Dr. Oz is on the campaign trail.
The medical professional and host of The Dr. Oz Show officially announced on Nov. 30 that he is running for an open U.S. Senate seat in his home state of Pennsylvania. In a letter posted by the conservative D.C. publication the Washington Examiner, titled "Why I'm running to be a senator from Pennsylvania," the 61-year-old shared what inspired him to make the career change.
"We are angry at our government and at each other," he wrote. "We have not managed our crises as effectively as past generations. During the pandemic, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions. That's why I am running for the U.S. Senate: to help fix the problems and to help us heal."
Dr. Oz—whose full name is Mehmet Oz—explained that he is the child of immigrant parents who taught him to study hard and serve others. The aspiring politician noted that he has trained young surgeons to save lives, invented life-saving devices and measured his days by countless people helped.
That all led him on the path to becoming a health expert on the The Oprah Winfrey Show, before landing his own daytime television program. Oz says the Covid-19 pandemic inspired him to take his knowledge for public health a step further.
"COVID-19 became an excuse for the government and elite thinkers who controlled the means of communication to suspend debate," he wrote. "Dissenting opinions from leading scholars were ridiculed and canceled so their ideas could not be disseminated."
He continued, "Instead, the government mandated policies that caused unnecessary suffering. The public was patronized and misled instead of empowered. We were told to lock down quietly and let those in charge take care of the rest. When we tested positive for the virus, we were also told to wait at home until our lips turned blue and we got sick enough to warrant hospitalization. To be clear, this is not a typical medical protocol."
Dr. Oz noted that as "someone who has fought the establishment his whole life," he feels that there is a need for capable leaders who are ready to act. At the end of his note, the medical professional shared his final promise. "I'm running for the Senate to empower you to control your destiny," he said, "to reinvigorate our great nation, and to reignite the divine spark that we should always be seeing in each other."