As one of the terrible laws California lawmakers have allowed to be passed in the current session of the legislature, criminalizing doctors to be convicted of “spreading misinformation” about COVID-19 is quite idiotic. Assemblyman Evan Low and Senator and Dr. Richard Pan, both Bay Area Democrats, sponsored legislation AB 2098 specifically for this reason. The bill was approved by the legislature and is sitting on Governor Gavin's desk for veto or signature. If Newsom doesn’t decide before October 1st, the bill will be signed into law.
From Fox News:
President Joe Biden may have declared the pandemic “over,” but someone needs to tell the state of California. A bill sitting on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk would levy career-ending penalties on doctors deemed guilty of spreading so-called “misinformation” related to COVID-19. If enacted, this law has the potential to destroy the medical profession and stifle innovation from coast to coast.
The bill in question, AB 2098, would allow the Medical Board of California to revoke a doctor’s license to practice medicine in the state for expressing an opinion “contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care.” The problem is that “contemporary scientific consensus” has fluctuated wildly over the past two years.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is an epidemiologist and professor of Health Policy for Stanford University School of Medicine. Bhattacharya is also the co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD). In 2020, the GBD letter took the unique step of exposing the wrong decisions of medical experts and health personnel in encouraging lockdowns and closing down world economies for a virus that has been proven by research to have the 99.95 percent chance of survival for healthy people who are under 70 with no comorbidities.
Dr. Bhattacharya was attacked by Dr. Anthony Fauci and NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins, so Dr. Bhattacharya is not a stranger to being criticized for speaking the truth and for rebuking the medical consensus, regardless of the price.
Previous New York Times journalist Bari Weiss invited Dr. Bhattacharya on her Common Sense Substack to talk about his experiences and to warn about the dangers contained in AB 2098:
In October 2020, I, along with colleagues Sunetra Gupta of Oxford, and Martin Kulldorff, then of Harvard, issued an open letter called the Great Barrington Declaration. In it, we expressed deep concern about the damage caused by the international public health response to Covid through sweeping lockdowns, school shutdowns, business closures, and more.
We urged a nuanced approach that focused on protecting those most vulnerable to Covid—primarily the elderly and those with certain comorbidities—and returning to normal life those more harmed by lockdowns than by the disease.
Nearly a million people have signed our letter, including tens of thousands of doctors and scientists from over 40 countries. In other words, we were far from alone in our belief that this was the proper response to an unprecedented pandemic.
But the official response was swift and brutal.
Four days after we published the Great Barrington Declaration, Francis Collins, then director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote an email to Anthony Fauci calling the three of us “fringe epidemiologists.” He called for a press “takedown” of us when an open discussion of our ideas would have been more productive. Big tech outlets like Facebook and Google followed suit, suppressing our ideas, falsely deeming them “misinformation.” I started getting calls from reporters asking me why I wanted to “let the virus rip,” when I had proposed nothing of the sort. I was the target of racist attacks and death threats.
Two years later, Dr. Bhattacharya, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, Dr. Martin Kulldorff, and the other GBD signatories were right. Their conclusions and declarations have been confirmed. They have proved that the so-called science used by Fauci and Co. used to bully the world was proved to be untrue by Science.
Unfortunately, the COVID propaganda continues to attempt to deflect and limit the knowledge about the virus, the failed strategies they continue to employ to try to “mitigate” the virus, as well as the medical choices doctors and patients make. AB 2098 bill is a risky component of the campaign that is not just about getting into conflict with the physician and patient but also attempts to ruin doctor's careers and livelihoods for what doing they're educated to do: conduct scientific research and implement the most appropriate and safe solutions to their patients.
The bill is in the legislative process and is now in the critical time of either being blocked by Newsom or becoming law. The battle lines are marked, especially on Twitter. The Dr. Pan continues to do the work Fauci and Collins initiated in the first place: to discredit, target, and belittle any person who reveals his lies about what the law will actually accomplish.
