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 former 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—recognized for peddling controversial well being merchandise on his present—reported a relationship with Usana Well being Sciences, a Utah-based complement firm with a monitor report of contamination lawsuits and pyramid-scheme accusations.
In response to 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 created 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 had been flagged by a California watchdog group for “exceeding allowable levels” of lead. Usana finally settled the case exterior of courtroom.
The well being complement firm additionally confronted a number of accusations of working as an unlawful pyramid scheme, or multi-level advertising firm.
Oz continued to absorb 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 chopping ties with the corporate, he served as a trusted face promoting Usana’s merchandise at varied 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 selection for CMS administrator has beforehand shilled for a corporation that, in response to quite a few lawsuits, has finished simply that.
Oz isn’t the one controversial well being care sector Cupboard choose.
The previous Republican Senate candidate shall be becoming a member of damaging 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.
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