Mehmet Oz

Oz came under scrutiny when it appeared that his commentary was influencing Trump on federal policy concerning the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He was criticized for promoting hydroxychloroquine as a cure for the coronavirus during a March 23, 2020 broadcast on Fox News. It was characterized as "irresponsible commentary" and "assiduously pushed by Dr. Mehmet Oz via misinterpretations of published data or sheer credulousness". The evidence to support it being a cure was a single study, which would later be criticized including by the journal that published it. Tests of the drug as a coronavirus cure were discontinued after test subjects began developing heart issues, and Oz was criticized by multiple outlets for over-hyping the drug with limited and premature information, as well as by Surgeon General Jerome Adams. Oz promoted the drug on several more appearances on Fox News. Dr. Michael Ackerman of the Mayo Clinic called it "inexcusable" to push the drug without acknowledging the potential cardiac side effects.

In April 2020, he was criticized after an appearance on Fox News with Sean Hannity in which he said that reopening schools that were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States might be worth the increased number of deaths it could potentially cause. He later said in a video on Twitter that he "misspoke". A number of publications used the incident to make a larger argument that Oz's statements throughout his professional media career often lacked scientific backing.

In April 2020, USA Today published an article which omitted any reference to Oz's medical credentials, referring to him only as "media personality Mehmet Oz"

In 2019, Oz played for the "Home" roster during the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game at the Bojangles' Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The roster was made up of celebrities with Carolina roots. He previously played in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. Also in 2019, Oz played for Team Cleveland in Major League Baseball's All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

Oz has voiced his support of shutting down Backpage, a controversial website which was seized by U.S. authorities in April 2018. Backpage has earned millions of dollars by allowing sex ads to be hosted on its website, some of which featured children. The site has been supported by the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) and the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) have been passed by the U.S. Congress in 2018 as a response to Backpage.

Oz grew up in a mixed Muslim environment where his father's family practiced more traditional Islam, while his mother's family were more secular Muslims. Oz identifies himself as a Muslim and says that he has been influenced by the mysticism of Sufi Muslims from Central Turkey, as well as the ideas of Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th-century Swedish theologian, scientist, philosopher, revelator and mystic.

In September 2016, during his presidential campaign, Donald Trump appeared on The Dr. Oz Show. In the lead-up to the show's taping, Oz promoted Trump's appearance with a claim that Oz would assess medical records submitted to the show by Trump and reveal his assessment on the show. Several news outlets speculated that Trump's appearance aimed to appeal to The Dr. Oz Show' s large female viewership. In 2018, Trump appointed Oz, athletes, and The Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno to his Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Trump's selections were criticized as choosing "pundits over experts" for the panel. White House officials were also annoyed with Oz's role as an advisor, with one sarcastically asking if they would soon be deputizing Dr. Spaceman.

In April 2015, a group of ten physicians from prestigious institutions called for Columbia University to part ways with Oz, who was the vice chair of the Department of Surgery. More than 1,300 doctors signed a letter sent to the university.

On October 23, 2014, Surgeon Oz, showing Oz's career as a surgeon, debuted on OWN.

Eight of Oz's books have been New York Times bestsellers, of which seven were co-authored by Michael F. Roizen. He has a regular column in Esquire magazine and O, The Oprah Magazine and his article "Retool, Reboot, and Rebuild" was awarded the 2009 National Magazine Award for Personal Service. Oz and the Hearst Corporation launched the bi-monthly magazine Dr. Oz THE GOOD LIFE on February 4, 2014.

A 2014 study published in the British Medical Journal found that medical talk shows such as The Dr Oz Show and The Doctors often lack adequate information on the specific benefits or evidence of their claims. 40 episodes of each program from early 2013 were evaluated, determining that evidence supported 46 percent, contradicted 15 percent and was not found for 39 percent of the recommendations on The Dr Oz Show.

In January 2011, Oz premiered as part of a weekly show on OWN called "Oprah's Allstars". In each episode, he, Suze Orman, and Dr. Phil answer various questions about life, health and finance. He also currently does a health segment on 1010 WINS titled "Your Daily Dose".

In 2010, Oz joined Jeff Arnold as co-founder of Sharecare, Inc.

In August 2010, Oz was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous polyp in the colon during a routine colonoscopy which was performed as part of his show. Oz said that the procedure likely saved his life.

Oz appeared as a health expert on The Oprah Winfrey Show for five seasons. In 2009, Winfrey offered to produce a syndicated series hosted by him through her company, Harpo Productions. The Dr. Oz Show debuted September 14, 2009, distributed by Sony Pictures Television.

The James Randi Educational Foundation has awarded Oz with their Pigasus Award, an award intended "to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year." In 2009, Oz received the award for the promotion of energy therapies such as Reiki. In 2010, Oz received the award for support of faith healing and psychic communication with the dead, among other controversial practices. Oz became the first person to receive a Pigasus Award two years in a row. In 2012, Oz won "The Pigasus Award for Refusal to Face Reality" for his continued promotion of "quack medical practices, paranormal belief, and pseudoscience".

Oz has been a professor at the Department of Surgery at Columbia University since 2001. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

From 1999-2004, Oz was named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum and was listed on Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People" of 2008. He has been nominated for nine Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show Host since The Dr. Oz Show premiered in 2009, and won the award in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016.

In 1996, Ottavio Alfieri proposed to Oz that the mitral valve only needed one suture to close a leak. He developed the idea to use a catheter to put one staple in and submitted the patent for MitraClip in 1997. In the late 1990s, Oz began recommending ventricular assist devices as an alternative for patients with heart failure.

Oz lives in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, with his wife Lisa. They have been married since 1985 and have four children and four grandchildren. His eldest daughter is author and television host Daphne Oz. Oz and his wife founded HealthCorps, a non-profit organization for health education and peer mentoring.

Oz was educated at Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1982, he received his undergraduate degree in biology at Harvard University. He played safety on Harvard's football team and won an intramural college championship playing water polo. In 1986, he obtained MD and MBA degrees, respectively, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Penn's Wharton School. He was awarded the Captain's Athletic Award for leadership in college and was class president and then student body president during medical school.

Mehmet Cengiz Öz (Turkish: [mehˈmet dʒeɲˈɟiz œz] ; born June 11, 1960), known professionally as Dr. Oz, is a Turkish-American television personality, cardiothoracic surgeon, Columbia University professor, pseudoscience promoter, journalist, and author. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey was the first guest on the Discovery Channel series Second Opinion with Dr. Oz, and, since 2004, Oz became a regular guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, making more than sixty appearances. In 2009, The Dr. Oz Show, a daily television program focusing on medical issues and personal health, was launched by Winfrey's Harpo Productions and Sony Pictures Television.

Oz was born in 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Suna and Mustafa Öz, who had emigrated from Konya Province, Turkey. Mustafa, born in Bozkır, a small town in southern Turkey, earned scholarships that allowed him to emigrate to the United States as a medical resident in 1955. Suna (née Atabay), who comes from a wealthy Istanbul family, is the daughter of a pharmacist with Circassian (Shapsug) descent on her mother's side. Oz has two sisters, Seval Öz and Nazlim Öz.