In a recent blog post, American Medical Association (AMA) President Jesse Ehrenfeld called for greater censorship over “vaccine misinformation.”
“The U.S. surgeon general and other federal officials charged with protecting public health bear an obligation to ensure that people receive medical information that is supported by scientific evidence,” he wrote. “With this responsibility comes the imperative to actively counter those voices deliberately spreading disinformation—or unintentional misinformation—about vaccines and other health issues to preserve public health and save lives.”
Ehrenfeld then turned the discussion of vaccine misinformation to an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court, which focuses on a “single legal question,” according to the AMA president. “Does the government have a compelling interest in combating vaccine misinformation? We believe it clearly does,” he wrote.
“The huge amount of misinformation we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the vaccine-preventable death toll in the U.S. while sowing distrust in science, organized medicine and public health institutions that persists to this day,” Ehrenfeld asserted.
He suggested officials should take measures similar to YouTube, which “landed a solid punch in the fight against medical misinformation.” The AMA president emphasized that health agencies will “continue to urge technology companies and social media organizations to evaluate and refine existing policies against medical misinformation to ensure those policies are as comprehensive and effective as possible.”
Ehrenfeld explained that physicians also have a “responsibility” to combat vaccine misinformation.”
Licensing boards, Ehrenfeld suggested, should “have the authority to take disciplinary action against health professionals for spreading health-related disinformation.”
Although Ehrenfeld condemns the public distrust of medical “science” pushing vaccine campaigns, other health officials warned against widespread vaccine mandates.
Dr. Matthew Memoli, director of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases clinical studies unit at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), warned Dr. Anthony Fauci against implementing a vaccine mandate.
“At best what we are doing with mandated mass vaccination does nothing and the variants emerge evading immunity anyway as they would have without the vaccine,” Memoli wrote in an email. “At worst it drives evolution of the virus in a way that is different from nature and possibly detrimental, prolonging the pandemic or causing more morbidity and mortality than it should.”
“Coercing or forcing people to take a vaccine can have negative consequences from a biological, sociological, psychological, economical, and ethical standpoint and is not worth the cost even if the vaccine is 100% safe,” he added.
Other COVID-19 measures, such as mask mandates, were an attempt to preserve “authority,” Fauci said.
