Doctors Blast Oz Over Fetterman Stroke Comments
— 100 Pennsylvania doctors condemned Oz, stating he endangers patients with misinformation
by Amanda D'Ambrosio, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today August 24, 2022
Mehmet Oz, MD, Pennsylvania's Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, is facing backlash -- notably from a group of Pennsylvania physicians -- after he said that his opponent, John Fetterman (D), probably wouldn't have had a stroke earlier this year if he had "ever eaten a vegetable in his life." The celebrity doctor, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, made the comment after an old campaign video showing him buying ingredients for a vegetable crudité became the subject of ridicule on Twitter. Fetterman's campaign joined in on the joke, tweeting that "in PA, we call this a veggie tray."
"If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn't have had a major stroke and wouldn't be in the position of having to lie about it constantly," Rachel Tripp, Oz's senior communications advisor, told Business Insider in response to Fetterman's tweet. Fetterman, who currently serves as the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, had a stroke in May, which kept him off the campaign trail until earlier this month. During his recovery, Fetterman's campaign revealed that he had been dealing with serious heart conditions including cardiomyopathy, according to a report from the Washington Post. "I know politics can be nasty, but even then, I could *never* imagine ridiculing someone for their health challenges," Fetterman wrote on Twitter.
A group of 100 physicians associated with the organization Real Doctors Against Oz condemned Oz following his comments about Fetterman, drawing attention to the ways he spread misinformation on his TV show. "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," the organization said in a statement to Business Insider. "He has made clear that he will put enriching himself above all else, even in instances where people's health is endangered."
Real Doctors Against Oz launched earlier this month, with a goal of denouncing Oz's "history of peddling debunked supplements, dangerous fad diets, and fake miracle cures," as well as condemning his ties to the pharmaceutical industry and support for Republican candidates who want to ban abortion in Pennsylvania. The organization has attempted to draw support for Fetterman's campaign. "Oz simply isn't trusted by real medical professionals," said Valerie Arkoosh, MD, a member of Real Doctors Against Oz, at a press conference in early August that was organized by the Fetterman campaign. Arkoosh, who is also the chair of the Montgomery Board of Commissioners, recently ended her own campaign for U.S. Senate.
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https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/100378
Back in May, Columbia U where he was on the faculty, finally kicked him out -
Columbia University Medical Center Cuts Ties with Dr. Oz
By Carolyn Crist
May 5, 2022 – Columbia University Medical Center has cut public ties with Mehmet Oz, MD, the celebrity doctor who goes by “Dr. Oz” and is now a Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, according to The Daily Beast. The teaching hospital has removed his personnel pages from its website. The move appears to have happened in January, the news outlet reported, after HuffPost reported that his title had been changed to “professor emeritus of surgery.”
Oz previously served in senior positions, such as vice chair of the surgery department and director of integrated medicine. Columbia removed Oz’s faculty profile and disconnected hyperlinks to the bio on several pages that mention his name from previous articles. His name also no longer appears in website searches for doctors with the school’s Irving Medical Center. In a listing for surgery faculty, Oz is listed as a “special lecturer” and still has office phone and fax numbers, but his listing is not linked to a faculty bio.
Nearly every other faculty member without a link is no longer affiliated with the medical center or has died, The Daily Beast reported. What’s more, the outgoing message on the office voicemail for the phone number in the listing is old. It advertises audience tickets to his former daytime TV show and tells callers about medical services that he stopped providing 4 years ago, the news outlet reported. Columbia has faced heat for its affiliation with Oz for years, extending beyond his decision to run for a Senate seat.
In 2015, when he testified before the Senate about his endorsement of “miracle” cures, a group of medical professionals sent a letter to Columbia that demanded that Oz be fired, according to Vox. “Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops,” the doctors wrote. “Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.”
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https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20220505/columbia-cuts-ties-dr-oz
= new reply since forum marked as read
