Medical boards banned from punishing doctors who reject gov’t COVID narrative
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(LifeSiteNews) — A California judge has forbidden medical boards from investigating, prosecuting, accusing, or sanctioning doctors “based on the viewpoint of the information, recommendations, or advice they give a patient about COVID-19, including their departure from the position of the public health authorities.”
‘Free speech prevailed. We do not have to parrot pharma-government nonsense to keep our licenses,’ said lead plaintiff Dr. Pierre Kory.
While the ruling technically applies only to three doctors who were plaintiffs in the case, Kory v. Bonta, according to their attorney, Richard Jaffe, the judge’s order “puts the boards on notice that a federal judge has found their Covid misinformation policy unconstitutional under the First Amendment.”
“Every investigator and every board member now knows how this judge sees it,” said Jaffe. “Any board employee who opens or continues a Covid misinformation investigation from here on is doing it with a federal injunction and a federal ruling on the record, and with no ability to say later that nobody told them.”
United States District Judge William B. Shubb “ordered not only California’s Attorney General but also the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board, as well as ANYONE acting on their behalf, to stop investigating us, stop prosecuting us, stop harassing us,” wrote lead plaintiff Dr. Pierre Kory in a celebratory Substack post.
“Most importantly, stop threatening our licenses over any professional opinions we might share with our own patients about Covid-19, the ‘vaccines,’ ivermectin, anything,” he added.
The judge’s order makes an important distinction: medical boards are not prevented from investigating, prosecuting, or disciplining doctors for actual fraud or negligent treatment.
READ: Fauci subpoenaed by three Republican AGs for ‘profiting’ from COVID guidance
In 2022, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Orwellian Assembly Bill 2098 into law. The measure considered medical doctors and surgeons to be guilty of “unprofessional conduct” if they “disseminate misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19, including false or misleading information regarding the nature and risks of the virus, its prevention and treatment; and the development, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.”
The legislation also subjected physicians found to have violated the law to disciplinary action from the Medical Board of California and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, including potential suspension of medical licenses.
“American physicians in that state, where I was licensed at the time, would have been literally forced to spew state propaganda in our patients’ ears or we would have lost our licenses. Not for fraud. Not for malpractice. No, it would have been for having a different medical opinion from that of our ‘beloved,’ government health agencies led by Saint Fauci,” wrote Kory, who further noted in a “beautiful twist of fate” that Fauci was recommended by the U.S. Senate for a contempt of Congress charge within hours of Judge Shubb’s ruling.