Medical Boards Pressured to Let It Slide When Doctors Spread COVID Misinformation
By Blake Farmer
A survey conducted by the Federation of State Medical Boards late last year found that two-thirds of state boards had noticed a jump in complaints about COVID-related misinformation at the hands of doctors. When the nonprofit group went on to draft a statement warning doctors not to spread unsound advice about the illness — or risk having their license revoked — at least 15 state boards implemented the language. In what federation CEO Humayun Chaudhry, MD, says is an "unwelcome trend," no less than 14 states are now pushing legislation that would limit a medical board's power to take disciplinary action against doctors who steer patients toward unproven treatments or make unfounded claims about vaccine harms, for example. The clamor may be loudest in Tennessee, where opposition to the federation's statement has even caused some lawmakers to threaten to disband the state medical board. Chaudhry says that although the statement singles out COVID misinformation, it is the onus of state medical boards to investigate reckless behavior of any kind that endangers patients. "And if you start to chip away at that," he warns, "it becomes a slippery slope.”
Read more on Kaiser Health News.