(WJW) — Dr. Mehmet Oz, the TV personality who recently announced plans to run for U.S. Senate, said he believes America’s top doctor needs to move on from his position.
The 61-year-old reportedly told the New York Post that Dr. Anthony Fauci should be replaced as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci has lost the faith and confidence of the American people,” Oz reportedly told the Post. “It’s time for a new face talking to the American people, one that is more trusted.”
Oz said, in his opinion, Fauci has done a poor job in his leadership role during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I believe Anthony Fauci should be held accountable for misleading, whether willfully or unintentionally, the American public and the United States Congress,” Oz said.
Fauci has been a divisive figure over the past two years, and Oz is far from the only one to have called for his removal.
Some Republicans have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May that the National Institutes of Health funded “gain of function” research — the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential impact in the real world — at a virology lab in Wuhan, China.
Fauci called the GOP criticism nonsense.
Oz, who is a longtime resident of New Jersey but was born in Cleveland, is running for an open U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania as a Republican.
**Related video below: Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks after omicron detected in U.S.**
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
