Medical boards threaten action against physicians who spread COVID-19 misinformation

Several medical boards have announced that physicians who engage in “unethical or unprofessional conduct” regarding COVID-19 may be subject to disciplinary action.

The announcement from the ABIM, American Board of Family Medicine and American Board of Pediatrics follows a similar announcement from the Federation of State Medical Boards that “physicians who generate or spread misinformation or disinformation about COVID-19 are risking disciplinary action by state medical boards, including the suspension or revocation of their medical license.”

Richard Baron, MD, president and CEO of ABIM, told Healio Primary Care that the process of taking action against physicians who spread misinformation about COVID-19 will be slow and deliberate.

“We're at the very beginning of this,” he said in an interview. “We have to construct policies and processes that are fair, since it is not entirely clear what is difference of opinion and what is flat out misinformation.”

Recently, The Oregonian and other media outlets reported that an Oregon physician had his license revoked “after he refused to follow COVID-19 guidelines in his office, spread misinformation about masks and overprescribed opioids to his patents.”

There have been additional media reports about health care professionals speaking out against the use of face masks, despite CDC guidance. A Philadelphia newspaper reported that a pediatric nurse practitioner warned of adverse events such as “psychological and physiological harm, even suicide stemming from mandates requiring children to wear protective masks.” MSNBC reported that an Idaho doctor who was recently appointed to the state’s medical board had “falsely claimed there’s statistically no efficacy in masks,” and also promoted ivermectin. According to USA Today, a physician declared during an Indiana school board meeting that “everything being recommended by the [CDC] and state board is actually contrary to all the rules of science."

The mainstream media reports come amid recent CDC data that indicated 45% of the total U.S. population has not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Other data demonstrate that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is common. Baron said that physicians sharing their personal COVID-19 vaccination stories can be a “powerful” influencer on turning vaccine hesitators to acceptors.

The vaccines “have been given to hundreds of millions of people and the number of serious side effects is tiny,” Baron said. “The medical consensus is in favor of vaccination, so we would expect that board-certified doctors would convey that medical consensus.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to retract a statement on physicians spreading false information about COVID-19. The change was made at the suggestion of a reader.

References

CDC. COVID Tracker Weekly Review.https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html. Accessed Sept. 30, 2021.

Federation of State Medical Boards: Spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation may put medical license at risk. https://www.fsmb.org/advocacy/news-releases/fsmb-spreading-covid-19-vaccine-misinformation-may-put-medical-license-at-risk/. Published July 29, 2021. Accessed Sept. 24, 2021.

Forrest, J. Oregon Medical Board revokes license of doctor who bucked COVID guidelines, spread misinformation. https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2021/09/oregon-medical-board-revokes-license-of-doctor-who-bucked-covid-guidelines-spread-misinformation.html. Published Sept. 16, 2021. Accessed Sept. 30, 2021.

Funke D, et al. Fact check: Indiana doctor spreads false information about COVID-19 vaccines. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/08/17/fact-check-dr-dan-stocks-covid-19-vaccine-claims-false/8111971002/. Published Aug. 17, 2021. Accessed Sept. 30, 2021.

Joint statement on dissemination of misinformation. https://www.abim.org/media-center/press-releases/joint-statement-on-dissemination-of-misinformation. Published Sept. 9, 2021. Accessed Sept. 23, 2021.

Jones J. In Idaho, a doctor-turned-conspiracy theorist is in power as the state reels from COVID. https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/idaho-doctor-turned-conspiracy-theorist-power-state-reels-covid-n1279502. Published Sept. 18, 2021. Accessed Sept. 30, 2021.

Laughlin J, Hanna M. These doctors and nurses share COVID-19 falsehoods. They can become misinformation superspreaders. https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/vaccine-mask-covid-misinformation-false-denier-pennsylvania-new-jersey-20210912.html. Published Sept. 12, 2021. Accessed Sept. 30, 2021.