The Strange Misleading World of Dr. Oz
Trump’s Choice for U.S. Senator From Pennsylvania
He is an “entertainer,” a “panderer,” a “snake oil salesman,” a “self-aggrandizing, dishonest grifter” and finally, “I can’t imagine anyone who is more unqualified, psychologically or ethically, to run for high elected office.”
If you thought those quotes were aimed at trump, you’d be wrong, because they were all used to describe the TV doctor, Mehmet Oz, better known to his millions of dedicated and often, misled, viewers as Dr. Oz. Oz has made millions from his popular, Dr. Oz Show, where he has promoted pseudoscience and unproven alternative medicine.
Oz is running for the U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania to replace Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who is retiring. If elected, Oz would be one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, something that no doubt appealed to trump who wholeheartedly endorsed the candidacy of the doctor who has been criticized by physicians, government officials and medical and popular publications, including in the British Medical Journal, Popular Science and The New Yorker, for endorsing unproven products and non-scientific advice.
Oz’s web site lists a home in Bryn Athyn, Pa., and an $18 million estate in Palm Beach, Fla., coincidentally the location of another estate, trump’s faux castle, Mar-a-Largo. Oz has listed his assets of between $104 million and $422 million, including $10 million in media income in 2021.
So what, birds of a feather flock together, Oz and trump are alike as two peas in a pod, chips off the old fetid block and they are made for each other.
Trump explained that he isn’t endorsing Oz because of his political views, which are very trumpian; he isn’t endorsing Oz because he respects him as a doctor; he isn’t endorsing Oz because he believes the doctor will make a great senator. Rather, trump has an attraction to Oz because Oz is famous and popular and was on TV regularly for more than 10 years. That’s it, but did you expect anything more from the man who boasts about not reading books and gets his deepest moments of thought from watching Fox.
“I have known Dr. Oz for many years, as have many others, even if only through his very successful television show,” Trump said. “He has lived with us through the screen and has always been popular, respected and smart. When you’re in television for 18 years, that’s like a poll, that means people like you.”
Among his more specious claims, Oz hyped the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, the debunked treatment for COVID-19, which trump also famously promoted. In June 2020, the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine, stating that it was “no longer reasonable to believe” that the drug was effective against COVID-19 or that its benefits outweighed “known and potential risks.”
And like trump, Oz has opposed vaccine requirements and has called for the dismissal of immunologist Anthony Fauci, the Chief Medical Advisor to the President. He has promoted such unproven treatments as green coffee bean extract, brindleberry pills, and raspberry ketones as “miracle” products to help shed pounds. And despite a dearth of evidence to support its use, Oz promoted resveratrol, a chemical mostly found in red grapes and products made from these grapes, to help fight everything from hay fever and weight loss to reducing cholesterol and slowing down aging.
Oz also has spoken favorably about the disputed practice of intermittent fasting and has had guests including psychics, faith healers, peddlers of unproven or disproven medical treatments, and anti-vaccination activists, including Joseph Mercola, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Christiane Northrup, who are noted anti-vaxers and spreaders of misinformation about vaccines.
Oz supported abortion rights in 2019, saying he saw the effects of unsafe and illegal abortions prior to the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide. But not surprisingly, while considering a run for Senate, He changed his position in 2022, when he rebranded himself as “pro-life.”
Don’t expect a simple Internet search to turn up too much negative about Oz. I googled “Dr. Oz,” and searched 60 pages of Yahoo, finding just about all of the stories were about trump’s endorsement. Seems the Oz machine has been able to bury the negative reviews. You will, however, gain some insight against the doctor by googling something like “Dr. Oz, controversies.”
Mehmet Cengiz Oz, 62, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a cardiothorasic surgeon and has been a professor at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he has helped develop numerous devices and procedures related to heart surgery, including the MitraClip and the left ventricular assist device.
Oz’s parents, Suna and Mustafa, emigrated to the U.S. from Turkey. His father was a thoracic surgeon and his mother comes from a wealthy Istanbul family. Oz grew up in a mixed Muslim environment where his father’s family practiced more traditional Islam, while his mother’s family were more secular Muslims. As a child, he spent summers in Turkey and spent two years in the Turkish army after college. If elected to the Senate, he would be the first Muslim.
In 2003, Oprah Winfrey was the first guest on the Discovery Channel series “Second Opinion” with Oz, who went to to make more than 60 appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show. The Dr. Oz Show, a daily television program ostensibly about medical matters and health, was launched in 2009 by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions and Sony Pictures Television. The British Medical Journal published a study in 2014 that found more than half of the recommendations on medical talk series including The Dr. Oz Show either had no evidence or contradicted medical research.
“Simply put, Oz is an entertainer,” said Dr. Steven J. Dell, an opthalmologist and Chief Medical Editor of Cataract & Refractive Surgery Today. “Many believe he is doing great harm by preventing or delaying proper diagnosis, providing false hope, and encouraging people to waste money on useless treatments. As far as I am concerned, the wackier he gets, the easier it is to logically debunk his claims.”
In 2019, 10 doctors wrote to Columbia University urging that Oz be removed from the faculty, citing his “disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine.”
“He’s a panderer,” said Dr. Shelley Fleet, one of the doctors calling for Oz’s removal. “And he’ll pander to whoever gives him the most exposure. He’s a snake oil salesman.”
Dr. Henry I. Miller, the lead signatory on the letter to Columbia, said he “can’t imagine anyone who is more unqualified, psychologically or ethically, to run for high elected office. Over many years, Oz has shown himself to be a self-aggrandizing, dishonest grifter.”
During a 2014 Senate hearing on consumer protection, then Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told Oz that “the scientific community is almost monolithic against you” for airing segments on weight loss products that are later cited in advertisements. McCaskill said she was concerned that Oz was “melding medical advice, news, and entertainment in a way that harms consumers.”
However, if trump is intent on endorsing unqualified candidates, I offer the following to be named:
Dr. Kildare as secretary of Health and Human Services; Gen. George Patton, secretary of defense, Mike Tyson, assistant secretary of defense, Terminator, deputy assistant defense secretary; Perry Mason, attorney general, Dirty Harry, assistant Attorney General, Tony Soprano, deputy assistant Attorney General, Maxwell Smart, deputy, deputy assistant Attorney General; Mr. Rogers, Department of Education, Our Miss Brooks, deputy education commissioner; Judge Judy, Supreme Court Justice; James T. Kirk, NASA director; Archie Bunker, Department of Labor; Old McDonald, Department of Agriculture; John Wayne, Department of Veteran Affairs; Bugs Bunny, Department of the Interior; Ralph Cramden, Department of Transportation, Latka Gravas, assistant commissioner of transportation, Roadrunner, deputy Commissioner of Transportation; Wylie Coyote, Department of Energy; Scrooge McDuck, Department of Treasury; Obi-Wan Kenobi, Department of State; Amos and Andy, co-commissioners, Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Willie Loman, Department of Commerce; and of course, trump as president.