Old-School Censorship Only Makes the ‘Misinformation Crisis’ Worse
These early months of 2023 have been a busy time for sputtered protests and crows of vindication in longstanding COVID debates.
New federal support emerged for the lab leak theory of the pandemic’s origin. A major research analysis cast serious doubt on the efficacy of mandating mask use among the general public. And a Lancet study reported that natural immunity is as good or better than completing a two-shot vaccine schedule.
Meanwhile, in California, a federal judge in January blocked enforcement of a new law, A.B. 2098, which would allow the state’s medical board to punish doctors—to the point of taking away their medical licenses—for “the dissemination of misinformation or disinformation” about COVID-19 in conversations with patients.