California Bill Punishing Doctors for Spreading COVID ‘Misinformation’ Quietly Repealed: Laura Powell

Throughout the COVID pandemic, we constantly heard about so-called medical misinformation. From Ivermectin to hydroxychloroquine to even the severity of the virus itself, it seemed that anything outside of what the mainstream media, medical establishment, and government said was immediately labeled “misinformation.” And there were concerted efforts to quash that alleged misinformation. The obvious examples were social media platforms censoring content based on those same accepted standards. But California went a step further after it passed Assembly Bill 2098 at the end of last year. The bill effectively allowed the California Medical Board to discipline doctors for spreading so-called medical misinformation about COVID that was not in line with the “contemporary scientific consensus.”

When this bill was passed, it was heavily criticized both on the principle of the government defining what misinformation was, and the vague wording of the bill itself. It had also been the focus of multiple lawsuits since it was passed, including from a group of five California doctors who fought against the bill, saying that it violated their First Amendment rights.

Now, however, this controversial bill is no more. California’s Senate has quietly repealed the bill by passing another bill, Senate Bill 815, that contains a clause eliminating the misinformation law.

Joining us today to discuss this is attorney Laura Powell, who worked on Hoeg v. Newsom, the case brought by California doctors against the COVID “misinformation” law.