The embattled Dr. Mehmet Oz continues his struggle against all medical odds. Yeah, he’s a real doctor, a surgeon who performs real surgery on real people (sometimes inviting a Reiki master to assist). He may not be a practicing surgeon for too long, although his show will go on. Late last week, I talked about how several of Oz’s Columbia University colleagues called for his resignation from the surgery department. Oz refused. He told his tv audience that these 10 doctors were attacking his “freedom of speech,” and he vowed, “we will not be silenced.” Oz insisted that the “miracle cures” he touts were making America a better place. Never mind that he shills products that are supported by bogus studies, or even that the U.S. Senate called him out for his lack of accountability.
A new poll from the SERMO social network of doctors reveals that many physicians would like Dr. Oz to stop embarrassing the profession. Over 1,500 out of 2,029 doctors polled want Oz to resign from Columbia and (in most cases) have his medical license revoked. I expect that number to grow. Oh, and John Oliver ripped Oz’s freedom of speech defense:
“No. You are scientifically wrong about that as you are about so many things. Let’s be clear: The First Amendment protects Americans against government censorship, and that’s it. It does not guarantee you to simultaneously hold a faculty position at a prestigious private university and make misleading claims on a TV show. It absolutely protects you to say whatever you like on it, just as it protects my right to say what I think about you on mine, which is this: You are the worst person in scrubs who has ever been on television–and I’m including Katherine Heigl in that. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to be worse than Katherine Heigl? You are also the admittedly handsome ringmaster of a middling mid-afternoon snake-oil dispensary and it says something that even when you do a show with seven fake models of human feces, the biggest piece of sh*t on the stage has his name in the title … Isn’t freedom of speech great?”
[YouTube]
Preach it, Oliver. Although … poor Katherine Heigl. She’s simply an ungrateful actress on a major downswing. She never asked to be compared to snake-oil salesman dressed as a frantic cheerleader in scrubs. In all seriousness, Oliver is completely correct, just as when he called Oz out a year ago for his scammy approach to product endorsement.
Oz isn’t completely without support. David Lynch weighed in on the Oz problem from his Twitter account. Who asked David Lynch? No one, but he’s really into alternative medicine and has a foundation that advocates the use of transcendental meditation for medical purposes. Lynch tweeted his Oz support.
Dear Twitter Friends, in my opinion @DrOz is a great person and a great doctor and I support him 100%.
— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) April 28, 2015
Lynch’s tweet was met with this amazing followup.
Hey David, you can delete tweets you know.
— Twin Peaks (@TwinPeaksArchve) April 28, 2015
Photos courtesy of WENN
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