Dr. Oz has been hit with a social media tsunami of backlash over some comments he made during an interview on Wednesday night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Speaking with Hannity — who last month described COVID-19 as a “new hoax” the Democrats were using to “bludgeon” President Donald Trump — Dr. Mehmet Oz was discussing the measures that could be taken to restart America’s education system.
“Schools are a very appetizing opportunity,” Oz told Hannity.
“I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us two to three per cent, in terms of total mortality,” he said.
“Any, you know, any life is a life lost, but to get every child back into a school where they’re safely being educated, being fed, and making the most out of their lives, with the theoretical risk on the back side, that might be a tradeoff some folks would consider,” he added.
As HuffPost pointed out, The Lancet piece he was likely describing cites a U.K. study concluding that closing schools there “will reduce COVID-19 deaths by only two to four percent.”
Nevertheless, the TV doctor’s remarks sparked outrage on Twitter from people who assumed he meant that he found the deaths of two percent of America’s nearly 60 million schoolchildren — which translates to well over a million — to be both “appetizing” and an acceptable “tradeoff.”
Following the outrage, Oz offered a non-apology, acknowledging that his remarks “confused and upset people” and admitting he “misspoke.”
If he was expecting his response to quell the criticism, he was sorely mistaken.
