As their statewide campaigns move forward, Georgia’s Herschel Walker and Pennsylvania’s Mehmet Oz have quite a bit in common. They’re both political rookies running for office for the first time. They’re both Republican Senate candidates. They’re both running in states they didn’t live in until quite recently. They’re both celebrities hoping to parlay their public profiles into political power. They’ve both received endorsements from Donald Trump.
This week, however, a new similarity emerged: They’ve both been accused of making dubious claims related to medicine and health.
The New York Times reported late last year, for example, that Dr. Oz has a history of “dispensing dubious medical advice” and making “sweeping claims based on thin evidence.” The article referenced controversial comments the Republican has made about everything from weight-loss pills to apple juice to cellphones. Oz even promoted hydroxychloroquine on Fox News in 2020 as a possible Covid-19 treatment.
The Times’ article added, “In 2014, the British Medical Journal analyzed 80 recommendations on Dr. Oz’s show, and concluded that fewer than half were supported by evidence.”
As it turns out, Walker has a related problem in his record. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
Senate candidate Herschel Walker has spent years promoting and developing health-conscious products with dubious benefits and a skepticism from the medical community, a review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found…. He looked to “revolutionize” the health market with products he said would prevent aging, help weight loss and even protect against the damages of smoking — despite little evidence, his company admitted in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Part of the problem is that the products were commercial failures, reinforcing concerns about Walker’s troubled record as a businessman. The AJC article added that the Republican’s failures in this area were so extensive that he and his partners took on significant debts, “for which creditors have repeatedly sued Walker and his associates to recover.” But more important is the fact that Walker’s health-related products didn’t do what he claimed they’d do. For example, he championed an aloe-based drink, which purportedly protected people from the damage caused by smoking cigarettes. According to the Journal-Constitution’s reporting, when that beverage proved to be a flop, Walker and his business partners developed a different drink that was also portrayed as a way to ward off disease. More recently, of course, Walker falsely claimed that the FDA had approved an unproven “dry mist” mystery treatment for Covid-19. It’s too soon to say whether Oz or Walker will end up on Capitol Hill, but those turning to the candidates for health-related guidance should probably exercise some caution.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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