Attorneys for two doctors have filed a federal lawsuit against the Medical Board of California and state Attorney General Rob Bonta over a freshly signed law that aims to punish physicians for spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation” related to COVID-19.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Dr. Jeff Barke and Dr. Mark McDonald in the Central California U.S. District Court on Oct. 4, just days after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2098 (AB 2098) into law, asks the court to declare the new law unconstitutional and seeks a preliminary injunction to prevent it from being enforced.
The statute defines misinformation as “false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care,” and disinformation as “misinformation that is deliberately disseminated with malicious intent or an intent to mislead.” In his signing message, Newsom said he was concerned similar laws could have a “chilling effect” on doctors, but was confident AB 2098 is narrow enough to apply only to “those egregious instances” where physicians are acting with malicious intent “or clearly deviating from the required standards of care.”