DANGEROUS IDIOTS
‘Charlatan’ Dr. Phil Pummeled for Saying ‘We Don’t Shut the Country Down’ for Cigarette Smoking and Car Accidents
‘Charlatan Who Kills People With Pseudoscience’
Dr. Phil is the second TV doctor this week to appear on Fox News, spew out an astonishingly frightening claim to support their belief the country should not shut down over the deadly coronavirus pandemic, and be met with massive anger and outrage. Dr. Oz on Wednesday proclaimed that re-opening schools would add “only” an additional two or three percentage points to the coronavirus death toll.
Laura Ingraham on Thursday brought Dr. Phil to her Fox News viewers, after she herself argued to Dr. Anthony Fauci that the country didn’t shut down over HIV/AIDS so why should we shut down now. It’s unclear if she understood his response.
She was widely mocked on social media.
Dr. Phil’s arguments were met with even more disdain and disgust, not only because they clearly show his lack of understanding of the coronavirus danger, but also because his facts were just plain false.
“250 people a year die from poverty,” Dr.Phil told Ingraham. It’s unclear where that number came from but he likely meant 250,000. (In 2000 the number was 133,000.) “And the poverty line is getting such that more and more people are going to fall below that because the economy is crashing around us. And they’re doing that because people are dying from the coronavirus. I get that.”
“But look, the fact that the matter is we have people dying, 45,000 people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools,” Dr. Phil argued. (The actual number of swimming pools deaths appears to be 3536, not 360,000.)
“We don’t shut the country down for that but yet we’re doing it for this? And the fallout is going to last for years because people’s lives are being destroyed.”
Dr. Phil appears on Laura Ingraham and says we don’t shut the country down for automobile deaths, cigarette related deaths, and swimming pool deaths pic.twitter.com/q8KCgLLClY
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 17, 2020
As many noted, car and swimming pool accidents and cigarette smoking are not contagious, coronavirus is. Researchers believe if left unchecked by social distancing and other means, every person who is infected with coronavirus spreads it to between 3 and 6 other people.
“Dr. Phil” has been trending on social media for hours now.
Take a look at some of the responses.
It would be a gift to the world and would probably save a lot of lives if Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz never made another television appearance for the rest of eternity.
— adrienneelrod (@adrienneelrod) April 17, 2020
America needs to be less Dr. Phil and more Dr. Gupta.
— JeremyNewberger (@jeremynewberger) April 17, 2020
The most meaningful thing Oprah could do to help right now would be to publicly disavow Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz. https://t.co/M3ErslMNqS
— Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) April 17, 2020
Oh look it’s another charlatan who kills people with pseudoscience for a living.
The thing these guys all have in common is that they value money over people’s lives. It’s literally the core of their business. It’s what made them rich. They’re just finally admitting it out loud. https://t.co/fvm5q0jhED
— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) April 17, 2020
Dr Phil isn’t an MD, he has a PHD in clinical psychology.
— Molly Jong-Fast🏡 (@MollyJongFast) April 17, 2020
I would suggest Dr. Phil do what some other doctors are doing, and volunteer to help out in overburdened hospitals or nursing homes, or offer free home visits or tele-consultations to people who shouldn’t go out. But of course he’s not a doctor. https://t.co/HEPT99WchL
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) April 17, 2020
Between David Brooks’s latest column and Dr. Phil going on national television and waxing confused about why infectious diseases are different from car wrecks, yesterday was a real banner day for obtuse takes from mediocre men.
— Daniel Summers (@WFKARS) April 17, 2020
The next time someone cites Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz or any TV doctor’s talking point that COVID-19 is merely the “flu” or like “car accidents” (a blatant red herring argument), just point them to the below chart. It unmasks the deadly rhetoric. pic.twitter.com/6Mq3pX5uw1
— Publius (@ThePubliusUSA) April 17, 2020
This statement from Dr. Phil is stupid. None of the things he mentions is contagious.
Also, the case fatality rate of #COVID19 is over 4% in US. If 4% of people who routinely went swimming would die & 15% would end up in the hospital, I guarantee Dr. Phil would not go swimming. https://t.co/UmOx7QBtkH
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) April 17, 2020
Dr. Drew has given dangerous advice on the coronavirus.
Dr. Oz has given dangerous advice on the coronavirus.
Dr. Phil has given dangerous advice on the coronavirus.
Maybe it’s time to stop listening to TV “doctors” and start listening to the real doctors like Dr. Fauci…??
— Melissa Blake (@melissablake) April 17, 2020
Dr. Phil is an entertainer. He hosts a show. Sometimes he makes sense sometimes not. We shouldn’t assume TV hosts know more than scientists. Like you wouldn’t ask the host of The Apprentice for life and death advice. https://t.co/as2tmT7oQB
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) April 17, 2020
— Julie (@J0Marshll) April 17, 2020
I cannot believe that Dr. Oz, Dr. Drew, an Dr. Phil were once ever taken so seriously that they had their own TV shows.
They are quacks who are basically in Dr. Harold Bornstein territory.
These three dangerous con men are the medical field's Axis of Ignorance.
Just terrible. pic.twitter.com/3Dap3VYTzS
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) April 17, 2020
Watching the rich like Dr. Phil, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Dr. Oz sit in their mansions telling Americans it’s safe to go to work and sacrifice your family’s so we make $ must feel like the “Let them eat cake” moment shortly before the French Revolution.
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) April 17, 2020
My god…fuck Dr. Phil https://t.co/ny1lUO7rKl
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) April 17, 2020
How is this working for you, Dr. Phil? 😂🤣
— David Bates (@DavidBWriter) April 17, 2020
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