With little fanfare, Gov. Gavin Newsom last week repealed the law he supported last year designed to punish doctors in California who give out what the state deems “COVID misinformation.”
The legislation signed into law in September 2022 and took effect in January defined COVID disinformation as “unprofessional conduct” and empowered the Medical Board of California to revoke the licenses of physicians who diverged from “contemporary scientific consensus.”
Critics of the bill called it illegal because it infringed upon the free speech of doctors. They also called it dangerous because the prevailing advice on COVID changed several times during the pandemic. A judge halted the law on Jan. 25 pending legal challenges. As a result it was never enforced.
Gov. Newsom had no public comment on the repeal.
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