GOP Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, more commonly known as Dr Oz, is facing backlash from the medical community after his sustained attacks on infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci in his campaign ads.

       Dr Oz, who was forced to end his multi-award-winning talk show The Dr Oz Show after he announced his candidacy on 30 November, recently called Dr Fauci a “petty tyrant”, as he challenged him to a debate on Covid.

       Appearing on Newsmax last Thursday, Dr Oz said he wanted to debate Dr Fauci on vaccine mandates and natural immunity from coronavirus infections. “He is a petty tyrant. He got Covid wrong. He continues to get it wrong,” Dr Oz told the outlet.

       In a separate tweet that he posted along with his campaign ad video, Dr Oz said: “It’s past time Fauci faces the fact that he got Covid wrong. So, doctor to doctor – let’s debate. This Doctor is in, are you?”

       “Let’s get the facts straight here. You and me. Let’s have a debate, doctor to doctor, and give the American people the truth about Covid-19. I’m game. Anytime. Anywhere. Dr Fauci, are you in?” he added in the video.

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       In another video clip he posted along with an interview on Fox News, the Senate candidate said: “Doctors everywhere, including myself are fed up with the harmful outpouring of misinformation from Fauci being promoted by the media.”

       Slamming him for the statement, Krutika Kuppalli, a member of the Covid-19 Technical Team at WHO, said: “I am a doctor and know many others who don’t agree with this statement. Those of us in medicine, particularly [infectious diseases] learned from the textbooks [Dr Fauci ] authored [and] used by students all over the world.”

       “By ‘doctors everywhere’, he means a few doctors here and there who are willing to go against the Hippocratic oath and against science. The rest of us are with Dr Fauci,” said wellness physician Arghavan Salles.

       Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter Jaime in the Parkland shooting, called Dr Oz “wrong” as he asked him to “go back to your reality TV show and your pathetic campaign”.

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       “Stop putting the lives of Americans in danger,” he tweeted.

       “Please report this tweet as misinformation for health. We have to shut this quack down,” wrote another user.