WhoWhatWhy Article on the Legal Battle over AB2098
Last year we advocated for a law in California - AB2098 - to hold doctors who spread deadly Covid disinformation accountable with loss of their medical licenses. It has spurred multiple lawsuits (from the likes of now-Presidential candidate RFK Jr. and the Koch-funded New Civil Liberties Alliance), two of which were consolidated and heard by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit yesterday. Opponents of the law have signaled an interest in taking this "free speech" battle to the Supreme Court - where this deeply political movement has allies and where America’s Frontline Doctors launched.
In today’s article for WhoWhatWhy I discuss the political and financial ties behind the right-wing’s Covid-minimizing, bogus cure-pushing, conspiracy-peddling anti-vax movement and this legal effort against AB2098. The First Amendment infringement arguments used conflate free speech with professional speech and ignore the great harm done by US state licensed physicians who betrayed their Hippocratic Oath to "first do no harm" during the pandemic.
And it should be compared against the attempts to delicense and silence Indiana OB/GYN Dr. Caitlin Bernard for another deeply politicized public health issue: abortion. In this deeply divided political climate, it is dangerous for physicians to advocate for public health and there is a shared dark money root of Covid disinformation, the anti-abortion movement, and the rogue Supreme Court that cannot be ignored.
Despite the law’s best intentions, especially against some of the worst purveyors of disinformation like America’s Frontline Doctors leader Dr. Simone Gold, and the clear overdue action from state medical boards, AB2098 appears headed for repeal.