Pennsylvania republican Senate nominee Dr Mehmet Oz made his debut at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, speaking at a panel on coronavirus pandemic.
Oz appeared skeptical of the mRNA vaccine, Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Brooke Miller, and volunteered to have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I did,” Oz said after moderator Jason Ranz asked the panel if they had been vaccinated. Malone also raised his hand.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”
One of the men present shouted, “This is poison!”
But Oz also criticized the politicization of Trump-backed “doctor” for COVID hydroxychloroquine and remained silent when Malone suggested that vaccinations actually “improved” COVID when one took the Omicron variant.
The hope of the Republican Senate of Pennsylvania Dr. Mehmet Oz made his debut at the Conference on Conservative Political Action on Sunday, speaking at a panel on the coronavirus pandemic
Dr. Mehmet Oz (right) volunteered for moderator Jason Ranz (left) to say that he had been vaccinated against COVID-19. The crowd responded to Ranz’s question by shouting “Noooo!”
At CPAC, Oz spoke of the beginning of the pandemic, noting that his television show, Dr. Oz’s Show, had aired in about 100 countries.
He said he had heard reports from around the world about a promising drug.
“So I learned that there was a drug that most doctors seemed confident could help, it was the fog of war, we didn’t know for sure, it was something called hydroxycholorchin,” Oz said to applause.
“I just said it well then, you know it’s been about 70 years, maybe it’s useful, in theory it can, so at least we have to study it – and that’s when President Trump mentioned it,” he said.
“And people hated him so much that they started fighting a decision,” Oz added.
The Food and Drug Administration briefly authorized the emergency use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, for the treatment of COVID-19, but that ended by June 2020, four months after the pandemic.
A study published this week found that after the FDA withdrew its approval, hydroxychloroquine prescriptions were twice as high in Trump constituencies.
A clinical study by the National Institutes of Health found that hydroxychloroquine “does not provide a clinical benefit” for patients hospitalized for COVID-19.
Oz said the jury was still unaware of the drug – which Trump is using as a preventative measure.
“And I’m here to say that I’m not 100 percent sure about hydroxychloroquine, but it’s not our fault right now,” he said.
“The government is guilty when you stop people from studying something that could be useful – I think it’s about ivermectin, it’s true about vitamin D, it’s true about zinc and quercetin, there are a lot of things we can do let’s talk about the inclusion, among other things, of antiviral drugs, which are only now being approved, “he added.
He also claims that now former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has in fact banned Oz from conducting a clinical trial of the drug.
“The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has banned the clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine. Then I said give the pills, he forbade their use, this is a prescription for COVID, “said Oz.
Cuomo signed an executive order in March 2020, which prohibits doctors from prescribing hydroxychloroquine outside of FDA-approved clinical trials or uses.
“Since when has a non-medical officer elected – even with a medical degree – have the right to prohibit a doctor from prescribing an FDA-approved drug?” Oz asked on the CPAC stage.
As Oz said Washington was “very confused,” he added, “I want to applaud President Trump and his administration for Operation Warp Speed.”
Operation Warp Speed was a public-private venture by the Trump White House to quickly develop a vaccine against COVID-19.
“And before everyone evaluates the vaccine. “China has given us a terrible pandemic and this country has given the world a vaccine,” he said.
“It’s our choice whether we want to use it,” added the Republican Senate’s hope.
Oz also dismissed media reports that those who remained unvaccinated were “Republicans dragging their knuckles – how awful that is.”
“The reality is that older people who have been vulnerable have been vaccinated 95 percent of the time. For them, they did the bill, it was worth it – they believe – and I support that, the opportunity to get the vaccine was worth it, “Oz explained.
He then talks about how his son, a medical student, rejected the mandate of Columbia University School of Medicine to get a booster.
“He already had his first one to go to school and then he actually got COVID. And he’s adopting an immunology that teaches him it’s not right, “Oz said.
Oz then accused many people who were in favor of vaccines of being “cowards” and said Columbia University had given up since then.
Oz, who ran in the crowded Republican Senate primary for the Pennsylvania Senate.
But he sat in silence when Malone suggested to the crowd that the vaccines made Omicron worse.
“It seems that your risk of contracting and developing COVID-19 from Omicron increases with the number of vaccines you receive,” Malone said.
He said it was because “we have a new virus.”
“The vaccine is intended for the original strain, it is completely inconsistent with this strain, and the data show that we see something like a vaccine-enhanced disease,” Malone said.