Why I Reported Dr. Oz to His State Medical Board

It had to be done

Many complaints could have been filed about Oz over the years. After all, this is a man who promoted mediums and numerous fake therapies. But most of what Oz promoted (or what I saw him promote) was snake oil, not super harmful in the direct medical sense, as in if you take supplement A 30% of people will get liver failure. More harmful in the broader sense, such as promoting magical thinking and the idea that there was always some belly blasting, metabolism hacking food known only to the ancients, but recently discovered by Oz himself.

But not all of his medical recommendations have been useless berries and magical beans. He chatted with his gal pal Gwyneth Paltrow about the benefits of colloidal silver, falsely claiming that there was “a ton of data behind it”.

There is none. No supporting data. Zilch.

Colloidal silver can damage the kidneys, liver and nervous system and can cause a permanent bluish discoloration of the skin. Colloidal silver has no known health benefits. It is literally toxic.

But Oz and the Ozlings are apparently mad about colloidal silver. According to Oz, “We actually in our family are crazy about squirting it in our throats. It’s our throat spray, so every day, throat spray. We squirt it in there and off we go.”

Colloidal silver isn’t just damaging Oz brains and kidneys, several quack sites have used his endorsements (he has promoted it more than once) as proof of benefit. You can read about that here.

Oz’s love affair with supplements has netted him some trouble. He was chastised by Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance, and also he settled one lawsuit over promoting useless supplements for $5.5 million. Read about that here.

Oz has also pandered to the anti vax movement, he was vaccinated, but his kids were not because he isn't Dr. Oz at home. He actually said that with a straight face. I mean, you are a cardiothoracic surgeon and your wife is a Reiki practitioner, but both you and she think she has a better grasp of the science of vaccines and infectious diseases?

I got nothing.

The reason why Oz hasn’t been reported yet is likely two fold. One, most state medical boards are looking for direct patient harm. Oz himself isn’t directly prescribing colloidal silver (although he might as well be given his influence). And two, some physicians seem to be worried about repercussions. Meaning the wizard himself, or one of his agents, will retaliate and report them right back or maybe the press will find out and it will be too much to handle (look, I get the latter, I’ve had my share of it).

But I saw a clip of Oz a few weeks ago on Fox where he questioned the value of masks. Oz himself is on record earlier in the pandemic saying masks work, and yet now here he is lying in a way that could hurt someone immediately. I am sure some people see him as a credible source, so imagine if someone catches COVID because they took his advice? What if they give it to their immunocompromised mother? Or their unvaccinated child gets it and becomes sick? Or a pregnant person who then dies?

So, I felt ethically compelled to file a complaint with his state medical board. He should be sanctioned for this as should any doctor who says masks are ineffective. I am not afraid of repercussions. I am afraid of no man and I am certainly not afraid of the likes of Dr. Oz.

We can no longer allow doctors who are driven by conspiracy theories, financial gain, and political motives to harm people by providing lies that will be used by others to cause harm, either by supporting terrible legislation or to prop up anti vaccine Facebook groups. Giving an anti-mask group lies to sway a school board meeting is as bad as writing an incorrect prescription. They are both harm.

Doctors have been lying publicly about medicine for a long time, most notably about abortion and contraception. I didn't think any medical board would take any complaint of mine about these lies seriously as complacency and hatred about abortion is all too common in medicine. But I am counting on the fact that a few members of the state medical board in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania believe in the science of masks and like me, they see the harm and they really fucking want this pandemic to end.

It had to be done. So I did it.