Hoover Institute leads efforts against Dr. Mehmet Oz; Columbia University defends academic freedom.

[proverbialwisdom]

Last edited Fri Apr 17, 2015, 03:41 AM - Edit history (1)

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/04/16/group-of-doctors-want-to-see-dr-oz-kicked-off-columbia-faculty/

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/doctors-dr-oz-removed-columbia-faculty-article-1.2187815

Columbia, in a statement Thursday, defended its decision to keep Oz around.

“Columbia is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members’ freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussions,” said Columbia University Medical Center spokesman Doug Levy.

<>

Previously: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/09/12/has-dr-oz-become-antivaccine/

[DeadLetterOffice]

1. I'm with Miller et al. on this one.

Oz is a quack and has no business being on faculty anywhere, ever.

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Miller is the founding director of the Office of Biotechnology at the Food and Drug Administration

O joy, your type? Not mine.

http://www.hoover.org/fellows
http://www.hoover.org/profiles/henry-i-miller

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/04/arctic_apple_safety_dr_oz_sows_seeds_of_mistrust_on_gmos.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/henrymiller/2015/04/08/usdas-zombie-biotech-regulation-lives-on/

http://www.hoover.org/research/organic-farming-not-sustainable
http://www.hoover.org/research/organic-overrated

OTOH, check out Dr. William Li's work supported by the Clinton Initiative, apparently, and introduced to the public by Dr. Oz.

http://www.capcityspeakers.com/speakers/Li.htm

Dr. William Li Massachusetts

Hailed as one of the world's most visionary medical researchers, Dr. William Li is re-conceptualizing global disease fighting by aiming at a disease common denominator: angiogenesis, the process used by the body to grow blood vessels.

Whenever there is excessive or insufficient blood vessel growth, serious health issues arise, and many of society's most devastating diseases - cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, to name a few - share faulty angiogenesis as an underlying problem. For three decades, Dr. Li has been leading worldwide efforts to conquer "unbeatable" diseases by restoring the body's control over angiogenesis. The results have been groundbreaking: 27 new transformative treatments for cancer, blindness and wounds that have literally changed the game for patients, doctors and society.

As President, Medical Director and co-founder of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a nonprofit organization, Dr. Li has developed a unique social enterprise model that drives innovation and creates results through collaboration with academia, government, associations and industry. Works with the world's leading scientists, doctors, health policymakers,and industrial innovators across North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America, Dr. Li is now leading the Foundation to bring about the next generation of breakthroughs for conditions such as obesity, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease. The New York Times identified Dr. Li "one of the top 10 with the potential for changing the world in the next 10 years."

Dr. Li received his undergraduate degree with honors in Biochemistry from Harvard College and his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pennsylvania. He completed his internship and residency training in General Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Li has held appointments on the faculties of Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, Tufts University and Dartmouth Medical School. He is widely published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, the International Wound Journal, among many others.

Dr. Li is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, serves as an expert resource to the FDA, NIH, CMS and Capitol Hill and lectures around the world to corporate, professional and public audiences. Dr. Li has given a highly popular TED Talk that has garnered over 3 million views. He is a medical advisor to Emmy-winning The Dr. Oz Show and is a regular guest on the show. Dr. Li's work has impacted more than 50 million people worldwide.

http://www.angio.org/about/history/

https://www.eattobeat.org/frontlines/8/eat-to-defeat-cancer-hellip-every-day.html
http://www.eattobeat.org/pages/15/our-supporters-and-collaborators.html
https://twitter.com/eattobeat

No contest.

[DeadLetterOffice]

6. Sorry to offend your sensibilities.

Doesn't matter much to me who Miller is, in this instance, because Oz is a quack and shouldn't be allowed to keep his Doctor title, let alone be on faculty.

[proverbialwisdom]

5. Hoover (2), emeritus (2), retired (1). What, if any, is the relationship between these people?

Recent:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/04/arctic_apple_safety_dr_oz_sows_seeds_of_mistrust_on_gmos.html
http://www.doctoroz.com/episode/non-browning-gmo-apple-it-safe

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/04/16/a-bunch-of-doctors-ask-columbia-university-to-cut-its-ties-with-dr-oz/

A bunch of doctors ask Columbia University to cut its ties with Dr. Oz
By Elahe Izadi April 16 at 5:03 PM

...Dr. Mehmet Oz is also a cardiothoracic surgeon who holds the surgery department vice chairmanship at Columbia University's medical school....

Here is the whole text of the letter. Two additional New York doctors had also wanted to sign after the letter was sent, Miller said:

Lee Goldman, M.D.
Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine
Columbia University

Dear Dr. Goldman:

I am writing to you on behalf of myself and the undersigned colleagues below, all of whom are distinguished physicians.

We are surprised and dismayed that Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons would permit Dr. Mehmet Oz to occupy a faculty appointment, let alone a senior administrative position in the Department of Surgery.

As described here and here, as well as in other publications, 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.

Thus, Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgments [sic] about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both. Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz's presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable.

