Dr. Mehmet Oz, President-elect Donald Trump’s newest surprising addition to his junk drawer of a Cupboard, has a documented historical past of selecting Large Pharma {dollars} over the well being of People.
Trump has nominated Oz to be administrator for the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies. However the previous daytime discuss present host-turned-politician raised eyebrows in 2022 when he launched his private monetary disclosure kind forward of the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania.
Within the kind, Oz—identified for peddling controversial well being merchandise on his present—reported a relationship with Usana Well being Sciences, a Utah-based complement firm with a observe report of contamination lawsuits and pyramid-scheme accusations.
Based on The Related Press, the previous surgeon’s health-focused TV present accepted “at least $50 million” in promoting {dollars} from Usana to advertise the corporate as a “trusted partner and sponsor.”
How a lot Oz personally produced from the settlement is unclear, however his monetary report states that the doc introduced in $9.3 million as a number and producer on the discuss present whereas moonlighting as a model ambassador and spokesperson for the corporate.
In 2016, sure Usana merchandise promoted on Oz’s discuss present have been flagged by a California watchdog group for “exceeding allowable levels” of lead. Usana finally settled the case exterior of court docket.
The well being complement firm additionally confronted a number of accusations of working as an unlawful pyramid scheme, or multi-level advertising and marketing firm.
Oz continued to soak up cash as a model ambassador for the corporate up till his unsuccessful election bid in 2022. He has not commented publicly on Usana’s lawsuits.
Earlier than slicing ties with the corporate, he served as a trusted face promoting Usana’s merchandise at numerous occasions—regardless of the company’s allegedly questionable construction and fishy ingredient listing.
Notably, Oz wiped sure episodes off the web upon his run for Senate.
AP additionally discovered that he required former present staffers to signal nondisclosure agreements prohibiting them from discussing “the show’s arrangement with advertisers” and Oz’s “business or private life.”
Whereas Trump claimed in his Tuesday press assertion that the USA’ “broken” well being care system “harms Americans every day,” the president-elect’s alternative for CMS administrator has beforehand shilled for an organization that, in keeping with quite a few lawsuits, has completed simply that.
Oz isn’t the one controversial well being care sector Cupboard choose.
The previous Republican Senate candidate can be becoming a member of harmful forces with anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and brain-worm sufferer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was picked as Trump’s secretary of well being and human providers.
