Post mischaracterizes Dr. Oz comments on child deaths during the pandemic | Fact check
The claim: Post implies Dr. Oz said he was OK with 2-3% of children dying during COVID-19 pandemic
A Nov. 20 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) by liberal commentator Brian Tyler Cohen makes a claim about Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, television personality and President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Remember, it was Dr. Oz who said during Covid that it was acceptable for 2-3% of American children to die,” reads the post, which was originally shared by commentator Tristan Snell. “Trump now wants him in charge of Medicare. Seniors should be afraid – VERY afraid.”
The Facebook post was shared more than 1,500 times in two weeks.
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Our rating: Missing context
The implied claim is wrong. This post mischaracterizes an ambiguous comment by Oz that he later called a misstatement. It was an attempt to reference a study that said models found closing schools during the pandemic would prevent 2-4% of deaths across all age groups, not that opening would have killed that percentage of children. Oz didn't say such a number would be "acceptable."
Remark clarified more than four years prior to post
The post focuses on a remark Oz made during an April 14, 2020, interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity as part of a discussion on how to safely reopen from the lockdowns early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Oz said in part:
“Let's start with things that are really critical to the nation, where we think we might be able to open without getting into a lot of trouble. I tell you, schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing that the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3% in terms of total mortality."
Oz continued by saying, “And you know that's … any life is a life lost, but to get every child back into a school where they're safely being educated, being fed and making the most of their lives with a theoretical risk in the backside … It might be a tradeoff some folks would consider.”
The comments, while not phrased clearly, were not an endorsement of sending children back to school with the expectation that at least one in 50 would likely die, nor did he explicitly endorse the idea of reopening schools. His full comments make clear that the remark about the 2 to 3% was in reference to "total mortality," not just school-age children.
Despite this, Oz later said he misspoke and clarified his points in an April 16, 2020, video he shared on what was then Twitter. Here is what he said in the video:
“I've realized my comments on risks around opening schools have confused and upset people, which was never my intention. I misspoke. As a heart surgeon, I spent my career fighting to save lives in the operating room by minimizing risks. At the same time, I'm being asked constantly, 'How will we be able to get people back to their normal lives?' To do that, one of the important steps will be figuring out how do we get our children safely back to school. We know, for many kids, school is a place of security, nutrition and learning that is missing right now. These are issues we are all wrestling with. And I will continue looking for solutions to beat this virus.”
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The paper Oz appears to reference was first published on April 6, 2020, in The Lancet and examined how effective school closings were at reducing the spread of viruses. That review estimated school closings alone would have prevented 2% to 4% of COVID-19 deaths in the entire population. It also said it would be far more effective to combine closings with isolating people who test positive.
That paper was based in part on a March 2020 preprint study on how effective social distancing, school closings and other strategies had been, noting that the effects were amplified when multiple forms of social distancing were used concurrently.
Paste BN reached out to the users who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive any responses.
Snopes also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources
- Dr. Mehmet Oz, April 16, 2020, Post on X
- The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, April 6, 2020, School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks including COVID-19: a rapid systematic review
- Imperial College of London, March 16, 2020, Report 9: Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand
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