This will not end well.<p>Say this law was in place when COVID-19 started and a doctor said "hey, this looks like a new virus causing this pneumonia."<p>This is exactly what is supposed to have happened in Wuhan and those doctors were, surprise surprise, punished by their government.<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/world/asia/chinese-doctor-li-wenliang-covid-warning.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/world/asia/chinese-doctor...</a>
> While the legislation has raised concerns over freedom of speech, the bill’s sponsors said the extensive harm caused by false information required holding incompetent or ill-intentioned doctors accountable.<p>There was no addressing the actual issue in this statement. If you're arguing an issue falls under free speech, then the response of "OK, but it's really bad" doesn't change the free-ness of the speech.
Up until 1984, a doctor stating that stomach ulcers were caused by <i>H. pylori</i> bacteria would have been spreading "false" information.<p><a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/when-scientists-experiment-on-themselves-h-pylori-and-ulcers/" rel="nofollow">https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/when-scienti...</a><p>This law is a disgusting level of political interference in the practice of medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have broken people's brains and caused them to discard fundamental principles for the sake of expediency.
Vinay Prasad, who has been wildly correct/vindicated would’ve been punished. Speaking out about learning loss and child masking would’ve been punished. This is legislation from the new authoritarian left. Liberalism is dead.
How can we have all just gone through the same pandemic and have anyone come out the other side thinking<p>"You know what that needed? More authoritarian control of information."
Waiting for them to punish the doctors and the CDC who claimed that masks were ineffective at the start of the pandemic, which contributed to thousands of deaths.<p>The CDC's lies were some of the worst disinformation (they knowingly lied) of the entire pandemic.<p>Let's not forget the WHO, who repeatedly claimed COVID was not airborne, caused thousands of deaths through negligence.<p>Or there's the doctors who wrongly claimed the vaccines prevent transmission of COVID.
A licensing board has to have a mandate from the doctors it licenses, people who have spent years of pain and study becoming an expert on health. If this bill is as fascist as many seem to think it is, then the doctors themselves will walk away or not tolerate it. They will move to a "more enlightened, less fascist" state and be licensed there instead. On the other hand, if doctors think some of their peers were creating chaos and not acting in patients best interest by entertaining medicine they don't believe to be evidence based, then the licensing board will have the permission if not blessing of the doctor community to improve public health care by getting rid of those who detract from it.<p>My money says more doctors will be happy with this bill than upset by it, but if we start seeing articles to the contrary I'll be happy to admit I was wrong.<p>I am quite confident the vast majority of doctors would be very happy to have a doctor that says "vaccines cause autism" to a patient (not to the medical or academic community) lose their license. Incredible numbers of medical hours and wages are wasted assuring parents that vaccines are not harming their children because it's been politicized by entities that profit from fear and engagement or the destruction of public trust.
So who decides what is misinformation? We already know science is biased or corrupt, and medical experts seeing patients everyday must know a bit more to balance health decisions than politicians<p>What do they do if they suspect an aproved treatment is causing death or disability? Talk about it? No that is illegal now. But so is malpractic. Who is going to jail?
False information such as "we don't know if the vaccine will actually prevent infection" when all the beaurocrats and "scientists" (the only ones who were allowed to speak) were falsely stating that if you took the vaccine, you absolutely would not get the virus?<p>So when are they gonna punish those doctors?
This is fascism at its finest. I can't believe I live in this state, it disgusts me. I'm fully vaccinated with boosters, as is my whole family. The idea that the state would define and criminalize what "false" information is is absolutely disgusting.<p>I think politicians should be "held accountable" for every piece of legislation that gets repealed because it is unconstitutional. They should either go to jail or have their salaries clawed back when they waste time and money crafting useless, unconstitutional laws. Is this something we can submit for a proposition?