{"id":2031166,"date":"2023-09-13T21:04:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-lawmakers-set-to-repeal-covid-misinformation-law\/"},"modified":"2023-09-13T21:07:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:07:12","slug":"california-lawmakers-set-to-repeal-covid-misinformation-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-lawmakers-set-to-repeal-covid-misinformation-law\/","title":{"rendered":"California lawmakers to repeal COVID &#8216;misinformation&#8217; law."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcalifornia-lawmakers-set-to-repeal-covid-misinformation-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2031166&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<p>A bill to repeal California\u2019s COVID-19 \u201cmisinformation\u201d and \u201cdisinformation\u201d law\u2014intended to punish\u200c doctors \u200dwho refused to comply with the government\u2019s directives on\u2062 masks, vaccines, and treatments during the pandemic\u2014is quietly making its way through the state Legislature.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB815\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Senate Bill\u2063 815<\/a> would change <a href=\"https:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2098\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Assembly Bill 2098<\/a>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/california-lawmakers-pass-bill-to-punish-dissenting-doctors-for-misinformation-4704593\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">controversial bill<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/california-lawmakers-pass-bill-to-punish-dissenting-doctors-for-misinformation_4704593.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">punish<\/a> \u200c doctors for spreading \u201cmisinformation\u201d or \u201cdisinformation\u201d related\u2062 to COVID-19.<br \/>\n \u2062\n  <\/div>\n<p>It would repeal provisions \u200cthat \u201cexpressly designate\u2064 the dissemination of misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19 as unprofessional conduct,\u201d\u2062 according to an analysis by the bill\u2019s author, Assemblyman Richard Roth (D-Riverside).<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"border-comp-divider mb-4 mr-4 w-full max-w-[500px] border px-5 py-4 text-[16px] leading-[20px] text-[#262626] md:float-left\" id=\"in_article_related_stories\">\n<div class=\"mb-3 font-sans text-[16px] font-semibold uppercase leading-[19px] text-[#2F2F2F]\">Related Story<\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\">\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/newsom-signs-bill-allowing-doctors-in-california-to-face-discipline-for-misinformation-4766970\">Newsom Signs Legislation Allowing Doctors in California\u2062 to Face Discipline for &#8216;Misinformation&#8217;<\/a>\n          <\/div>\n<div class=\"text-comp-caption text-[14px] leading-[18px]\">10\/1\/2022<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\">\n          <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/newsom-signs-bill-allowing-doctors-in-california-to-face-discipline-for-misinformation-4766970\"><\/a>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The bill passed on the \u200cSenate floor in May and is now being heard by \u2062the Assembly, where it has passed two committees but has not yet\u2064 had a floor vote.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">Gov. Gavin Newsom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/newsom-signs-bill-allowing-doctors-in-california-to-face-discipline-for-misinformation-4766970\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">signed<\/a> AB 2098, introduced by \u200bAssemblyman \u2064Evan Low (D-Campbell) and \u200cco-authored by then-Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), into law on Sept. 30,\u200d 2022.<\/div>\n<p>In his signing message, the governor warned about the \u201cchilling effect\u201d other potential laws could have on the freedom of physicians and surgeons to effectively talk to their patients about the \u200brisks and benefits of treatments for COVID-19.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode post-related-videos\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-placeholder\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cHowever, I am \u2063confident that discussing emerging ideas or treatments including the subsequent\u200b risks\u200b and benefits \u2064does not constitute misinformation or disinformation under this bill\u2019s \u2062criteria,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Newsom said the law \u2063only applies to physicians\u2019 speech with patients during discussions \u200ddirectly related to COVID-19 treatment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am signing this bill because it is narrowly tailored to apply only to those egregious instances \u200din which a\u200c licensee is acting with malicious \u2062intent or clearly deviating from the required standard of care while interacting directly with a patient under their care.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-figure\">\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>California Gov. Gavin \u2064Newsom speaks at a COVID-19 testing facility in \u200bValencia, Calif., on Oct. 30, 2020. (Marcio\u2063 Jose Sanchez\/AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Days later, the law, which vaguely defined \u201cmisinformation and disinformation\u201d as \u201cunprofessional conduct\u201d was challenged in \u2062court.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">The law defined \u201cdisinformation\u201d as \u201cmisinformation that the licensee deliberately disseminated with malicious intent or an intent to mislead,\u201d and misinformation as \u201cfalse \u200dinformation that\u200c is contradicted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-to-punish-doctors-who-spread-what-they-consider-to-be-covid-misinformation\/\" title=\"California to Punish Doctors Who Spread What They Consider to be \"COVID Misinformation\"\">contemporary scientific consensus contrary<\/a>\u200c to the standard of care.\u201d<\/div>\n<h2>Legal Challenges<\/h2>\n<p>It has since been met with legal challenges, including complaints from Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the \u2064American Civil Liberties Union, two California doctors, Mark McDonald and Jeff Barke, and a group of five other physicians.<\/p>\n<p>One of the plaintiffs \u200cin the latter lawsuit was Dr. Aaron Kheriaty who was fired as the University of California\u2013Irvine medical ethics director after he\u200d refused to get the COVID-19 vaccination, saying he was naturally immune after contracting the illness and recovering from it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">Judge William Shubb of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California granted a <a href=\"https:\/\/childrenshealthdefense.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/CA-AB2098-Inj-Granted-1.25.23.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">preliminary injunction<\/a> \u200d in Mr.\u200d Kheriaty\u2019s suit blocking the state from \u2064enforcing AB 2098. He ruled that \u2062the statute\u2019s \u201cunclear \u200bphrasing and structure\u201d could have a \u201cchilling effect.