A look at Dr. Oz’s health record as he is nominated for the key post by Trump

Amna Nawaz:

President-elect Donald Trump has named two more people to his administration, investment banker Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the well-known TV personality and heart surgeon, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Oz will oversee programs that provide health coverage to about half of all Americans.

His talk show, which ran for nearly 15 years, was one of the most popular in daytime, but he has pushed questionable medical treatments not supported by experts and has sometimes promoted misinformation.

In the announcement, Mr. Trump that Dr. Oz fit right in with the campaign to make America healthy.

Lev Facher of STAT News has been following Oz’s career, and he joins me now.

Lev, thanks for being with us.

So you profiled Dr. Oz back during his 2022 Senate run in Pennsylvania, and at the time you pointed out that while he is a physician and a renowned heart surgeon, he also spent much of his career embracing untruths, as you put it. What did you mean by that and what kind of reaction are you hearing about him being appointed to lead CMS?