Steve: (00:00)
… company has a mandate. There are a lot of companies that are still enforcing that. Let’s bring in Dr. Mehmet Oz. He’s the host of the Dr. Oz show. He’s a cardiologist, and he’s got a new hat. He’s now a political candidate to be the Republican, running in Pennsylvania for the US Senate. Dr. Oz, good morning to you.
Ainsley: (00:19)
Good morning.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (00:19)
Good morning, Steve. Let me just explain why I moved from just a few blocks from where you are making my show with great joy into the political ring. I actually feel we’re in a great crisis and like you’ve been watching this. COVID really broke the country in some ways, and I feel our values are under attack.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (00:34)
So, I’ve asked the voters of Pennsylvania to consider me for their senator for the United States, and I’m going to serve America in this time of need the best of my ability. We need better solutions. They’re out there. We ought to stop shaming and silencing and bullying and canceling people with ideas that are different than ours, especially when they’re good ideas. We saw that play out plenty in COVID.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (00:56)
And I got to say, in medicine, when you cannot say what you see, people die. So, we ought be able to do at least that. As Dr. Brian was just articulating with our management of COVID, let’s just get clear about what we’re actually experiencing so we don’t wander down a path of making the same mistakes we made the first time around.
Ainsley: (01:14)
Dr. Oz, we’re all ready to move on with our lives, and people in New York are worried that these schools are going to make our kids get vaccinated. Some of them don’t want their kids to have the shot yet, especially those whose kids have already had COVID. You have all these people that are losing their jobs. We see what’s happening with inflation. Is it safe for us to move on with our lives? Are you worried about this variant? What’s your advice?
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (01:39)
I’m not worried about the variant. There are lots of mutations on the variant. 32 of them are on the spike protein. So, I understand why we need to watch it carefully, but we have no evidence that it’s more of a problem than Delta variant. We have no evidence that it’s resistant to vaccines, and we don’t have any evidence that it’s more dangerous to us. So, what are the criteria by which we would, for example, declare a state of emergency in New York, and what are the criteria to lift that state of emergency?
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (02:03)
We went through this. Remember two weeks to bend the curve? I was with you. That metastasized into this overarching authoritarianism that started to destroy our culture, our beliefs, our values. And then you start to train people to be docile, to be chattel, to just follow the rules and follow the orders, even though the people making the rules oftentimes don’t really know what to do. So, they just make rules, right?
Steve: (02:24)
Right. And-
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (02:24)
That doesn’t work. We’ve been down this path.
Steve: (02:26)
And to that point, yesterday in your rollout video that you had, you released something on social media. I saw you said, “COVID has shown us our system is broken. Washington got it wrong. They took away our freedoms.” And that ultimately is what you want to try to fix. How do you fix that?
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (02:46)
Well, one is transparency, but most importantly, we got to empower Americans. If you take charge of your own health, you reduce the complications of COVID. That’s something you can do. I spent my whole career empowering people. I empowered my patients, my viewers on the show. I’ll do it now for the citizens of Pennsylvania, for the whole country.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (03:02)
And I’ve taken on big pharma, so that the only data you see is not just big pharma data. I’ve taken on big tech, same story. They control the narrative, so they tell you the stories you’re supposed to believe. Same with fights I’ve had with agrochemical companies. I’ve got the scars to prove it. We talked about some of these battles. I’ll keep waging them. I cannot be bought. And when you have people talking about this stuff, honestly, it’s uncomfortable for moneyed interests, but it’s what has to happen in America.
Speaker 4: (03:27)
So, Dr. Oz, a couple of things. Number one, you realize if you question Anthony Fauci, you question science. So, how dare you question anything. I want you to apologize to science.
Speaker 4: (03:38)
Number two is I believe, and I could be wrong on this, that you were totally befuddled by the reaction to hydroxychloroquine. You were just asking questions, and the blow back, the magnitude of it was shocking to you as somebody who came up in the medical profession and does that still every day.
Speaker 4: (03:58)
You’re asking the same questions, but now you’re asking those medical questions in a political environment. And you were just almost taken aback to the point where you were knocked back a little. You had to recalibrate your remarks. Is that correct?
