Mehmet Oz is one of the most despicable figures in public life. He was a very able heart surgeon who decided he wasn’t rich or famous enough. He wanted to BE somebody. So he hooked up with Oprah Winfrey and became one of the biggest purveyors of outright LIES we have ever seen in the medical field. Now, in a thoroughly cynical move, the Republicans have nominated him for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, a STATE HE DOESN’T EVEN LIVE IN. Mitch McConnell’s Dark Money friends are pouring money into Oz’s campaign, and he’s closing the polling gap with a flood of lying TV commercials. So it’s time for us to fight back HARD and send Oz back to New Jersey with his tail between his legs.
A. AN OVERVIEW
B. OZ THE SNAKE OIL SALESMAN, QUACK, CHARLATAN
From the journal Science: A New Low for Dr. Oz
Pardon me this morning while I rant a little. In fact, it's worse: pardon me while I rant a little about something that I've ranted about before. I refer to that disgrace to the medical profession, Dr. Mehmet Oz.
I haven't mentioned him on the site in a while, because really, why bother? Nothing that a person like me can say will derail that juggernaut of TV viewership, publicity, and money. Sweet, sweet money. Oz has a fan base of the credulous and the underinformed, and when he comes on his show talking about the latest all-natural extract that will Melt The Pounds Off or perhaps Fight Cancer, product moves off the shelves. And that's what's important, right? As long as the rubes reach into their pockets?
From Scientific American:
Dr. Oz Shouldn’t Be a Senator—or a Doctor
While holding a medical license, Mehmet Oz, widely known as Dr. Oz, has long pushed misleading, science-free and unproven alternative therapies such as homeopathy, as well as fad diets, detoxes and cleanses. Some of these things have been potentially harmful, including hydroxychloroquine, which he once touted would be beneficial in the treatment or prevention of COVID. This assertion has been thoroughly debunked.
He’s built a tremendous following around his lucrative but evidence-free advice. So, are we surprised that Oz is running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania? No, we are not. Misinformation-spouting celebrities seem to be a GOP favorite. This move is very on brand for both Oz and the Republican Party.
His candidacy is a reminder that tolerating and/or enabling celebrity pseudoscience (I’m thinking of you, Oprah Winfrey!) can have serious and enduring consequences. Much of Oz’s advice was bunk before the pandemic, it is bunk now, and there is no reason to assume it won’t be bunk after—even if he becomes Senator Oz. Indeed, as Senator Oz, it’s all but guaranteed he would bring pseudoscience to the table when crafting and voting on legislation that affects the health and welfare of Americans.
Oz the Dog Torturer:
Cruelty to Puppies Detailed by a Whistleblower at Columbia University
In 2004, complaints about Dr. Mehmet Oz’s dog experiments were cited in a report from an internal investigation into allegations of poor animal care made by Dr. Catherine Dell’Orto, a post-doctoral veterinarian. [5] See also individual reports of Dr. Oz's dog experiments. [6]
According to the report, in Dr. Oz's lab at Columbia University "highly invasive and stressful experiments" on dogs were performed without a "humane end point." [7]
The Animal Welfare Act violations detailed in the reported included a litter of whelped puppies killed by painful cardiac injection:
"The screams of these puppies could be heard through closed doors. All of these puppies, lying in a plastic garbage bag, were killed in the presence of their litter mates."[8]
Subsequent applications for grants to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by Dr. Oz have been denied.[9] In 2004, Columbia paid $2,000 in fines to the USDA. [9]
C. NEW JERSEY: HOME OF MEHMET OZ
Dr. Oz’s lavish NEW JERSEY mansion:
Carpetbagging Oz needs to stop his PA Senate run. We want him home in Jersey | Opinion
It is important to have pride in where you live. Pride builds collective community and individual happiness. I have pride in my state and think others should, too. Which is why I take umbrage at my longtime North Jersey constituent Dr. Mehmet Oz claiming to be a Pennsylvanian to run for U.S. Senate in the Keystone State.
If elected, Oz would be the first U.S. senator from Cliffside Park, New Jersey, since the late Frank Lautenberg — also a Paterson native — passed away in 2013.
Oz’s campaign for Senate disrespects the over 9 million New Jersey residents in our state and does disservice to the nearly 13 million Americans who call the commonwealth home. They deserve a senator in Washington who knows Pennsylvania’s unique needs and can champion its specialness.
