Do we like them?

Do we like Mehmet Oz?

Our score: 2 out of 10. He has led moves to restrict gender-affirming care for young people, and his Medicaid claims have been picked apart; his public push for the measles shot is the main good on the ledger.

Oz was a celebrity heart surgeon and daytime TV doctor before he went into politics. He ran for a Pennsylvania Senate seat in 2022 with Donald Trump's backing and lost to John Fetterman, roughly 50.3 per cent to 47.3. A couple of years later he landed the job of running Medicare and Medicaid.

The most famous mud from the 2022 race was a report alleging his Columbia University research labs were behind the deaths of hundreds of dogs. Fetterman's side ran hard with it, though the Inquirer noted that a viral claim about unsedated puppies couldn't be backed up. Oz's campaign denied the allegations and said Fetterman was using the story as a distraction.

Now the harm check. In December 2025 Oz stood alongside RFK Jr. to announce moves to ban gender-affirming care for young people, including proposed rules aimed at hospitals. Oz framed it as protecting kids, and supporters agree, but the ACLU said it would challenge the effort and LGBTQ+ groups see it as an attack on trans people. That is his own act, in his own job, and it is why he fails here.

To be fair, he has broken from the vaccine-sceptic crowd on one big thing. In February 2026, with measles cases surging, he publicly urged Americans to get the vaccine, in a tone that differed from Health Secretary Kennedy's. That is a real public-health good, and it counts.

On rural health, Oz called the $137 billion cut figure “incorrect” and the question “deliberately duplicitous”. The administration points to a record $50 billion rural fund in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while the reporter cited KFF's cut figure and advocates say the law will leave people without cover. Where you land depends on whether you trust the fund or the cuts, but the sneering tone at a reporter wasn't a great look.

The good-stuff list is honestly thin in what we could verify this round. The measles push is the clearest item, and there's nothing here showing him standing up for others at a cost to himself. So the nice test lands as a close call rather than a pass or a fail.