Florida Surgeon General declares single positive COVID test proves immunity forever
Florida's Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, continues to defy scientific consensus with new rules declaring a single positive COVID test proves one has "natural immunity" forever. This is but one example of recently enacted laws and similar efforts gutting public health protections in Florida, thanks to Ladapo and his boss, Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Tennessee hamstrings medical board fight against COVID misinformation and unproven treatments
A new Tennessee law hampers the state medical board's efforts to rein in COVID misinformation and will make disciplining physicians prescribing unproven COVID treatments impossible until the board goes through cumbersome rule-making procedures, an effort that could outlast the pandemic.
Quack Protection Acts advance in state legislatures
Proposed laws in Wisconsin and Massachusetts would protect quacks who defraud patients with useless, and sometimes dangerous, nostrums, by essentially allowing them to practice medicine without a license. These Quack Protection Acts should not pass.
The “Natural Immunity is Real Act”: Real or an act?
Republican legislators have proposed a law requiring federal agencies to acknowledge, accept, truthfully present and incorporate "consideration of natural immunity" in their COVID regulations. It's just political theatrics based on a flawed understanding of infection-induced "natural" immunity.
Too many lab tests still escape FDA review, threatening patient safety
Even as the lab testing market grows, too many tests escape FDA review based on a meaningless categorization that has nothing to do with patient safety. Congress should pass the VALID Act of 2021, allowing the FDA to adequately regulate direct-to-consumer and other lab tests with the potential to harm the public.
Legislative Alchemy: Naturopathic licensing bill now before Wisconsin Senate Committee
Naturopaths are pushing for licensing in Wisconsin with a bill allowing them to practice as primary care doctors, prescribe drugs, and employ quack diagnostic testing and remedies. A powerful regulatory board controlled by naturopaths could expand their scope of practice at will.
Anti-vaccination ideology and COVID misinformation in chiropractic continuing education courses: “Plandemic” edition
Chiropractors can still get state-approved continuing ed credit for anti-vaccination courses, with bonus COVID misinformation now added to the curriculum. Plandemic star Judy Mikovits joins the faculty.
Dr. Joseph Ladapo of “America’s Frontline Doctors” is now in charge of public health in Florida
Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a member of the fringe medical group "American's Frontline Doctors" and signer of the widely criticized Great Barrington Declaration, is Florida's new Surgeon General, appointed because he agrees with the dubious COVID-19 policies of Gov. DeSantis and, like the Governor, allows ideology to trump science.
Courts should not order hospitals and physicians to administer ivermectin against their will
Courts in several states have ordered hospitals to administer ivermectin to COVID patients against the medical judgment of treating physicians. Patients have no legal right to a particular treatment and health care providers should not be forced to administer this drug.
School mask mandate wars: Politics (Florida) v. Science (North Carolina)
Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, dictated a state-wide ban on school mask mandates based on misinformation and pure politics, while North Carolina officials took a bipartisan approach to masking based on science.