A New Jersey bill that would impose penalties on health care professionals for providing patients with “misinformation or disinformation” advanced in a vote this week in the Assembly Health Committee.
State Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr., a Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors, said during the hearing: “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.”
“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,” Conaway said.
Those who will determine what is misinformation or disinformation will be any professional or occupational licensing board that certifies health care providers in the state, according to the bill’s text.
Nearly a dozen people spoke at the hearing, expressing their opposition to the bill before it was passed by the committee.
Dr. Renee Kohanski, director on the board of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, said, “physicians need to be completely free to engage in unencumbered conversation with their patients regarding what treatment options are best.”
“Any given patient can have unique situations that make a particular treatment plan unsuitable, though it may be a consensus of standard of care. ”
Kohanski said that the bill, if enacted, would “stifle innovation and scientific advancement and curiosity.”
“We must always have humility and remember that today’s consensus may be tomorrow’s disinformation,” Kohanski said.
Two Monmouth County Republican lawmakers are also among the bill’s opponents.
“For me, who decides what is misinformation?” state Sen. Declan O’Scanlon told The Epoch Times.
“This seems like a Draconian overreach,” he said. “We certainly don’t want to stifle debate ... as we go through public health emergencies.”
He called the bill a “total denial of what we just went through,” referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger told The Epoch Times via text message the bill is “a clear attack of our First Amendment rights in addition to the right of medical professionals to operate as they see fit.
“The medical community must be allowed to engage in the free and open exchange of ideas, and discuss treatments, and diagnoses, while allowing medical decisions to be made solely by their patient and their doctor,” Scharfenberger said.
“Many of the dissenting opinions of medical professionals [in 2020] turned out to be right,” he said.
“Two that come to mind are the vaccine does not prevent infection or transmission of the virus. Also, hydroxychloroquine is effective in treating COVID-19,” Scharfenberger said. “Under this law, both statements would be considered misinformation even though both statements were ultimately proven accurate.”
The three Democrats who sponsored the bill—Conaway, Assemblyman Sterley Stanley (D-Middlesex), and Assemblywoman Shanique Speight (D-Essex, Hudson)—didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.
Conaway said during the debate that the legislation would not bar doctors from prescribing off-label medication or exploring new treatments.
“There’s nothing in this bill that would stop that from happening,” Conaway said.
“People have anxiety over it. I’m not quite sure why it is, and certainly this legislation is not going to be involved in a process that would impede the scientific process and the ability of health care professionals, scientists to engage in the research.”
