California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is being sued for trying to control what doctors can tell patients about COVID-19.
In the suit filed by California physicians Drs. Tracy Høeg, Ram Duriseti, Aaron Kheriaty, Pete Mazolewski, and Azadeh Khatibi, they allege that Newsom’s A.B. 2098 would discriminate against alternative viewpoints and create “a severe chilling effect” on health opinions.
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The plaintiffs said that the bill, which Newsom signed into law on Sept. 30, makes it “unprofessional conduct” for physicians or surgeons to provide their patients with “false information” related to COVID-19, including vaccines, that is contradicted by “contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care.”
The suit contends that the law contradicts the First Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment right to due process because “contemporary scientific consensus” is not a legally-defined term.
“I think this is a horrendous First Amendment violation and violates the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, and it jeopardizes doctors’ ability to treat their patients to the best of their ability,” said NCLA Litigation Counsel Jenin Younes. “Doctors are supposed to use their own judgment and experience to treat each patient individually, not to parrot some supposed consensus that may or may not even exist.”
The board-licensed physicians also motioned the court to stop California from enforcing the law, which is scheduled to be effective Jan. 1, 2023.
“Several Plaintiffs have 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,” an NCLA press release says. “They are being put between a rock and a hard place, fearing repercussions for acting in their patients’ best interests by honestly giving them the information they believe their patients need in order to make informed care decisions.”
Newsom has said the law is “narrowly tailored to apply only to those egregious instances in which a licensee is acting with malicious intent or clearly deviating from the required standard of care while interacting directly with a patient under their care.”
“This bill would designate the dissemination of misinformation or disinformation related to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, or “COVID-19,” as unprofessional conduct. The bill would also make findings and declarations in this regard,” the legislation states.
Reporters have reached out to Newsom’s office for comment, but it did not immediately return the request.
