“Oz’s slow but steady descent into quackery.”
PENNSYLVANIA – In the latest example of why Pennsylvanians cannot trust New Jersey fraud Mehmet Oz, new reporting from the Daily Beast highlights how Oz has abandoned positions he previously espoused as a television show host for the sake of his political ambitions. The piece highlights how Oz has reversed his previous statements on women’s health care and is now now calling for a ban on abortion. In a GOP primary debate, Oz said abortion should be banned even in cases of rape or incest.
See highlights below and the full coverage here:
The Daily Beast
Dr. Oz Reverses Himself on Science for GOP Votes
Roger Sollenberger
- Dr. Oz used to act like his opinions were governed by science. Now they seem governed by GOP votes.
- “When you mix politics and medicine, you get politics,” Oz said in an interview on the right-leaning Real America’s Voice network in May. “We cannot hurt our children by doing that again.”
- For years, millions of viewers tuned in to Oz’s Oprah-boosted daytime talk show for a medical expert’s take on the issues of the day. But now, the issues of the day appear to have the upper hand, as Oz abandons his previous medical opinions for right-wing political appeal.
- Daniel Summers, a Boston-area pediatrician and writer, pointed to Oz’s slow but steady descent into quackery as his fame increased, adding that this thirst for attention has only sharpened with his Senate run.
- “Throughout his career in the public eye, Oz has shown a distressing willingness to say or do things he knows aren’t backed by medical science in service to his own fame,” Summers told The Daily Beast, citing Oz’s promos for snake-oil supplements and unproven COVID treatments.
- Since announcing his Senate bid last November, Oz has walked back previous positions on a number of health-related matters, including gun control, abortion, transgender acceptance issues, and euthanasia—all of which he was for, and is now against.
- Oz has even availed himself of the opportunity to weigh in as a physician on fracking, which he repeatedly opposed on public health grounds before endorsing the practice as a candidate.
- The falling dominoes have drawn criticism from Democrats as well as from within the Republican tent, and even appear to have tripped a long-awaited decision at his longtime employer, Columbia University Medical Center, which, as The Daily Beast reported, quietly cut ties with Oz this winter.
- His most recent about-face came in April, when Oz slapped his name on the American Principles Project’s “Big Family Pledge.” It was a three-for-one special, where Oz simultaneously swore to push back on transgender issues, protect life at “conception,” and support “natural death”—a departure from his yearslong advocacy of a patient’s right to die.
###