Last week, the New Jersey Assembly’s Health Committee approved a bill targeting doctors who are believed to be spreading “misinformation” about health.
The bill, A1884, would legalize filing professional misconduct allegations against doctors. It “establishes [the] act of disseminating misinformation as professional misconduct for health care professionals.”
Disciplinary action may be taken against the medical professionals.
“It is the sponsor’s intent that this legislation will help combat health misinformation and curb the spread of falsehoods that threaten the health and safety of New Jersey residents,” the bill reads.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Democrat Assemblyman Herb Conaway, said, “Sadly, we have a number of such licensed persons who, in my opinion, given their public statements on vaccines or other questions, do not seem to be taking their responsibility as a health care official as seriously as they should,” according to the New Jersey Monitor. “This misinformation makes it very difficult for public health entities to actually do the job that they’re tasked to do, and that is advance public health.”
One of the bill’s critics, Republican State Senator Declan O’Scanlon, told The Epoch Times, “For me, who decides what is misinformation?”
“This seems like a Draconian overreach,” he said, adding that the bill serves as a “total denial of what we just went through” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
