I recently suggested that the medical profession in the United States could do with significantly more oversight. We have both doctors and pharmaceutical companies running wild and engaging in many practices and therapies that are questionable (to put it mildly). Unfortunately, both the FDA and the CDC seem to be abetting some of these reckless practices rather than reining them in. But when I put forth that suggestion I wasn’t thinking of anything like what’s going on in California right now. The legislature there, supported by the Governor, has passed a new law that gives the state the power to strip the medical licenses of any doctors who deliver “misinformation” about COVID-19 to their patients. Of course, when you have a bunch of liberal politicians – almost none of whom are doctors – determining what qualifies as “misinformation,” the cart will clearly be careening off the rails in short order.

A new California law gives the state unprecedented control over what doctors can say to their patients about COVID-19.

“We’ve got to stop the disinformation pipeline,” an emergency physician supporting California’s AB 2098 told the California Assembly in April.

Stanford economist and medical school professor Jay Bhattacharya, a leading critic of the law, says that it “puts the [Center for Disease Control] in the same room with the doctor and the patient,” violating a basic trust.

My concerns over questionable practices in the medical field have focused on a desire to get back to actual science (as opposed to “The Science”) and to take the politics out of the way we address such issues. This bill in California does the opposite. Any doctor found to not be toeing the line as set forth by the state will be in danger of having their medical license revoked and their career terminated. And California politicians who take everything ever uttered by Saint Fauci at face value probably aren’t going to be making the soundest calls on the medical front.

This bill offers a definition of COVID “misinformation” when determining which doctors need to be silenced. The term will apply to any medical advice “contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus.” So what is this scientific consensus and who will make that determination? We don’t know because the bill is totally silent on that issue. In other words, the consensus is whatever the Governor decides it is at any given moment.

Given all that we’ve slowly learned about COVID, the vaccines, and the government’s response to the pandemic over the past year or two, there is a greater need than ever for an open, robust debate among medical professionals. And that debate should not be hindered by politicians. Whether it’s a question of who should be vaccinated and how often, whether masks actually do anything beneficial, or the disastrous fallout from the lockdowns, the reality is that the government got many things wrong. We don’t need laws that further muddy the path toward getting those things right next time.

It’s also worth noting that this California law appears to be 100% specific to COVID. What about other potentially dubious medical practices and treatments? Do you suppose that any doctors recommending the irreversible genital mutilation of children who claim to be confused about their gender will have their licenses suspended? Allow me to save you some time when considering your answer. No. No, they will not. Because this is California and they’ve already determined what “The Science” has to say, and challenging “The Science” will not be tolerated.