Dr. Oz Is Running for Senate in Pennsylvania, But Doesn’t Seem to Live There
Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Global Lyme Alliance
Dr. Mehmet Oz announced on Tuesday that he’s running to be the next U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. Oz will seek the 2022 Republican nomination to replace Sen. Pat Toomey (R) who is retiring at the end of his term.
As a political newbie, the celebrity doctor will face all kinds of questions about various policy positions he holds, but before that happens, he may have to answer a much more basic question from Pennsylvania voters: “Do you actually live here?”
The answer appears to be “no.” For the last two decades, Oz has lived in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. Only last year did he actually register to vote in Pennsylvania, and he used his in-laws’ address in suburban Philadelphia to do so.
Oz declared his candidacy, not in a Pennsylvania publication, but instead in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner. At certain points, he hit vague notes that will likely resonate with Covid-19 vaccine skeptics.
“Over 750,000 in the United States have died from the virus, a devastating toll for families and communities,” the heart surgeon wrote. “Many of those deaths were preventable. COVID-19 became an excuse for the government and elite thinkers who controlled the means of communication to suspend debate. Dissenting opinions from leading scholars were ridiculed and canceled so their ideas could not be disseminated.”
“Instead, the government mandated policies that caused unnecessary suffering. The public was patronized and misled instead of empowered,” he said.
He also praised Donald Trump for Operation Warp Speed.
“America should have been the world leader on how to beat the pandemic,” said Oz. “Although we had some moments of brilliance, such as the gift to the world of mRNA vaccines made possible by President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, many great ideas were squashed. That’s not the America my parents came to. That’s not the one I grew up in. That’s not the one I want to leave behind.”
Oz did not cite vaccine hesitancy as the major contributing factor to the ongoing pandemic, despite the plain fact that it is.
The doctor has developed a reputation as something of a woo peddler in recent years, as he has touted unproven supplements and treatments on his show. In 2014 he was called before the Senate – the very body he’s running for – to explain some of the fantastical claims he had made on air. In one exchange, then-Sen. Claire McCaskill scolded the TV doctor.
“The scientific community is almost monolithically against you in terms of the efficacy of the three products you called ‘miracles,’ ” she said.
“We didn’t call this hearing to beat up on you,” she went on. “[Y]ou can either be part of the police or be part of the problem, and we hope you’ll do a better job at being part of the police.”
Oz replied that he stood by the products.
“I do personally believe in the items that I talk about,” he said.
