NEW YORK CITY — TV celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz finally opened up about a recent controversy in which numerous doctors are calling for his job.
Columbia University has not removed Oz from his faculty position as a group of top doctors has demanded, citing his “egregious lack of integrity” for promoting what they call “quack treatments.”
“Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine,” said a letter the ten physicians sent to a Columbia dean earlier this week.
They said he’s pushing “miracle” weight-loss supplements with no scientific proof that they work.
“I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves.We provide multiple points of view, including mine which is offered without conflict of interest. That doesn’t sit well with certain agendas which distort the facts,” Dr. Oz told PEOPLE on Friday, referring to a clash with sustainable agriculture company Monsanto over his opinions on genetically modified foods.
“For example, I do not claim that GMO foods are dangerous but believe that they should be labeled like they are in most countries around the world. I will address this on the show next week,” he continued.
Thursday, the New York Ivy League school said the school “is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members’ freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion.”
Oz first came to public attention as a frequent television guest of Oprah Winfrey.
For the past five years, he’s been the host of “The Dr. Oz Show.”
Led by Dr. Henry Miller of California’s Stanford University, the doctors sent the letter to Lee Goldman, dean of Columbia’s Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine.
The nine other doctors from across the country included Dr. Joel Tepper, a cancer researcher from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and Dr. Gilbert Ross of the American Council on Science and Health in New York City.
The doctors wrote that Oz, for years a world-class Columbia cardiothoracic surgeon, “has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.”
They said he had “misled and endangered” the public.
Last year, Oz appeared before a U.S. Senate panel that accused him of endorsing products that were medically unsound.
At the time, Oz acknowledged that some of the products he advised his viewers to use “don’t have the scientific muster to present as fact.”
As vice chairman of Columbia’s surgery department, Oz still occasionally teaches, said Douglas Levy, spokesman for the Columbia University Medical Center.