DR. OZ’S CLAIMS UNDER MICROSCOPE
‘Magic’ weight-loss pills, COVID cures touted by candidate
A wealth of evidence now shows that malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were not effective at treating COVID-19 and carried potential risks.
But in the early months of the pandemic, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician with a syndicated TV show, positioned himself as one of the chief promoters of the drugs on Fox News. In the same be-the-best-you tone that he used to promote “miracle” weight-loss cures on “The Dr. Oz Show,” he elevated limited studies that he said showed wondrous promise.
His “jaw dropped,” he said, while reviewing one tiny study from France, calling it “a game changer.” In all, Oz promoted chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in more than 25 appearances on Fox in March and April 2020.
When a Veterans Affairs study showed that COVID patients treated with hydroxychloroquine were more likely to die than untreated patients, that advocacy came to an abrupt halt.
“We are better off waiting for the randomized trials” that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, had been asking for, Oz told Fox viewers.
As Oz jumped last month into the Republican primary for Senate in Pennsylvania, where his celebrity gives him an important advantage in a crucial race, he tied his candidacy to the politics of the pandemic. He appealed to
conservatives’ anger at mandates and shutdowns, and at the “people in charge” who, he said, “took away our freedom.”
But the entry into the race of the heart surgeon, a son of Turkish immigrants who has been the host of “The Dr. Oz Show” since 2009, also brought renewed scrutiny to the blemishes on his record as one of America’s most famous doctors: his long history of dispensing dubious medical advice.
In ebullient language, he
has often made sweeping claims based on thin evidence, which in multiple cases, like that of hydroxychloroquine, unraveled when studies he relied on were shown to be flawed.
Over the years, Oz, 61, has faced a bipartisan scolding before a Senate committee over claims he made about weight-loss pills, as well as the opposition of some of his physician peers, including a group of 10 doctors who sought his firing from Columbia University’s medical faculty
in 2015, arguing that he had “repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine.” Oz questioned his critics’ motives, and Columbia took no action, saying it did not regulate faculty members’ participation in public discourse.
He has warned parents that apple juice contained unsafe levels of arsenic, advice that the Food and Drug Administration called “irresponsible and misleading.” In 2013, he warned women that carrying cellphones in
their bras could cause breast cancer, a claim without scientific merit. In 2014, the British Medical Journal analyzed 80 recommendations on Oz’s show and concluded that fewer than half were supported by evidence.
Oz’s on-air medical advice on both his show and Fox News has taken on greater significance as he enters the political realm. His promotion of hydroxychloroquine grabbed thenPresident Donald Trump’s attention and contributed to early misinformation about the virus on the right.
“Information can harm — that’s the key thing we need to appreciate here,” said Harald Schmidt, an assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “His track record is pretty concerning. What we’ve seen so far does not instill confidence that this will help reasonable politics.”
Oz declined to be interviewed for this article. His campaign manager, Casey Contres, said in a statement that the doctor had always put patients first and fought the “established grain” in medicine.
“Dr. Oz believes it was truly unfortunate that COVID-19 became political and an excuse for the government and many in the corporate media to control the means of communication to suspend debate,” Contres added. “From the start, therapeutics meant to help with COVID-19 were regularly discounted by the medical establishment, and many great ideas were squashed and discredited.”
In using the politics of the pandemic to shape his campaign for an open seat — one pivotal to Senate control in the midterms — Oz may be in tune with primary voters in Pennsylvania. The race has drawn candidates echoing Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen, including Jeff Bartos, a developer, and Carla Sands, a former ambassador. David McCormick, a hedge-fund executive married to a former Trump administration official, is expected to join the field soon.