Doctor Deception: AMA Takes Aim Against Physician Disinformation -- Good!!

Doctor Deception: AMA Takes Aim Against Physician Disinformation

The American Medical Association (AMA) this week enacted a new policy designed to combat public health disinformation at the annual meeting of its House of Delegates.

The policy focuses on healthcare professionals who spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and promote unproven treatments for the disease. But it has wider implications for other public health issues, as well. Some components of the policy could be brought to bear against the licensing and board certification of physicians who participate in this kind of disinformation.

According to an AMA statement, the new policy "provides a comprehensive strategy aimed at stopping the spread of disinformation and protecting the health of the public, including actions that can be taken by the AMA, social medial companies, publishers, state licensing bodies, credentialing boards, state and specialty health professional societies, and by those who accredit continuing education."

In a news release, AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, MD, stated, "Physicians are a trusted source of information for patients and the public alike, but the spread of disinformation by a few has implications for the entire profession and causes harm. Physicians have an ethical and professional responsibility to share truthful information, correct misleading and inaccurate information, and direct people to reliable sources of health information."

While it’s a bit late in the course of the pandemic to confront this problem, Harmon added, "we can act now to help prevent the spread of disinformation in the future."

Physicians Who Push Disinformation

In an investigative report published last October, CNN found that a number of physicians around the country were contributing to public distrust of the COVID-19 vaccines. Among those cited was Christiane Northrup, MD, whose Facebook page has 558,000 followers. According to CNN, Northrup used her Facebook page to direct followers to Telegram, another social media site that traffics in anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Rashid Buttar, MD, has also shared lots of outrageous claims and misleading statements about the pandemic on his website, CNN said. Among these statements: most people who have taken the vaccine will be dead by 2025, and this is part of a plan to depopulate the United States. He also said, per CNN, that more people are dying from the COVID vaccines than from COVID itself.

Similarly, the report pointed out, Simone Gold, MD, JD, a former ER physician who pled guilty to entering the US Capitol building during the January 6 riot, has referred to the COVID vaccines as an "experimental biological agent whose harms are well-documented."