Doctors From Around the Country Pen Letter to Columbia University Demanding It Fire Dr Oz

Dr Mehmet Oz might be a big-time TV star, but his peers are not impressed. Ten "distinguished physicians" from around the country have fired off a letter to Columbia University Medical Center -- where Dr Oz is vice chair of the surgery department -- demanding they fire him, because he's "fake" who lacks integrity. In the letter (which you can read, below) addressed to Lee Goldman, the dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia, the physicians slam Dr Oz for demonstrating "an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain." (The doctors' main bone of contention is that Dr Oz promotes “miracle” weight-loss supplements on his nationally-syndicated TV show and during a June 2014 US Senate hearing, the panel of politicians blasted him for endorsing those supplements that don't work.) In a statement to another news source, the letter's first co-signer Henry I. Miller from Stanford University said: “He’s a quack and a fake and a charlatan. I think I know the motivation at Columbia. They’re starstruck, and like having on their faculty the best-known doctor in the country.” He also called for an investigation into Dr Oz. Columbia is sticking with Dr Oz, for now. “Columbia is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding all faculty members’ freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion,” a spokesperson for the university said.

Here's the letter in its entirety:

Dear Dr. Goldman:
I am writing to you on behalf of myself and the undersigned colleagues below, all of whom are distinguished physicians.

We are surprised and dismayed that Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons would permit Dr. Mehmet Oz to occupy a faculty appointment, let alone a senior administrative position in the Department of Surgery.

As described here and here, as well as in other publications, Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops. Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.

Thus, Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgements about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both. Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable.


Sincerely yours,

Henry I. Miller, M.D.
Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy
& Public Policy
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Scott W. Atlas, M.D.
David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Jack Fisher, M.D.
Professor of Surgery (emeritus)
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Shelley Fleet, M.D.
Anesthesiologist
Longwood, FL

Gordon N. Gill, M.D.
Dean (emeritus) of Translational Medicine
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Michael H. Mellon, M.D.
Pediatric Allergist
San Diego, CA

Gilbert Ross, M.D.
President (Acting) and Executive Director
American Council on Science and Health
New York, NY

Samuel Schneider, M.D.
Psychiatrist
Princeton, NJ

Glenn Swogger Jr. M.D.
Director of the Will Menninger Center for Applied Behavioral Sciences (retired)
The Menninger Foundation
Topeka, KS

Joel E. Tepper, M.D.
Hector MacLean Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research
Dept of Radiation Oncology
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC

source: BuzzFeed