In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mehmet Oz — aka Dr. Oz – repeatedly emailed top Trump administration officials, urging them to push the ineffective malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat COVID-19 based on sparse, sketchy data from a now disgraced French researcher.
Emails from the infamous celebrity doctor were first revealed on Wednesday in a House select subcommittee report on the coronavirus crisis. The report, titled “A ‘Knife Fight’ with the FDA,” examined how the Trump administration attempted to undermine, pressure and bully the Food and Drug Administration during the pandemic.
Notably, it revealed how the Trump White House pressured the FDA to bend safety standards so that COVID-19 vaccines could be released before Election Day. It also exposed the persistent efforts and subterfuge of top Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro and adviser Steven Hatfill to pressure the FDA to support the use of the debunked malaria drug. The title of the report comes from a direct quote from Hatfill that the White House had planned a “knife fight with the FDA” over hydroxychloroquine.
Both attempts were ultimately unsuccessful: The FDA didn’t approve any vaccines before the election, nor did it re-authorize hydroxychloroquine after it was found to be ineffective. But the government’s actions caused lasting damage to the FDA, the country’s pandemic response and public confidence, the report concludes.
As today’s report makes clear, senior Trump administration officials undermined public health experts because they believed it would benefit the former president politically — colluding with well-known conspiracy theorists to dangerously push a disproven coronavirus treatment , bully the FDA to change its vaccine guidelines, and call for federal investigations into those who stood in their way,” Select Subcommittee Chair Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said in a press statement. Our country’s public health institutions undermined the country’s response to the coronavirus — which is exactly why we must never again settle for leaders who put politics above American’s security.”
The role of Oz
But before Navarro and Hatfill spearheaded the effort and “working from the shadows” to advocate for a junk COVID-19 cure, there was Dr. Oz, who was equally eager to promote the unproven treatment.
Oz, who has a long history of unproven treatments and health scams, quickly jumped on the hydroxychloroquine train. Days after the small, dubious French study — led by a now disgraced microbiologist — suggested hydroxychloroquine was 100 percent effective in treating COVID-19, Oz sent emails to Trump White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx and Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner advocates hydroxychloroquine.
On March 22, Oz sent Birx a series of emails complaining about a “shortage of coronavirus drugs” and urging her to expand access to hydroxychloroquine. He also claimed the drug had “confirmed clinical benefits.” The next day, Oz sent Kushner an email saying Trump should “push academic centers to act faster” on hydroxychloroquine trials. Kushner replied, “What are you doing?[sic] recommend to speed it up?”
In those emails, Oz mentioned plans to conduct a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine with his own money. Earlier this year, an Oz representative confirmed to the New York Post that Oz had spent nearly $9,000 of its money to buy more than 2,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets by 2020. And he was reportedly willing to spend $250,000 to fund a clinical trial at Columbia University.
On March 28, Oz Birx emailed again about the French investigation. Birx forwarded his message to then-FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn with the message, “We need to talk.” That same day, the FDA granted a controversial emergency use permit for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, allowing use against COVID-19.
In June, the FDA reversed the decision and sent Navarro and Hatfill on a failed mission to get hydroxychloroquine re-approved. And numerous studies have subsequently shown the drug to be ineffective and potentially harmful for treating COVID-19 patients.
Oz, a crudité aficionado who is now a Republican Senate candidate for Pennsylvania, eventually dropped the idea of a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine and reportedly donated the pills to an undisclosed hospital.