Dr. Bhattacharya goes into greater depth in the Substack article:
This forced scientific groupthink—and the fear and self-censorship they produce—are bad enough. So far, though, the risk has been social and reputational. Now it could become literally career-ending.
According to California Assembly Bill 2098, physicians who deviate from an authorized set of beliefs would do so at risk to their medical license. The bill, written by Assemblyman Evan Low, a Democrat in Silicon Valley, and currently making its way through the California Legislature, is motivated by the idea that practicing doctors are spreading “misinformation” about the risks of Covid, its treatment, and the Covid vaccine. It declares that physicians and surgeons who “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” shall be subject to “disciplinary action,” which could result in the loss of the doctor’s medical license.
The language of the bill itself is intentionally vague about what constitutes “misinformation,” which makes it even more damaging. Doctors, fearing loss of their livelihoods, will need to hew closely to the government line on Covid science and policy, even if that line does not track the scientific evidence. After all, until recently, top government science bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci claimed that the idea that Covid came from a Wuhan laboratory was a conspiracy theory, rather than a valid hypothesis that should be open to discussion. The government’s track record on discerning Covid truths is poor.
Truly, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors are permitting the residents in the county to be taken captive by L.A. Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, who doesn’t know science or the truth. “Not that Kind of Doctor” Ferrer and her ever-changing information and facts only serve to further the COVID narrative of command and control.
Bhattacharya continues:
The bill claims that the spread of misinformation by physicians about the Covid vaccines “has weakened public confidence and placed lives at serious risk.” But how significant is this problem in reality? Over 83% of Californians over the age of 50 are fully vaccinated (including the booster).
[…]
What is abundantly clear is that this bill represents a chilling interference with the practice of medicine. The bill itself is full of misinformation and a demonstration of what a disaster it would be to have the legislature dictate the practice of medicine.
The wannabe dictators seek to limit the spread of misinformation through others by propagating false information to control other people.
It is never ending.
For starters, it fails to note that people who have contracted Covid—by now a considerable number of Californians—already have substantial protection against severe disease if they get Covid again. High quality studies have shown that this “natural immunity” provides equivalent or even greater protection than immunity generated by Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines. If this bill passes, would a California physician be in trouble for taking into account a patient’s Covid history when making vaccination recommendations?
Dr. Pan has made it his personal goal to denigrate and discredit Dr. Bhattacharya and other brave legal and medical professionals, and also health freedom activists who have spoken out about the risks of this bill being passed into law. Saying the opposition to AB 2098 is an “amplified minority,” Dr. Pan has also enlisted his own minority within the crowd to gaslight and keep the false information moving on.
Pan also blocks the comments of California residents who want specific information and have legitimate concerns.
Dr. Bhattacharya continues to be on the right side of science, history, and truth. Along with his advocacy against AB 2098, he is still speaking out about the costs following the Science has incurred for the world.
Senator Ron Johnson has been fighting COVID falsehoods by logging the effects of vaccines caused by the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson COVID products and also receiving reports from medical professionals who are being identified from medical licensing bodies for saving the life of patients through methods proven to work and also because they don't go along with the Science narrative.
Dr. Pierre Kory is one of the doctors who are also a proponent of medical liberty and opposing AB 2098. Dr. Kory and Sen. Johnson wrote a Fox News op-ed:
What happens in California does not stay in California. Newsom can kill this terrible bill and prevent a hostile takeover of medicine by oppressive government censors. Let’s hope he does the right thing.
Making the right choice is not Gavin Newsom's strength. Making decisions that are politically efficient is what he is good at. If Newsom blocks the bill, the outcome will be based on the extent to which it benefits or harms his presidential aspirations.
Leigh Dundas, a human rights lawyer, has organized lawyers, doctors, activists, and concerned citizens to go to the Sacramento Capitol on Friday, September 30, 2022 to call Governor Newsom to block AB 2098. If you wish to partner with her, visit medicalcensorship.org.
