Yahoo Finance: Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani discusses a new California bill that could revoke medical licensing for doctors that spread COVID-19 misinformation.
AKIKO FUJITA: California lawmakers are looking to tackle medical misinformation head on. The state legislature approved a bill that could punish doctors for spreading false claims about COVID-19. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani here with the details. And Anjalee, I guess, the question here with California is what broader implications are there beyond this state?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well, we know that other states could follow suit. California would be the first. And I want to make sure that we understand that misinformation and disinformation are in fact two separate concepts. And that’s really important to understand.
So misinformation is actually the spread of information that goes against what scientific data tells us. And you can see that definition, according to the legislation, on your screen there.
And then disinformation is really propagated by anyone intentionally trying to spread that misinformation. So they’re used interchangeably, you know, often but they do mean two very specific things. And that’s important, because this could affect the medical licenses of these health individuals if they are caught spreading that misinformation and being proponents of that disinformation.
And that’s where the law really comes down on health officials. Right now, you’ve seen, of course, like Twitter discourse and other social media discourse, where these health officials or experts are able to freely tout their opinion or speak about what the information they feel is the best.
We know that was the best example of that is the hydroxychloroquine debate, right? We saw so much, literally a circus around that. And so this really would help put an end to that, especially if we’re going into an era of more focus on public health outbreaks and messaging, and the potential damage that comes from that.
BRIAN CHEUNG: Just underscoring the amount of noise that’s out there. Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani, thanks so much.
Our Comment:
California continues the transformation of the lamb-like beast into a dragon.
Prophetic Link:
“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.” Revelation 13:11.