I medici che diffondono disinformazione medica dovrebbero perdere la licenza. Perché non lo fanno? ❧ Attualità

These doctors are just a few of the many who have made news over the years for spreading misinformation2021 article in First Amendment Law Review, Seton Hall Law School Professor Carl H. Coleman writes that medical misinformation has been "defined as ‘information that is contrary to the epistemic consensus of the scientific community regarding a phenomenon.’ These claims can be spread either negligently or with a deliberate intent to deceive. A large percentage of medical misinformation comes from individuals or entities with economic or political incentives to promote untruthful information." For simplicity, I use the term misinformation broadly to include misinformation and disinformation, which are usually distinguished by the absence or presence, respectively, of intent to deceive by the speaker." rel="footnote"3 about medical issues, or who promote outright quackery (by quackery, I mean medical practice based on pseudoscience). A few of the most prominent include Joseph Mercola, D.O. (licensed to practice in Florida and Illinois), described by the New York Times as "the most influential spreader of coronavirus misinformation"; Christiane Northrup, M.D., a former obstetrician-gynecologist (no active license but has a grandfathered board certification in her field from 1981) and "champion of a feminine and intuitive approach to health and well-being" who was once "Oprah's favorite gyno" and is now an anti-vaccine and QAnon conspiracy theorist; and, of course, Mehmet Oz, M.D. (licensed in Pennsylvania), celebrity doctor, wannabe politician, and promoter of hydroxychloroquine, whose The Dr. Oz Show bombarded audiences with 13 seasons of "magic" health cures and helped the former cardiothoracic surgeon amass a net worth of nine figures as of 2022, the year his show ended. Tenpenny, Buttar, Northrup, and Mercola are all featured alongside Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Center for Countering Digital Hate's "Disinformation Dozen," a list of anti-vaxxers with large platforms who spread misinformation online. (There are many other prominent physician COVID contrarians and minimizers who would take up an entire article themselves.)/p>

The boards’ potential inadequacies are numerous. First, political appointees can be a problem generally, especially when so many officials, particularly Republicans, have shown themselves to be broadly anti-public health during the pandemic.liberals killed masking, as explained on this Death Panel podcast episode." rel="footnote"4 One particularly bad political appointment shows just how far things can go: Florida's Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, M.D. (also of America's Frontline Doctors notoriety) has been extremely hostile to COVID vaccines, masking, or COVID public health interventions in general (which was the reason Governor DeSantis picked him). Politico reported recently that he altered vaccine safety study results to make the vaccines look riskier than they are. In Texas, a recent investigation by KXAN News found that Governor Greg Abbott appointed "top dollar donors" to sit on the state medical board, in addition to people "from telecom, business, real estate and energy sectors, with no obvious patient advocacy or medical experience."/p>

The FSMB noted in its 2022 Annual Report that it was alarmed by the amount of medical misinformation that had surfaced during the pandemic. In 2021, they released a statement warning that doctors’ COVID vaccine misinformation could put their license at risk. They noted that their statement had "major impact" because it got 3.4 million views on Twitter and was picked up by CNN and other major news outlets and mentioned in 1,400 news stories. They held two town halls, which medical board members could attend, as well as a webinar. That all sounds….great. But what about discipline?cease and desist warnings to physicians peddling bogus COVID treatments. One doctor, Jennings Ryan Staley, who was selling COVID "miracle cure" kits, was actually convicted of fraud." rel="footnote"5/p>

A look at the larger issue of physician autonomy reveals that it seems to be upheld in ways that result in patient and public harm. Consider anti-abortion and anti-trans healthcare bills. We’ve seen that these bills make doctors hesitate to give care to patients, which ultimately threatens patients’ lives. The physician's autonomy, and the patient's health, therefore, are placed second to the law. I’ve written about how this is unethical with abortion (it is, too, with gender-affirming care) and how doctors need to take care of their patients according to appropriate standards of care rather than acquiescing to unjust laws.hospitals in rural areas are closing entire services like labor and delivery. Without facilities in which to practice medicine, doctors cannot fulfill their ethical obligations to patients, and there will be regional disparities ("maternity care deserts") in services, which, of course, is completely unacceptable." rel="footnote"6 In the case of medical misinformation, we simply cannot allow a physician's free speech rights to be upheld when their speech is a threat to public health. At some point, the public's health has to be prioritized over a doctor's speech and healthcare bills by bigoted state legislatures./p>

It's past time to reign in these bad physician actors and give them a hefty dose of disciplinary medicine. We need to adequately staff and resource medical boards so that they can do their jobs to discipline doctors whose words (and likely deeds) go against acceptable professional standards, and going forward we ought to consider a national licensing system for doctors.KXAN investigation also found that the Texas Medical Board has allowed doctors with concerning disciplinary histories in other states to obtain licenses to practice medicine in the state." rel="footnote"7 I agree completely with Gorski, who writes the following:/p>

The bottom line is that practicing medicine is a privilege, one of the highest privileges society can grant to any human being. It is not a right. Unfortunately, all too often the law treats it more like a right.after the board had begun its pursuit of her, the board renewed her license, anyway. Doh!" rel="footnote"8 … That needs to change, and that change needs to include stopping physicians from abusing the privilege of their profession to spread disinformation that kills, as too many physicians [have done]./p>