After the Oz campaign criticized stroke victims, John Fetterman released a letter from 109 Pennsylvania doctors accusing him of bad medical practices.
The doctors wrote in a letter provided to PoliticusUSA:
We the undersigned doctors write with serious concern regarding the candidacy of Dr. Mehmet Oz for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat. As physicians, we strongly believe in evidence-based medicine and sharing honest health information with the public.
As a former daytime TV host, Dr. Oz exploited the hopes and fears of his viewers by promoting unproven, ill-advised, and at times potentially dangerous treatments. He has made clear that he will put enriching himself above all else, even in instances where people’s health is endangered.
Dr. Oz’s record of spreading misinformation and sharing factually incorrect medical advice on The Dr. Oz Show and otherwise is thoroughly researched and well documented.
One 2014 study by the British Medical Journal found that half of the claims made on The Dr. Oz Show were not based in fact and researchers at Georgetown University found that more than 75% of recommendations made on Dr. Oz’s show “did not align with evidence-based medical guidelines.” When called before Congress to answer for this misinformation, even Dr. Oz himself had to admit that “oftentimes [the products I promote] don’t have the scientific muster to pass as fact.”
Dr. Oz would also be another vote to criminalize abortion and he has refused to condemn efforts to ban abortion in Pennsylvania, endangering the lives of women and people who can become pregnant. He has even said that he opposes abortions in cases of rape or incest.
Dr. Oz also disseminated dangerous misinformation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He promoted and defended unproven and possibly dangerous COVID-19 treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin when there wasn’t clear scientific consensus. He also said that COVID-19 vaccines weren’t “true vaccines” like “classic childhood vaccines.” This is all deeply concerning.
In 2015, ten physicians, including surgeons and professors, penned a letter to Columbia’s Dean of Medicine saying they were “surprised and dismayed” that Dr. Oz was a faculty member at the university. The same year, eight Columbia faculty members published an op-ed in USA Today calling out Dr. Oz for “misleading the public” and forcing physicians like themselves to spend “a significant amount of our clinical time debunking Ozisms.” This year, Columbia University decided to cut ties with the former TV host.
As a TV celebrity doctor, Mehmet Oz has displayed a shameful disregard for medical science and the wellbeing of his audience while he enriched himself at the expense of our patients. As physicians we take seriously our responsibility for the health and wellbeing of our patients.
John Fetterman believes that healthcare is a fundamental human right, supports expanding access to affordable health care, protecting people with preexisting conditions, and would vote to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law. Protecting the health and wellbeing of our citizens requires that we elect John Fetterman to the US Senate this November.
Sincerely,
Physicians of Pennsylvania
The Oz campaign can’t seem to go a day without creating a self-inflicted wound that costs them more votes. The latest was an Oz campaign spokesperson claiming that John Fetterman had a stroke because he didn’t eat vegetables, which suggests that strokes are the fault of patients.
Mehmet Oz has a long history of giving bad and dangerous advice while selling scams and quack cures.
It appears that Oz is intentionally trying to lose the Pennsylvania election to keep the US Senate in Democratic hands.
Oz is losing and trying to make Fetterman’s stroke the focus of the campaign because he doesn’t know enough about Pennsylvania or Pennsylvanians to talk about the issues that matter to them.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association