California Lawmakers Passed Two Bills To Punish Physicians For Covid-19 Protocols

In California, doctors face greater scrutiny while patients face diminished choice. Will it work?

Did the headline get your attention? It should.

The two bills will punish non-compliant physicians and curtail free speech. The Globe has covered these bills this year, but they demand additional attention.

AB 2098

Written by Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), will punish physicians and surgeons for “unprofessional conduct” for advocating for the potential benefits of early treatment with off-label drugs, or those who dare to ask questions about COVID vaccine safety.

SB 1018

by Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), will “address the amplification of misinformation and disinformation on online platforms by requiring platforms to publicly disclose how their algorithms work and to share data for research purposes.”

Under AB 2098, doctors would be subject to disciplinary actions by the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California if they do not adhere to the approved COVID treatment consensus.

Who approves the “consensus?”

Physicians would be punished simply for doing what they believe is best for their patients, and sharing legitimate information necessary for their patient to make a true risk/benefit analysis but those who want everyone vaccinated no matter what would consider to be “misinformation.”

The bill is aimed at physicians who chose to prescribe therapeutics during COVID, rather only offering vaccines.

This is what Assemblyman Low said about his bill: “This bill declares that disinformation and promotion of COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation to the public as unprofessional conduct for licensed physicians and surgeons. Under this law, California Medical Boards will be given the tools necessary to bring discipline actions against a licensee. Due to their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust and therefore must be held to account. The spreading of misinformation, of inaccurate COVID-19 information, contradicts that responsibility and threatens to further erode the public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk.”

Assemblyman Low and Sen. Pan say they authored the two bills “to combat the spread of dangerous COVID-19 misinformation and protect public health.”

They say: “Together, both bills effectively work to discourage misinformation, through algorithm transparency for online platforms and requiring platforms share data with researchers, and through accountability for the small number of unethical physicians and surgeons spreading blatant COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation.”

The lawmakers continued to push the two bills even though Covid is endemic now.

Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins says “throughout the pandemic, all COVID decisions were made by a small group of like-minded government doctors who often replaced the scientific method with medical dogma.”

He reported that a May report reveals that vaccinated immunity as well as natural immunity has reduced the mortality by about 90% and that omicron is now considered less virulent intrinsically than certain flu strains.

“The medical establishment has marched in lockstep on COVID-19, presenting a consensus of expertise as they marginalized physicians who had different opinions,” Makary said. “Ironically, when public health officials insisted that those who had natural immunity be fired for not being vaccinated, they fired those least likely to spread the infection in the workplace.”

Makary added: “Eventually the data came in. Natural immunity was 2.8 times better in preventing hospitalization than vaccinated immunity and having both meant you had the same protection as natural immunity alone.”

Violators to these bills can face criminal punishments and fines of over $100,000 for each violation and the potential to loose all medical licenses and credentials with the state board.