Mehmet Oz
It still feels like a fever dream that Dr. Oz, who once advocated for hydroxychloroquine as a covid-19 cure on his show, is actually an option on the ballot in this year’s race for Senate in Pennsylvania. But the good doctor (who is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon, although he has pushed questionable treatments for basically every medical issue under the sun) locked down the GOP nomination in June and will face off against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the general.
Oz is an interesting case among this crowd because his opinions on fracking used to be, in the grand scheme of other opinions he’s held in the past, not that bad. In 2014, Oz co-wrote a newspaper column that called for more studies on how pollution from fracking might impact human health. (Many studies have since found a link between fracking and negative health impacts.) However, he seems to have done a politically convenient 180 in this purple state, flipping to a full-throated proponent of fracking as he picked up fossil fuel supporters like Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm and former Energy Secretary Rick Perry. He has also begun to straight-up deny climate science, claiming that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere isn’t an issue (it is!!!).
Rating: 6/10 for boomeranging.
