What Dr. Oz Is Saying About The Coronavirus Outbreak

Mehmet Oz, aka "Dr.Oz," is best known for his namesake television show on Fox, where he doles out medical advice on a variety of topics, with some of his recommendations being deemed controversial. The Ohio native, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with his MD and was discovered by Oprah Winfrey, was the subject of a 2014 study that found just 46 percent of his medical recommendations had scientific evidence to validate them, per TIME. Despite the controversies surrounding The Dr. Oz Show, the father-of-four is still an accomplished doctor who patented a medical device called the MitraClip, which helps people experiencing heart failure with mitral valve leaks by "clipping the valve's flaps together," according to Parade.

Given Dr. Oz's experience in the medical field, it explains why some people are following his comments on the coronavirus very closely. And anyone who is familiar with the TV star is probably already well aware that he doesn't hold back when it comes to trending topics (remember when he publicly slammed the TikTok "Taste Challenge"?), which makes his commentary on COVID-19 all that more interesting.

A few months before the coronavirus became a serious issue in the United States, Dr. Mehmet Oz gave a public warning about what he believes is a "concerning" aspect of the illness. "The major surprising and a little concerning observation ... is that the incubation period for this new coronavirus is closer to two weeks than the usual one week or less," he explained to Yahoo Finance's YFi PM in January 2020. " ... You may be able to go around for a while without realizing you're ill all the time contagious to those around you. So, the usual tactics that we would use to make people feel secure, [like temperature] screening at airports ... that won't work if an afebrile person can pass the virus along."  Translation: It's possible seemingly healthy people may be infecting others with COVID-19 unknowingly, causing the illness to spread at an alarming rate.

As for Dr. Oz's advice during these trying times? "The best thing to do is auto-immunize yourself by washing your hands and I know that sounds so simple and almost dumb to mention, but we touch our fingers to our face thousands of time a day. And the most common way we'll get infected is someone coughs and the droplets land on the armrest and I put my hand there 10 minutes, an hour later without knowing you were sick and then I touch my nose and it gets into my mouth."

All over social media, people are sharing photos of empty grocery store shelves that were once well-stocked with a now very valuable resource — toilet paper. Heck, there are even videos out there of shoppers fighting over the last few rolls of Charmin. This trend hasn't been lost on Dr. Mehmet Oz, who took to Instagram on March 15, 2020, to vent about his frustrations. "I went shopping today and there was no toilet paper," he captioned a shot of a ravaged store shelf. "(Much to my chagrin there was plenty of soap.) Why we buy out toilet paper is something I'll never understand." He continued, "Humans are a hearty bunch. We've fixed problems far under the sea and on the face of the moon...yet we panic buy more toilet paper than we can possibly fit in our carts and cars. (1) Don't panic — keep your distance from people, and if you feel sick, stay home. (2) Buy the essentials for two weeks, no more. Leave supplies for everyone else. (3) Trust in the fact that if you somehow run out of toilet paper, a friendly neighbor would find a way to safely deliver you some. And if it really came to it, our ancestors survived without TP."

Phew, we're glad to see Dr. Oz hasn't followed the lead of these celebs who are giving the worst advice about the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates it could take 18 months to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. So as the world waits for a solution, Dr. Mehmet Oz recommends creating a "digital vaccine" people can use to better asses their risk for contracting the illness. "We actually want to make right now a digital vaccine," he said during a March 15, 2020 appearance on Fox & Friends Sunday. "We want to use some of these tech companies with remarkable assets to build tools to say 'OK, exactly where is the risk ... not like in New York City but exactly what street in New York City is a problem." He added, "America is the leading technology country in the world. These companies already have a lot of assets ... they don't have to build brand new stuff ... merge their skillsets [with] companies that are already doing this, Facebook already knows a lot about your behavior online and social space, align that up with your behavior when you get coronavirus and now you can predict the way you're behaving ... 'I think you might have coronavirus and here are the three reasons why...'"

Of course, it remains to be seen whether tech companies will take Dr. Oz's advice or whether this suggestion is even possible. Until then, many people and celebs are going to extreme lengths to self-quarantine to stay safe amid this health crisis.