After millennia in which medical practitioners relied on bogus pseudo-treatments based on bogus notions of how biology works, the development of antibiotics in the second half of the 20th century provided the first truly efficacious reality-based treatment for bacterial infection. As a result, doctors handed out antibiotics like candy, for things for which they should never have been prescribed, such as viral infections. The result: widespread emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Doctors aren't trained to think rationally; they are still being trained as though it's the 1700s. Meanwhile, pharmaceuticals companies want predictable recurring revenues. So combine the two problems and you get our modern "there's a pill for it!" mentality. And as ordinary people would rather swallow a few magic pills every day than attempt to stop cramming McSlop down their throats or even (gasp) contemplate undertaking meaningful daily exercise, we have a recipe for our present health disaster, of which statins are merely one small aspect.