New Jersey resident Dr. Oz, peddler of dubious medical claims, announces Pennsylvania Senate run

Dr. Mehmet Oz, “America’s Doctor,” mainly known for talking about poop colors and weight-loss fads on daytime TV, has announced a bid for a Pennsylvania Senate seat as a Republican. He has since scrubbed his website of dubious medical claims and replaced it with the vagaries of running for Senate.

“Pennsylvania needs a conservative who will put America
first,” Oz said in a newly released campaign video, invoking the fascist
sloganeering that’s apparently necessary to win a Republican Senate
seat. It’s not terribly surprising, considering he once hosted a segment on his show about the merits of conversion therapy.

Keep in mind, Dr. Oz doesn’t live in Pennsylvania; he’s a resident of the great state of New Jersey and only voted in Pennsylvania for the first time last year. But, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Oz used his in-law’s Pennsylvania address to get on the ticket. Still, the fact of the matter is that Pennsylvania had an open seat, and he saw an opportunity.

But we digress. Let’s take a look at Dr. Oz’s statement, which focuses primarily on the pandemic. “Over 750,000 in the United States have died from the virus, a devastating toll for families and communities. Many of those deaths were preventable,” wrote Dr. Oz, who last year became on Fox News’ go-to medical expert, peddling hydroxychloroquine as a COVID treatment, and once hosted anti-vaccine honcho Robert Kennedy Jr. on his show. Nothing says respect for preventable deaths like platforming the very conspiracy theories the caused those preventable deaths.

He’s also concerned that fact-based evidence will cancel disproven theories (which is kind of the backbone of science, but whatever). “Dissenting opinions from leading scholars were ridiculed and canceled so their ideas could not be disseminated.” When will cancel culture stop going after the debunked?

Dr. Oz has been a staple of daytime television for nearly 20 years, trying to hock miracle cures primarily for weight loss and cancer prevention. So yeah, he’s one of these guys that goes around telling people that ingesting green coffee bean extract will give you a thinner physique and that “they” are putting arsenic in apple juice.

Despite getting the early career push from Oprah Winfrey, who dumped his radio show from her network over medical inaccuracies in 2015, Dr. Oz has been a frequent target for those who disprove nonsense. A 2014 study by the British Medical Journal revealed that half of his advice is either baseless or wrong.

So yeah, he’s running for Senate. The guy who once said described cancer as “our Angelina Jolie” because “We could sell that show every day” is going to join the distinguished group of people who are going to clean up Washington. Just what the doctor ordered.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]