Mehmet Oz’s advocacy for the drug hydroxychloroquine in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic is cited in a new congressional report that accuses former President Donald Trump’s administration of pressuring the Food and Drug Administration to endorse unproven treatments and vaccines.
The report released Wednesday says the Trump White House interfered with the FDA by pressing the agency to authorize hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, despite no proof it worked against COVID-19. Early on, the pressure came partly at the urging of Oz, the physician and talk-show host who is now the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.
Emails from Oz detailed in the report demonstrate the direct line that he and other conservative TV personalities had to top officials in the White House from the earliest days of the pandemic.
