CA Governor and COVID ‘Experts’ Defeated Over Bill to Punish Doctors for ‘Covid Misinformation’

In January 2023, California’s new law to punish doctors for spreading “Covid misinformation,” went into effect. Assembly Bill 2098 authored by Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell) and co-authored by then-Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, circumvented due process against doctors over “Covid misinformation conduct,” and quashed their right to free speech.

California surgeon Dr. Peter Mazolewski said the purpose of Assembly Bill 2098 is to circumvent due process against doctors over “Covid misinformation conduct.”

AB 2098 punished 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. The Globe reported in September ahead of the governor signing AB 2098, “As attorney Laura Powell of Californians for Good Governance 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.’”

“AB 2098 will stifle scientific progress, harm public health, and violate doctors’ First Amendment rights,” Ethan Blevins, of the Pacific Legal Foundation wrote for the Globe. “California’s Medical Board does not enjoy a monopoly on truth. Punishing ideas that defy consensus is an excuse to punish heretics and stifle dissent.”

Even before AB 2098 went into effect, it was already used as a weapon to intimidate and punish doctors who dissent from mainstream views, lawyers with the New Civil Liberties Alliance reports. “Physicians have already experienced threats from other doctors and individuals on social media to use AB 2098 to have their licenses taken away, an obvious attempt to suppress the doctors’ speech,” the Globe reported.

It cannot be overstated how illegal/unconstitutional, prejudicial and harmful this law was, and the governor was warned. “AB 2098” should be used in every sentence with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s name in every media story about the authoritarian governor who locked down an entire state of 40 million people for nearly three years over a flu.

It also should be used legally against the “public health” tyrants who gave the governor cover throughout the lockdowns by deceitfully declaring the public was at serious risk of death unless they stayed home, masked and vaxxed.

Five Physicians filed a lawsuit in November 2022 against the State of California over the new law, which attorneys said violates the 1st and 14th Amendments (free speech and due process). They were rewarded when California’s medical misinformation law suffered its first legal defeat later in January 2023. The five physicians, Drs. Aaron Kheriaty, Tracy Hoeg, Ram Duriseti, Pete Mazolewski, and Azadeh Khatibi, wanted to know who approves the “consensus?” When the Globe spoke with Dr. Pete Mazolewski, he asked, “Who decides? The medical board? Public health officials?”

Neither the members of the Medical Board nor all of California’s public health officials are licensed medical doctors – California’s Medical Board is currently made up of 12 individuals: 6 Medical Doctors, 3 attorneys, a Public Relations consultant, an “Ethics Reformer,” and a Life Coach, the Globe reported when the lawsuit was filed.

Judge William Shubb of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing AB 2098, ruling that the statute’s “unclear phrasing and structure” could have a “chilling effect.”

Dr. Mark McDonald wrote at the Globe:

A judge in California agreed with a request for preliminary injunction to protect five California physicians from the Medical Board of California. AB 2098 empowers the Medical Board of California (MBC) to suspend the medical licenses of any physician whose speech does not conform to the political views of those in power. Specifically, if a doctor tells a patient that wearing a mask does not prevent infection from a respiratory virus, or that the experimental mRNA injections can be harmful (in addition to being ineffective), he may be prevented from practicing medicine in the state of California. This law is both unconstitutional and destructive—it effectively ends the possibility of pursuing an honest doctor-patient relationship and will force the best doctors to flee to other states, or simply retire from the profession. The preliminary injunction blocks the MBC from using AB 2098 to sanction the five doctors in the case. It does not, however, extend this protection to any other physicians.

This legal smack down then precipitated legislation to undo the horrid law, which was recently signed by Gov. Newsom – quietly, with no fanfare. Reclaim the Internet reported:

In the face of this, many experts and politicians appear eager to cover their missteps and push their narratives, even if it means stomping all over the First Amendment rights of American citizens. That’s the concerning part and the bad news. On the brighter side, these fake COVID “experts” in California just faced a massive blow, thanks to a recent court ruling that spells victory for freedom in the United States.

The revision legislation, SB 815 authored by Sen. Richard Roth, would be laughable if AB 2098 wasn’t so authoritarian – Roth described the bill as ” is all about protecting patients”:

Roth’s landmark bill revises the State’s Medical Practices Act’s cumbersome processes, empowering patients, adding transparency and sunlight to the Medical Board of California’s (Board) physician oversight and disciplinary process and guaranteeing fiscal solvency.

“This legislation is all about protecting patients, lifting up consumers and making sure that the State´s watchdog actually has teeth,” said Roth. “SB 815 improves physician oversight, which is not only important for patients, it is critical for the overwhelming majority of dedicated physicians who are upstanding and play by the rules.”

The governor’s bill signing press release described SB 815 as “Healing arts.”

The governor’s lawyers should have had to argue their case in court so the entire state could hear their defense of AB 2098, and witness their push for doctors to be punished for being “ahead of the curve and expressing or endorsing ideas the rest of the medical community had not yet caught up with because they weren’t paying as close attention to the available research,” Epoch Times reported Dr. Aaron Kheriaty said. Dr. Kheriaty “has been personally harmed by the larger anti truth in medicine movement. He chaired the bio-medical ethics committee at the UCI medical school until being forced to resign two years ago after raising questions about the ethics of requiring both adults and children be injected with the experimental mRNA product,” Dr. McDonald reported.

We hope the state and physicians can heal after this terrifying foray into totalitarianism.