Several new laws, mainly from GOP legislators, are making it difficult for medical boards to punish doctors that may be giving misinformation surrounding COVID-19 and vaccines.
Republican politicians have threatened to disband the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners after it decided to adopt a statement that would discipline doctors for spreading COVID misinformation.
The statement was put in place unanimously in September and done so under the guidance of the Federation of State Medical Boards, which has helped numerous other medical boards post the same language.
Under the statement, if doctors were spreading COVID-19 misinformation, their medical licenses and ability to practice medicine would have been threatened.
It also said that doctors giving inaccurate information about COVID vaccines "threatens to further erode public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk."
The vice president of the Tennessee Medical Board, Dr. Stephen Loyd, shared at the time the statement was passed that he was glad the actions were being taken, NPR reported.
"If you're spreading this willful misinformation, for me, it's going to be really hard to do anything other than put you on probation or take your license for a year," Dr. Loyd said to NPR. "There has to be a message sent for this. It's not OK."
However, the board was not able to discipline any Tennessee physicians because of the growing tension between conservative lawmakers in the state and the medical board. Lawmakers went as far as to threaten possibly disbanding the board.
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Now legislation in at least 14 states is being introduced by Republicans and would restrict the authority that medical boards have to discipline doctors for their advice on COVID.
The Federation of State Medical Boards CEO Dr. Humayun Chaudhry shared with NPR that the recent backlash from legislators is "an unwelcome trend," and in Tennessee, it is making the job of the medical board harder.
One bill signed by Gov. Bill Lee addressed the statement and has made it more difficult for the panel to look into complaints about what advice or treatments doctors are recommending for COVID-19.
In Florida, a Republican-sponsored law is going through the state's legislature. It will look to ban a medical board's ability to revoke a medical license because of what they say unless "direct physical harm" is caused to a patient.
Upon the request of a Tennessee state Senator, the Tennessee panel decided to remove its misinformation statement from its website to not be called into a legislative hearing.
During the time, the board was looking into nearly 30 open complaints related to COVID, and as of February, no physician had faced disciplinary action.
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