To the Editor:

Mehmet Oz, a board-certified heart surgeon turned talk show host and lifestyle guru, is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal health care agency that covers more than a third of Americans. Although he made his reputation as a surgeon, he made his fortune as a salesman. He is perhaps best known for his TV show, Dr. Oz, on which he portrayed himself as a trusted doctor and dispensed nutritional and lifestyle advice, conveniently failing to make clear to his audience just how closely he worked with the companies he pitched. He repeatedly promoted products of questionable medical value and was named in lawsuits that alleged he made misleading claims on the show. Several of the companies he has promoted are structured as multilevel marketing businesses whose practices have repeatedly drawn the attention of federal regulators.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz appeared on Fox News more than 25 times to promote hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine — an antimalarial drug also used for treating lupus — as a cure for COVID, despite lacking evidence that it was safe or effective. CNBC recently reported that Oz owns at least $630,000 in stock in pharmaceutical companies that distribute hydroxychloroquine. On top of the unverified drug claims, Oz was criticized for comments he made on Sean Hannity’s show. “I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing that the opening of schools may only cost us two or three percent in terms of total mortality,” Oz said, suggesting that putting children back in school — even as cases skyrocketed — was a “very appetizing opportunity.”

Oz was, and probably still is, involved in marketing partnerships with Novo Nordisk. As head of CMS, he’d be in charge of making decisions that could be very lucrative for pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Oz also has investments in CVS and UnitedHealth, companies that could reap major financial gains based on Oz’s decisions. His ongoing financial ties to Big Pharma and health care companies are a conflict of interest. What incentive does he have to do the job the American people need done by the person in this position? Furthermore, in addition to these conflicts of interest, Oz is a proponent of Medicare privatization, which would destroy Medicare as we know it and enrich the insurance corporations he’s invested in.

In recent years, Oz has dived into far-right politics, dropping the veil of neutrality he stood behind for most of his career. Since his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Oz routinely faces criticism for his motives, beliefs and questionable medical record — including a recently resurfaced scandal involving the cruel treatment of animals by Columbia University research teams that he oversaw.

Dr. Oz, he gained fame for promoting questionable “supplements” and quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.

Mehmet Oz is an inappropriate choice to run CMS. His history of promoting questionable “supplements” and quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain, and the conflicts of interest created by his continued involvement and financial ties to pharmaceutical and health care companies make him unfit for that position.

I urge Senators Moran and Marshall to block the nomination of Mehmet Oz as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Sharon McGinness

Larned