\u201d<\/div>\n<p>However, his ruling runs contrary to a U.S. District Court out \u2062of California\u2019s\u2064 Central District judge\u2019s earlier decision to deny a preliminary injunction to Dr. Barke and Dr. McDonald, after they sued the Medical Board of California and state Attorney \u200cGeneral Rob Bonta \u200din October 2022 seeking the court to declare AB 2098 unconstitutional and a preliminary injunction to prevent its enforcement. The case is still pending in the courts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe standard of care is\u200c always changing, especially as it relates to something \u200dnew like COVID,\u201d\u200d Dr. Barke said in an\u200c interview.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-figure\">\n<figure style=\"width:232px\" class=\"alignleft\"><figcaption>Dr. Jeff Barke, a primary care physician in Orange County, Calif. (Courtesy of Jeff Barke)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>He said, today, for example, many people \u200clook back and laugh \u2063at the time when they sprayed down their groceries with alcohol or other disinfectants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were all \u200dkind\u200b of freaked \u2062out, and \u2063then a\u200b few weeks later we were like, \u2018What in the heck are we doing? This makes no sense at all,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s\u2064 an evolving situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the lockdowns, President Joe Biden, Dr. \u200bAnthony Fauci, and Dr. Deborah Birx \u201call told us that if you get this vaccine, you don&#8217;t have to worry about getting COVID,\u201d Dr. Barke said. \u201cWell, we know now that\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet, under AB 2098, any doctor who said early\u200d on in the pandemic \u200bthat vaccines won\u2019t stop the disease or transmission of it, could have put their medical license in jeopardy for dissenting from the narrative of health\u200b care authorities or the\u2062 corporate news media, he \u200csaid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so, if I were to\u2064 say hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin work\u2014and they do\u2014and \u2064the government disagrees with that, technically they could\u2062 take my license away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Barke said AB 2098\u2064 is not only a violation of First Amendment rights but that it\u2019s dangerous to patients because it forces doctors to adhere to the\u2064 government\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s bad for doctors, and it\u2019s dangerous for patients that I\u2019m not allowed to speak my truth and give \u2064them an opinion based on \u2063my understanding of \u2064science, and my understanding of the patient and their complicated history,\u201d\u200c he said.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally,\u2064 Dr. Barke said he no longer \u2064supports retail \u200bpharmacies that toed the government line during the pandemic and will only\u200b use\u200b \u201cfreedom-loving\u201d compounding, or community pharmacies.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">The\u2062 U.S. Food and Drug Administration\u2019s (FDA) \u200crecent move to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/article\/doctors-can-prescribe-ivermectin-for-covid-19-fda-5456584\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">walk back<\/a> its condemnation of ivermectin is another example of changing standards of \u2063care, he said.<\/div>\n<p>\u201cNow they\u2019ve said, \u2018Just kidding. Ivermectin \u200cis \u2062probably OK,\u2019\u201d Dr. Barke\u200c said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/article\/doctors-can-prescribe-ivermectin-for-covid-19-fda-5456584\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stated<\/a> on Aug. 8, the &#8220;FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors \u200bdo have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/tag\/dr-simone-gold\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr. Simone Gold<\/a>, a\u2062 Beverly Hills physician who founded America\u2019s Frontline Doctors, has called AB 2098 an \u201cunconstitutional, Orwellian gag-order.\u201d\n  <\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis law attempts to mandate a new and undefined standard known as \u2018contemporary scientific consensus\u2019 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-lawmakers-set-to-repeal-covid-misinformation-law\/\" title=\"California lawmakers to repeal COVID 'misinformation' law.\">illegally suppress differing professional opinions counter<\/a> to this consensus on COVID-19,\u201d \u200dshe wrote in\u2064 January.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-figure\">\n<figure style=\"width:515px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>Dr. Simone Gold in an interview with NTDTV at Turning Point USA \u2064Student\u200d Action Summit 2020 in West Palm Beach, Fla., in December 2020. (Screenshot via NTD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n<h2>Political Response<\/h2>\n<p>    \u200c  Assemblyman Low said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times Sept. 12 that\u200c the SB 815 \u201cupdate\u201d will still \u2064hold doctors accountable.\n  <\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cFortunately, with this update, the Medical Board of California will \u2063continue to maintain the authority to hold medical licensees accountable for deviating from the standard of care and misinforming their patients about\u200b COVID-19 treatments,\u201d \u200che said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-figure\">\n<figure style=\"width:600px\" class=\"alignnone\"><figcaption>California State Assembly member Evan Low attends the\u2063 Equality California 2018 Los Angeles Equality Awards at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles on Sept. 29, 2018. (Phillip Faraone\/Getty Images for Equality California)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When asked if state medical board\u200d complaints \u2064against doctors for defying government \u2062mandates would\u200d be dismissed, he declined to comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-5\">\n<p>    Mr. Pan, who left office in December and is now running in Sacramento\u2019s mayoral \u200crace, was unavailable for comment, according to his campaign staff.<br \/>\n \u2064\n  <\/p><\/div>\n<h2>\u2018Ugly Side\u2019 of Overreach<\/h2>\n<p>Dr. Michael Huang, one of the doctors affected by AB\u2063 2098, shut down his independent family\u200c medical practice in Roseville, California,\u200c after he was \u2062inundated with about 30 Medical Board of California complaints.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Huang, who prescribed ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine \u200dfor COVID-19-positive patients, \u200csays he\u2064 has n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new bill in California aims to repeal the COVID-19 &#8220;misinformation&#8221; and &#8220;disinformation&#8221; law, which penalizes doctors who don&#8217;t follow government guidelines on masks, vaccines, and treatments. The bill, Senate Bill 815, is currently progressing through the state Legislature, seeking to amend the controversial Assembly Bill 2098 that targets doctors spreading false information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":2031167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2031166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2031167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}