California Bill Would Punish Doctors Who Promote COVID 'Misinformation,' as Other States Move to Protect Doctors' Rights to Treat Patients
California lawmakers want COVID vaccine mandates for all K-12 students and the right to "discipline" doctors who step outside public policy guidelines for treating COVID patients. But other states, including New Hampshire and Kansas, are eying legislation designed to protect physicians who prescribe drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
By David Charbonneau, Ph.D. | February 23, 2022
Before the U.S. Supreme Court last month blocked the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandates for large employers and allowed the mandate for healthcare workers to stand, all eyes were on the feds when it came to COVID-related policies.
But state lawmakers also have been busy drafting bills in an effort to shape COVID policies closer to home.
The California Assembly, for example, introduced over the past six months a flurry of bills designed to strengthen vaccination mandates and regulate treatment options for patients.
For example, Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) last month introduced legislation proposing COVID vaccine mandates for all K-12 students in California schools.
And this month, Assembly Member Evan Low (D-Campbell) introduced legislation (AB 2098) that, according to the Los Angeles Times, would "make it easier for the Medical Board of California to discipline doctors who promote COVID-19 misinformation by classifying it as unprofessional conduct."
The bill defines "unprofessional conduct" as any action a physician or surgeon takes "to disseminate or promote misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19, including false or misleading information regarding the nature and risks of the virus, its prevention and treatment; and the development, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines."
Under the bill, disciplinary action could be brought against a physician for disseminating information that "resulted in an individual declining opportunities for COVID-19 treatment or prevention that was not justified by the individual's medical history or condition."
Additionally, doctors could be disciplined for "misinformation or disinformation" that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus to an extent where its dissemination constitutes gross negligence" by the physician.
Commenting on the criteria, Dr. Meryl Nass, an expert in epidemiology and vaccine injury and member of the Children's Health Defense scientific advisory committee, said:
"I think this is clearly an attempt to legislate that the government of California or the Medical Board of California will define what is truth and what is misinformation, and medical providers will have to follow lockstep with that definition.
"This, of course, is the same thing as the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's "1984," and if the California legislature actually votes for this bill, the intent of the action will be to enforce a one and only truth.
"Nowhere does this legislature define what is misinformation and disinformation. They do talk about contemporary scientific consensus but as we know in the last two years, the so-called scientific consensus — or the public health agency consensus — on masks, on vaccination, on boosters, etc. has flip-flopped all over the place. So we have adequate examples that the concept of "contemporary scientific consensus" is basically meaningless in this context."Contrary to typical board practice, under AB 2098, physicians could also be disciplined for public speech, including social media posts, unrelated to the actual treatment of patients.
Supporters of Low's bill insist the legislation does not impinge on doctors' freedom of speech.
"This isn't a call for a policing of free speech," Nick Sawyer, an emergency room doctor who founded a group called No License for Disinformation, told the LA Times. "This is a call for protecting the public against dangerous misinformation, which patients are parroting back to us in our emergency room departments every day."
Please go to The Defender to read more.
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Maybe California truckers should converge on the residence of Newsom instead considering election recalls don't work with criminal syndicates in power?
California is the corporate communist vaccine state probably because of its being central to big tech related to Silicon Valley:
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