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (04:16)
When you mix politics in medicine, you get politics. And what we would, not just with hydroxychloroquine, but many other solutions that have been offered subsequently is that there’s a single perspective that’s allowed, get vaccinated.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (04:30)
Listen, I think one of the greatest accomplishments of America is that we gave the world the mRNA vaccines through president Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. I’m so happy that we were able to do that. And I got vaccinated, and I believe in vaccines. I don’t believe in mandates, and I also don’t believe it’s the only path to success.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (04:47)
From day one, we’ve argued that doctors do not send patients home with just a prescription or a piece of paper with a diagnosis. We send you home with a game plan about how to cure yourself, how to make yourself better, to empower you, right? In COVID we said, “Go home. If your lips turn blue, call us. You might need to get hospitalized.” That’s not good enough. And when you have doctors around the world offering the best solutions possible during the fog of war, we ought at least listen to them.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (05:12)
To this day, we have not done adequate quality clinical trials to test most of these products. We had a pill approved yesterday by the FDA. And listen careful. This pill from Merck was available before the pandemic started.
Speaker 4: (05:26)
Wow.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (05:26)
It was here for more than two years. We just yesterday had the FDA panel say, “You know? It saves lives.”
Speaker 4: (05:32)
Unbelievable.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (05:32)
“We ought to approve it.” Finally, doctors for the first time have a pill to give patients who have a diagnosis of COVID. We should have done much, much better than this, but we couldn’t ask the questions.
Speaker 4: (05:41)
Yeah, because there’s two pill political.
Steve: (05:42)
Hey, so when it comes to the Senate race in Pennsylvania, you obviously have enormous name recognition because you’ve been on television for a very long time. Oprah Winfrey introduced us to you back in the day. Have you talked to Oprah? Have you heard from Oprah about running for Senate?
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (06:03)
Of course, I spoke with Oprah. She’s my partner on the show. She’s been a huge mentor, fairest woman I know. I told her that my interests were in politics. She listened very thoughtfully about it. She said, “Do what your heart says to do.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (06:18)
I want to run this race to address the major issues we face in America, and the prognosis is good. I feel more upbeat about America today than I have in a long time because I’ve seen the solutions out there. They’re fantastic, but they’re being suffocated. So, I’m running to make sure that those great ideas see the light of day. That’s what we’ve always done as a country, right?
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (06:38)
And here’s the pledge. I’m going to be your public servant. We can reinvigorate America with these good ideas if we listen to each other. And this is important. We got to start seeing the divine spark in each other again. We’re not the enemy of each other.
Ainsley: (06:51)
Are you ready for this race? I mean, you are loved by everyone in America, and you’ve decided to run as a Republican. Tell us about the thought process, what your conversations were like with your family and to leave such a big job making a lot of money to go into politics.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (07:07)
Well, Ainsley, thanks for bringing the family issue up. It was the most important part of the decision, because you do take your whole family down the path. So, my youngest son, Oliver, who’s been on this show, just started medical school at Columbia. So, I figured when the youngest one was out of the process, I could go out and do what I wanted to do for a while, which is to serve our nation.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (07:26)
Lisa, as you know, is a strong, strong one. Best thing I ever did was meet her here in Philadelphia and marry her 36 years ago, and so I feel blessed to have her by my side. And I tell you one thing. She does set me straight because in my house, the prosecution never rests.
Speaker 4: (07:43)
Right. Interesting.
Steve: (07:44)
All right.
Speaker 4: (07:44)
All right. Dr. Oz, we look forward to talking to you. It’s going to be a whirlwind to look forward to. Get ready for the knives.
Dr. Mehmet Oz: (07:52)
All right. I’m looking forward. Bless you all.
Ainsley: (07:53)
He’s used to the scalpel.
Speaker 4: (07:54)
Slings and arrows.
Ainsley: (07:54)
He’s used to the scalpel.
Steve: (07:57)
In his business, they’re scalpels.
Ainsley: (07:57)
Right. Right.
Steve: (07:57)
Just saying. All right, Mehmet. Thank you very much for doing…
Ainsley: (07:59)
Wishing you all the…