Source: NBC NewsWire / Getty
In recent days, celebrity doctors Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil have both made alarming comments regarding the novel coronavirus spread and the spike of COVID-19 cases nationwide. Given that both men gained their massive platforms via Oprah Winfrey, the media mogul is catching a fair amount of unnecessary criticism as a result.
Winfrey’s name was trending this morning, this after Dr. Phil, full name Phil McGraw, was a guest on Fox News. After Dr. Anthony Fauci, the NIAID director and leading immunologist suggested that America’s push to reopen the economy is coming a bit too soon, Dr. Phil, a psychologist, compared the loss of life to COVID-19 to automobile accidents, lung cancer, and drownings.
“We don’t shut the country down for that,” Dr. Phil shared. “Yet we are doing it for this and the fallout is going to last for years because people’s lives are being destroyed.”
Dr. Oz, full name Mehmet Oz, made a similar statement with Fox News host Sean Hannity, suggesting that schools can be reopened and called it a “very appetizing opportunity” and suggested that the loss of life is worth getting students back to normalcy.
Oz, a cardiac surgeon who has courted controversy over the years for hawking alternative medicine, has since walked back the statements and apologized via video. He noted that his words “confused and upset” people and he restated that his larger goal was to examine how to get children back to the regular schedule of learning.
With the damage already done, trolls and detractors alike have zeroed in on Winfrey. We’ve managed to capture a variety of reactions via Twitter below.
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