In California, doctors face greater scrutiny while patients face diminished choice. Will it work? (Photo: Halfpoint/Shutterstock)
Bill to Punish Physicians for ‘Unprofessional Conduct’ and Wrongthink on Gov. Newsom’s Desk
Assembly Bill 2098 puts unconstitutional restrictions on free speech by medical professionals
By Katy Grimes, September 27, 2022 7:14 am
AB 2098 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.
Assembly Bill 2098 puts unconstitutional restrictions on free speech by medical professionals.
Laura Powell of Californians for Good Governance explains in a June opposition letter:
“There is no question that the bill is aimed at restricting speech based on its content. As such, it would be presumptively invalid and could only be upheld if the government could prove that the law is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest. ‘This stringent standard reflects the fundamental principle that governments have no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.’ While the state may be able to claim that providing the public with accurate information regarding Covid-19 is a compelling interest, it cannot possibly argue that the blunt weapon that AB 2098 represents is narrowly tailored to that interest.
It is a long-held precept of free speech jurisprudence that more speech is the appropriate remedy to false speech, rather than censorship. ‘The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth.’”
This is Stasi-level legislation. 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 patients to make a true risk/benefit analysis.
The bill is aimed at physicians who acknowledged the 1% mortality rate, questioned mandatory masks, school closures, and challenged the claim that the vaccine would shield patients from getting or spreading Covid. It is also aimed at physicians who chose to prescribe therapeutic treatments during COVID.
Assemblyman Low and Senator Richard Pan continued to push the bill 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.”
As Laura Powell noted, “Since AB 2098 explicitly restricts speech based on its content, it is presumptively invalid. The bill does not address the problem identified. The bill’s authors and supporters point to the problem of doctors who widely amplify falsehoods about Covid-19, but silencing them would violate the Constitution. To remedy the constitutional problems, it would have to be pared down to the point that it would simply duplicate existing law. Proponents are unable to cite a single example of a harm that could be prevented.”
Powell added, “There is a crisis of institutional credibility, not a crisis of misinformation. Misinformation has always existed, but what has changed is that the public no longer trusts the government and the medical establishment to be reliable sources of information. Censorship could only succeed in creating a backlash that would further erode that trust.”
Gov. Newsom can sign the bill, or do nothing with AB 2098, and it would still become law, which the Daily Wire said would be monstrously cowardly.
AB 2098 is a bill in search of a crisis.
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So Gov. Newsom can either sign the bill, or do nothing with AB 2098, and it would still become law? This lame-brain legislation by Democrat Assemblyman Evan Low should be immediately challenged in court as an unconstitutional restrictions on free speech if it’s allowed to pass? If Democrat Assemblyman Evan Low lived in China, no doubt he’d be an authoritarian and totalitrian member of the CCP?
Go ahead and sign it Gav, you will be in court soon over this one!
Low is a CCP operative! This kind of censorship is what they do in Russia and China!
This is part of the cover up for the “plandemic”.
Call me a right wing-nut!
@Tomorrow , you are definitely in the ball park.
This bill as Katy so aptly described, is a bill in search of crisis! Low just presented the bill, he did not write it himself, there is a powerful group behind it. Even the medical boards that are to be the ones enforcing it are confused as to how it would be implemented.
It is a long shot but it takes five minutes, go to Newsom’s contact page and let him know this needs to be vetoed. If he just lets it sit then we know he is the coward we was born to be because it ain’t POTUS we was born to be!
https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/
I agree, Cali Girl, Gov Gav needs to be bombarded with messages that he veto this. We don’t want this outrageous bill to be considered “law” even for one minute until it is (successfully) challenged because the threat of it will probably have the effect of chasing many good and decent physicians out of the state. If it hasn’t already, that is. It is ostensibly to be applied to “Covid,” which is irrelevant now, but we all know it will be used by know-nothing control-freak legislators, boards, and commissions to clamp down unilaterally on physician independence, doctor-patient confidentiality, etc.
Mentally ill California, becoming more ill every day.
He’s not getting enough media play, but his website is helpful : http://www.briandahle.com
Check out his “plan” for California – very encouraging…. ordered my yard sign for $19.99 from Amazon – wish he had yard signs on his “Merch” menu, but whatever – we’ll send him funds directly via Anedot…..
Oh CD9, I’m so glad you posted this. Have been looking for an excuse to post a Brian Dahle radio interview from yesterday:
“Gubernatorial Candidate Brian Dahle Talks with John Phillips, KABC 790 AM”
https://omny.fm/shows/the-drive-home-with-jillian-barberie-and-john-ph-1/brian-dahle-2
The more I hear Brian Dahle, the more I like him, as a candidate in his own right and not just as an alternative to the arrogant, ruinous disaster of Gavin Newsom, that we have been suffering under for what seems like forever. I find Dahle refreshingly plainspoken and forthright. I’m not hearing any “politician patter.” He doesn’t shout but calmly and authoritatively states his case. He seems earnest and honest and knows his onions about CA issues, having served in the state legislature and going up against these ridiculous Dems for some time. He has Newsom’s number and isn’t shy about saying so with specifics. I like his CA story, that his family has been farming in California for 92 years. Go to his website (posted by CD9 above) to learn about that and to take a minute to bask in what’s good and hopeful about California.
Amen. Newsom has not served this state well and does not deserve another term. Out of touch, head in the clouds decisions have caused people to leave the state, over a half million this year, high taxes and pandering to illegal immigrants have left the rest of us hurting badly.
Vote him out.
Excellent. So glad to hear from you, Kay Walsh. 🙂
You know “Unintended Consequence”? Well that could be a really big play with AB 2098. Long term.
All you need to do is establish in a court of law the actual established science of respiratory infections, epidemiology , public health vaccinology etc that has been the actual “scientific consensus” for many generations. What is written in the textbooks. For many decades. As against the totally made up stuff broadcast by California public health officials since March 2020 . And I could see a scenario where every California public heath official with a MD (and elected official?) could be prosecuted under AB 2098.
The fundamental difference between the analytical accuracy of a diagnostic test and the clinical accuracy of a diagnostic test, which is fundamental to clinical diagnosis, is the key legal point to prove medical malpractice in this case. Because those making the statements post March 2020 were either lying or engaging in gross professional malpractice. Its a simple binary choice.
I’m certain that Evan Low is too stupid to have ever thought of that but I am sure Akilah Weber might be interested to know that at some future date when the public health response after March 2020 has been utterly discredited in the public domain, which it will, that she might find herself losing her medical license due to AB 2098.
Now wouldn’t that be justice.
Tfourier, I LOVE your take on this. It is such a good argument of what could plausibly happen from this turkey becoming law I’d almost like to see it happen should we be unlucky enough to have Newsom sign it or, more likely, to passively let it become law without his signature.
Genius!
Unintended Consequence.
Very plausible! With a fair hearing this could happen!
That should give them reason to pause, highly unlikely because well ya know we do not have the best and brightest leading us at the moment (sigh).
EVAN! ASSEMBLYMEMBER LOW! GET OUT OF MY DOCTOR’S OFFICE! GET OUT OF MY DOCTOR’S EXAM ROOM! GET OUT OF MY DOCTOR’S MEDICAL ADVICE!
IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!
How dare you! You arrogant little so-and-so!