Jan 3
Good Ideas
Dr Oz is all over Pennsylvania television claiming, “When COVID hit, Washington got it all wrong. The people in charge took away our freedom!” The unstated implication is, “Put me in the Senate, (a real, live doctor, Oprah-approved) and I will clean up this mess in no time.”
Or maybe not. Dr Oz appeared on Fox News twenty-five times in March and April, 2020 touting hydroxychloroquine as a sure cure for COVID. He cited a study in France with all of thirty-six participants where one “cure” resulted. “Take this unproven drug. There’s a one in thirty-six chance that it will cure what ails you” is not science. It was good enough for Dr Oz (and Donnie who pushed it in a memorable press conference) though. As an added benefit, none of the thirty-six got malaria which is the approved use for hydroxychloroquine. COVID, malaria, what’s the difference?
That was not Dr Oz’s only faux pas. He warned parents that apple juice contains unsafe levels of arsenic. This explained all those hollow-eyed sickly toddlers wandering around nursery schools clutching juice boxes. The FDA called Oz’s claim “irresponsible and misleading”.
In 2013, Oz warned women that carrying cell phones in their bras could cause breast cancer. The cell phone pocket in the cleavage craze ended thanks to Dr Oz’s courageous reporting, and lives were saved. The discomfort of unbuttoning one’s blouse and groping for a ringing cell phone might had something to do with it as well. I often carry my “cellie” in my back pocket. Does this mean that I am subject to the dreaded cancer of the buttocks?
The onset of the Omicron Variant re-ignited the controversy about whether schools should be in-person or virtual. Dr Oz has strong feelings on this matter. Early in the pandemic, he stated that reopening schools was an “appetizing opportunity” that might cause the deaths of “only 2% to 3% of the school population.” After a predictable uproar, Oz walked back on that statement. “Appetizing” is not an adjective I would use to describe the needless death of one in fifty school kids, but I am. Not a medical professional like Dr Oz.
Dr Oz announce this candidacy for the Senate (where else?) on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last November. “Doctors are all about solutions,” he said. “”But instead, people with good ideas are shamed. They’re silenced. They’re bullied. They’re canceled.”
Poor, poor Dr Oz. Your “good ideas” like hydroxychloroquine, arsenic-laden apple juice, and cancer-causing cell phone bras are “shamed, silenced, bullied, and canceled”.
Let’s have a pity party for Dr Oz.
