Lauren Dempsey, MS in Biomedicine and Law, RN, FISM News
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This week, the California legislature passed a Democrat-sponsored bill that seeks to punish physicians for spreading “misinformation” and “disinformation” related to COVID-19. The bill now heads to Governor Gavin Newsom, who will likely sign it into law.
The bill, AB 2098, would designate spreading false or misleading information as “unprofessional conduct.” Any physician found guilty could be punished by the Medical Board of California, which could include suspending or revoking a physician’s license to practice in the state.
Legislators wrote that it would be “unprofessional conduct for a physician and surgeon to disseminate 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.”
Misinformation is designated as anything that goes against the “scientific consensus” or “contrary to the standard of care.” However, throughout the pandemic health experts and public health agencies were continuously wrong or misleading to the public about the virus and the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
It’s clear that #AB2098 isn’t about COVID — it’s about codifying the very same permanent “emergency powers” @GavinNewsom gave himself to have a permanent control over docs/medicine & use them to push their agenda/meds onto the population. What’ll happen? People will lose trust.
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) August 30, 2022
A scientific consensus is simply the opinion of the majority of scientists. The general scientific consensus was that all Americans should wear masks, even as Dr. Fauci changed his mind on the efficacy and necessity of face coverings. The scientific experts said lockdowns would only be “15 days to slow the spread.” The general scientific consensus was that vaccination prevented transmission and infection, but that turned out to be wrong as well.
After American doctors and the government pushed mass vaccination campaigns and mandates, it was later discovered that the vaccines have extremely poor durability, requiring boosters every few months.
President Biden said that this was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” promising a winter of “severe illness and death,” even though the vaccinated were just as likely to get COVID-19 than unvaccinated individuals. Since then, the vaccinated and multiple-boosted president has tested positive for COVID-19 more than once.
State Senator Richard Pan, a Democrat from Sacramento and a co-author of the bill said, “In order for a patient to give informed consent, they have to be well informed,” and added that the law was intended to address “the most egregious cases” of deliberately misleading patients.
Senator Pan, notably, has been an author on some of the strictest and draconian vaccines bills in the country. He sponsored bills that would allow the state to vaccinate children without parental consent as long as the child consented. He also introduced legislation that would require police to enforce public health orders and would withhold funding to any law enforcement agency that did not comply.
The well-known state senator has no qualms over exerting his will over the people of California and seeks to suppress any opposition to his agenda. He vehemently opposes anyone who questions vaccinations, comparing protesting “antivaxxers” to domestic terrorists.
“Our schools, economy, state, and country cannot be held hostage by a privileged minority who do not have facts supporting them and who resort to intimidation and violence to impose dangerous, false beliefs that endanger us all,” Pan said. “We must now summon the political will to demand that domestic terrorists must face consequences for their words and actions. Our democracy and our lives depend on it.”
Many see AB 2098 as an infringement of the first amendment. The language of the bill would restrict the free speech of physicians who are providing all information to patients, which allows patients to be part of the decision making process, honoring bodily autonomy, and providing true informed consent.
Physicians for Informed Consent have filed a lawsuit and are seeking a motion for a preliminary injunction against the bill. The group argues that the California Medical Board has weaponized the phrase “misinformation” and this bill, should Governor Newsom sign it, would target physicians with dissenting opinions, by “attempting to intimidate by investigation, censor and sanction physicians who publicly disagree with the government’s ever-evolving, erratic, and contradictory public health Covid-19 edicts.”