Sincerely yours,

Henry I. Miller, M.D.
Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy
& Public Policy
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Scott W. Atlas, M.D.
David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Jack Fisher, M.D.
Professor of Surgery (emeritus)
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Shelley Fleet, M.D.
Anesthesiologist
Longwood, FL

Gordon N. Gill, M.D.
Dean (emeritus) of Translational Medicine
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Michael H. Mellon, M.D.
Pediatric Allergist
San Diego, CA

GIlbert Ross, M.D.
President (Acting) and Executive Director
American Council on Science and Health
New York, NY

Samuel Schneider, M.D.
Psychiatrist
Princeton, NJ

Glenn Swogger Jr. M.D.
Director of the Will Menninger Center for Applied Behavioral Sciences (retired)
The Menninger Foundation
Topeka, KS

Joel E. Tepper, M.D.
Hector MacLean Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research
Dept of Radiation Oncology
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC

[DeadLetterOffice]

7. Rather than tossing about vague conspiracy-theory worthy...

... innuendo about the letter signers, perhaps you should address the points they raised. Since you seem to disagree with them.

[proverbialwisdom]

8. Motive? Spelled out here by both the author of the letter and a co-signer (their relationship, too).

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/group-of-doctors-call-for-dr-oz-to-be-ousted-from-columbia-university/

Group of doctors calls on Columbia Univ. to oust Dr. Oz

By Paula Cohen CBS NEWS
April 16, 2015, 10:25 PM

...The author of the letter, Dr. Henry I. Miller of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, told CBS News that in his view, "a person who endangers patients and is a menace to public health should not be on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution."

Oz -- in addition to being a TV personality first made famous on "Oprah" -- is a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon and vice-chair of the department of surgery at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he says "our mantra is we train doctors to save lives."

Miller said he felt compelled to speak out because of what he called Oz's "fear-mongering" on the issue of genetically modified foods, which Miller has written about in Slate and elsewhere.

"He's been so wrong and so misleading and so unconstructive and antisocial on that subject, I thought enough is enough," Miller said.

<>

Miller admitted he did not really expect Columbia to act on his letter and fire Dr. Oz, though he held out hope that the board of trustees might take up the issue...

http://cjonline.com/news/2015-04-16/retired-topeka-doctor-blasts-dr-oz-scare-mongering

Retired Topeka doctor blasts Dr. Oz for 'scare-mongering'
Group of doctors asked Columbia University to cut ties

Posted: April 16, 2015 - 6:21pm
By Megan Hart

A retired Topeka physician joined eight other doctors calling on Columbia University to cut ties to TV personality and thoracic surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Glenn Swogger Jr., a medical doctor who was director of the Will Menninger Center for Applied Behavioral Sciences before he retired, said Oz was a “scaremonger” who spread misinformation about genetically modified foods and other substances that research hasn’t shown to be harmful.

...Swogger said he was particularly concerned by Oz’s strident opposition to genetically modified foods, which haven’t been shown to cause health problems.

People who repeatedly hear that everyday substances are dangerous may start to tune out health messages, which becomes a problem if doctors need to communicate about real health risks, Swogger said.

“This kind of scare-mongering can cause real harm,” he said.

Swogger said the letter’s author, Henry Miller, a medical doctor and fellow in scientific philosophy and public policy at the Hoover Institution, asked him to sign. They had met when they both served on the board of the American Council on Science and Health, he said.

The others who signed included another medical doctor who has a fellowship at the Hoover Institution, a professor emeritus of surgery and dean emeritus of translational surgery at the University of California San Diego, an anesthesiologist from Florida, a pediatric allergist from San Diego, the executive director of the American Council on Science and Health, a psychiatrist from New Jersey and a professor of cancer research at the University of North Carolina.

<>

[proverbialwisdom]

9. Ralph Nader on the "American Council on Science and Health" in 1991 via SourceWatch.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Council_on_Science_and_Health

American Council on Science and Health

This article is part of the Atrazine Exposed portal on SourceWatch. Help expose the truth about atrazine.
This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.
This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), founded in 1978, describes itself as "a consumer education consortium concerned with issues related to food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment and health." At one time the web site stated, "ACSH is an independent, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. The nucleus of ACSH is a board of 350 physicians, scientists and policy advisors - experts in a wide variety of fields - who review the Council's reports and participate in ACSH seminars, press conferences, media communications and other educational activities." Currently that statement is changed to read, "ACSH is a national, non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) consumer health education and advocacy organization based in New York City." The word "independent" no longer appears in the description as of 2014.(1)

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader once said of ACSH, "A consumer group is an organization which advocates the interests of unrepresented consumers and must either maintain its own intellectual independence or be directly accountable to its membership. In contrast, ACSH is a consumer front organization for its business backers. It has seized the language and style of the existing consumer organizations, but its real purpose, you might say, is to glove the hand that feeds it.&quot 2)

ACSH has taken a strong public position against the dangers of tobacco, one of the leading preventable causes of death in today's society. However, it takes a generally apologetic stance regarding many other health and environmental hazards produced by modern industry, accepting corporate funding from Coca-Cola, Kellogg, General Mills, Pepsico, and the American Beverage Association, among others. See Funding below for more.

<>

References
1) American Council on Science and Health, About, organizational website, accessed June 2014.
2) Mark Megalli, Andy Friedman, Masks of Deception: Corporate Front Groups in America (Essential Information), 1991, p. 23

Not my type, definitely. Yours?

[grasswire]

2. I don't know what else is going on here...q

......but Lars Larson is a virulent Limbaugh clone of the worst kind of wingnut. This should not be allowed as a source on DU. I'm not going to alert on it as a RW source, but I strongly suggest you find another.

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Never heard of the interviewer myself, actually, so it's been deleted. Better? (nt)

[proverbialwisdom]

10. More.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016120617

[Doctor_J]

11. Hmm...I don't participate in Planet Oprah, but the Hoover Institute is notorious

Anything that comes from there should be treated with deep skepticism.