Fetterman campaign says its 'actually not surprising' that rival Oz urged the Trump administration to push research into an unproven COVID treatment

Hydroxychloroquine, a treatment for Malaria, was embraced by former President Donald Trump in the early weeks of the Pandemic. One of the biggest game-changing drugs in the history of medicine is Hydroxychloroquine.

Behind the scenes, as well on Fox News and his own daytime television show, Dr. Mehmet Oz was encouraging optimism about the drug even though there was little evidence at the time that it worked. There have been many studies that show that the treatment for COVID-19 is not effective.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Oz, the Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania, was trying to get the attention of the former president by email.

"Here is a clip of my show," Oz wrote to the White House aide, "including a link to an interview with a French doctor who advocated that all patients should 'immediately' begin taking hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin."

Screenshot/House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis

After five days, Oz sent an email to Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House's response to the coronaviruses, saying that he had read a pre-print of a study from the same French doctor. The treatment appears safe and results are better than expected, despite the French not using a control group.

Rachel Tripp is a spokeswoman for Oz.

She said that Dr. Mehmet Oz offered to fund a clinical trial at Columbia University after he spoke with health experts around the world who were seeing hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as viable treatment options for COVID patients.

The New York Times reported in April 2020 that Oz was in contact with Mr. Trump's advisers about getting approval to use the drug for the coronaviruses.

The report states that the Trump White House tried to get the FDA to approve hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, and that the former administration had 66 million doses of Malaria drugs.

The coronaviruses do not benefit from the use of hydroxychloroquine. According to a news release, a Columbia University study found that those who received the drug "fared no better than patients who did not receive the drug."

Critics accused Oz of pushing the drug when he was a member of the White House Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. The chair of health law and policy at the University ofAlberta said in an April 2020 op-ed that the fact that he has the uncritical ear of the president magnifies any potential harm.

Oz called for more research. He has denied the findings. We don't know if it worked. He claimed earlier this year that it had never been studied.

Oz's promotion of dubious treatments has become an issue in his Senate campaign. Three doctors criticized him at a press conference for promoting green coffee bean extract as a "magic weight-loss cure" on his television show.

The Fetterman campaign said in a statement that it was not surprising. He has been cashing in on the trust of his viewers and causing real harm on his TV show for 20 years.

Tell us about a news story. C Davis is the reporter for Insider.