D. OZ: PRO-”LIFE” FANATIC TRYING TO LIE HIS WAY OUT OF IT
Oz clarifies abortion views, Fetterman capitalizes on conflicting views in Senate race
...audio from a tele-town hall, held one week before the May primary election, resurfaced and fueled questions about where Oz, who defended Roe v. Wade in 2019, stands on abortion access. In the recording, first reported by The Daily Beast, Oz said: “Life starts at conception.”
“If life starts at conception, why do you care what age the heart starts beating at,” Oz added. “It’s, you know, it’s still murder if you were to terminate a child whether their heart’s beating or not.”
...“Though he’s tried to walk back his extreme anti-abortion statements, it’s crystal clear that Oz supports banning almost all abortions and taking away women’s freedom over their own bodies,” Dr. Meaghan Reid, an emergency physician in Chester County and co-state lead for the Committee to Protect Health Care, said. “Decisions around abortion are deeply personal and should be made between women and their trusted physicians — not by celebrity quacks.”
Pro-choice physicians blast Pennsylvania Republican candidates Dr. Oz and Doug Mastriano and warn that abortion rights are on the ballot at both the state and federal level
Dr. Jessica Klemens was raised by a mother whose who viewed abortion as incompatible with her Christian faith. But her own beliefs evolved when she became an OB/GYN, she said Thursday at a press conference outside City Hall, telling the story of a patient, 16 weeks pregnant, who would at the very least lose her uterus — and with it, the ability to have a child — if she did not terminate her pregnancy.
...Such bans, Klemens said, do "the opposite of what conservative, so-called 'pro-life' folks claim they want." Earlier this year the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion. Following that decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, so-called trigger laws have gone into effect in several states restricting or banning abortion, while others have passed laws limiting abortion services.
...The vast majority of abortions occur in the first trimester. What proposed abortion bans in Pennsylvania and elsewhere could do, Klemens said, is "make it illegal for physicians to save the lives of the mothers and girls who experience an emergency and are at risk of dying from a hemorrhage or an infection or losing their uterus or Fallopian tube."
E. WHERE DO OZ’S LOYALTIES ACTUALLY LIE?
ABC News on Oz voting in Turkey IN 2018:
Dr. Oz's vote in 2018 Turkish election renews criticism
As Dr. Mehmet Oz embarks on a bid for the U.S. Senate, the television star has largely shied away from discussing his ties to Turkey, where he maintains citizenship, and dismissed criticism from political opponents that he harbors any so-called "dual loyalties."
But a photograph of Oz casting a ballot in Turkey's 2018 presidential election is rankling some national security experts -- particularly after recently saying he has "never been politically involved in Turkey in any capacity." [My emphasis]
"The decision to vote in a foreign country's election is problematic from a security clearance perspective," according to John V. Berry, a former government lawyer with expertise in federal security clearances.
F. OZ: SCREW THE POOR
Dr. Oz Says Uninsured Americans Have No 'Right To Health' In Resurfaced Clip
A 2013 clip has resurfaced of Dr. Mehmet Oz while he was on his campaign as a Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate.
Oz, now the Republican nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania, spoke at the National Governors Association on the topic of “personal and governmental responsibility.” He explained his belief that “health” is only a right for those who can afford insurance.
G. OZ: MORTAL ENEMY OF MEDICARE
Dr. Oz Pushes Medicare Privatization For All
New Jersey TV doctor Mehmet Oz has decided to stake his Pennsylvania Senate campaign on vilifying legislation that would help Americans afford to visit a doctor when they get sick. At the same time, Oz is pitching a health care initiative that could force millions of seniors off traditional Medicare and into private health insurance plans cited by government regulators for wrongly denying medical claims.
Those plans were hawked by Oz on his television show — and are now generating big profits for insurers in which Oz holds large financial stakes.
THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE VILE, LOATHSOME OZ. HIS NAME IS JOHN FETTERMAN. Here’s how to help him out!
JOHN FETTERMAN FOR U.S. SENATE [Includes links for Donations]
HOW TO VOLUNTEER FOR CANVASSING IN PENNSYLVANIA
AND AS ALWAYS...GET OUT THE VOTE!