine’s evolution
A Darwinian revolution
If they reject evolution
Because of the Old Testament
Give ‘em last year’s flu shot
Nothin' but old medicine
Change over time is comin'
There’s no place to hide
Evolution might save your life
Tonight
The evolutionary view is not an alternate
It’s just another layer added to the proximate
It doesn’t change what’s proven to work
But it does suggest ways of improvin' our search
For truth, and makin' a body’s imperfections clear
Not a machine design by an engineer
Built by genes hell-bent on reproduction
And that simple fact predicts dysfunction
The organs in your body are all adapted for somethin'
The stomach for digestion, the heart for pumpin'
And every disease has an evolutionary cause
Which is not what medical students are taught
Why not? Because of freedom of religion
Superseding freedom from religion?
Medical school curriculum revision
Just add one more category of description
Teach the etiology and epidemiology
And pathophysiology, and treatment policy
And differential diagnosis courses
And one more: evolutionary origins
If they reject evolution
Because of the Old Testament
Give ‘em last year’s flu shot
Nothin' but old medicine
Change over time is comin'
There’s no place to hide
Evolution might save your life
Tonight
So when I go to the doctor with a throat full of
Streptococcal villains and get some amoxicillin
And she tells me to keep on poppin' pills until
The bottle’s gone regardless of how I’m feelin'
I want to know exactly what that’s a precaution against
And how drug resistance is an evolutionary event
And how the threat of rheumatic fever is driven
By an arms race,
‘cause strep is a molecular mimic
Impersonating cellular signals,
which triggers
Antibodies that attack my own body’s tissues
I want the doctor to understand the underlying issues
And tell me that every tool in the tool box get used
In our quest to improve prevention and treatment
So it’s not just me,
I want the species beaten
So what if they multiply 200, 000 times
For every generation of ours,
we’ve got science!
And science includes an evolutionary branch
It’s a place to hang a million arbitrary facts
And synthesize into a unifying vision
The chaotic enterprise known as medicine
If they reject evolution
Because of the Old Testament
Give ‘em last year’s flu shot
Nothin' but old medicine
Change over time is comin'
There’s no place to hide
Evolution might save your life
Tonight