Friday, April 24, 2015

"Snake Oil" Is Alive and Well

First Dr Ahmet Oz is called in front of a Senate Committee for his misrepresentation of weight loss products. http://mtskeptics.blogspot.com/2014/06/pseudoscience-of-dr-oz.html , then ten distinguished physicians petition Columbia University to remove him from his faculty position.
Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops.  Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/16/8423867/dr-oz-letter-columbia

And what was the response from Columbia?
The weaknesses in the professional balance sheet of Dr. Oz's pixel practice should not, in and of themselves, disqualify him from his day job as a professor in the Department of Surgery at Columbia University. He was hired by Columbia as a faculty member in 2001 on the basis of his skills as a physician. He continues to receive excellent peer reviews and patient satisfaction ratings. Those accolades are earned and his Columbia employment should not be terminated without better demonstration of on-site performance failure. It does not follow that complaints about his on-air medical practice will be addressed by demanding that he leave his other job in which he excels.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/04/23/dr-oz-show-columbia-doctors-call-for-resignation-column/26179443/

In other words Columbia has no issue with selling "snake oil" as long as you do it on your own time.  No wonder quack medicine is alive and well.

No comments:

Post a Comment