President-elect Donald Trump has proposed unsuccessful Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — that’s the same Dr. Oz of television fame. Though he was trained as a cardiothoracic surgeon, his reliability regarding medical advice went off the rails years ago.

A profile of Oz in The New Yorker reviewed his televised claims and stated that “Oz has been criticized by scientists for relying on flimsy or incomplete data, distorting the results, and wielding his vast influence in ways that threaten the health of anyone who watches the show.” Putting Oz in charge of Medicare and Medicaid? What’s next? Perhaps Trump wants to appoint Mike Lindell, who sells “MyPillow” on late-night cable television, as surgeon general?

The voters of Pennsylvania wisely kept Oz out of the U.S. Senate. Of course, it didn’t help his campaign that he was a resident of New Jersey and quickly obtained a Pennsylvania address to run for Senate. Regarding giving Oz the consolation prize of a federal job, let’s consider some objective data.

Scientists at Canada’s University of Alberta medical school studied medical recommendations made on Oz’s television show. Most recommendations concerned general medical and dietary advice and how to lose weight. They studied whether there was any scientific evidence to support his recommendations and published their findings in 2014 in the British........

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