When God's people were embracing evil:

The people were told to look upon a symbol of defeated sin (serpent) draped on a cross set at the top of a hill in order to live.

It was a symbol of the Cross and Christ's death to take away our sins.

Chuck Missler ~ Revelation ~ Session 2 ~ The Things which Thou hast Seen - YouTube
Missler makes the point that people went on to worship the snake on the staff instead of God.
I believe NWO Satanists liked the idea of being worshipped 'too much'. By posing as healers and helpers, they set themselves up to be worshipped. Their symbol for medicine is 'confused' with a separate symbol from Greek mythology.

I was watching a bit of a sitcom program the other night and the character said "I want to be a doctor, because that's the closest thing to being God (control of life or death)
That’s just bad theology.
It is couched in the modern familiarity (interpretation) of the \purpose\ of the snake on the staff.
YMMV