Category: Politics and Regulation

Good faith doctoring or greedy drug dealing? SCOTUS hears opioid prescribing cases
Physicians running opioid "pill mills" were convicted of violating the Controlled Substances Act and given substantial prison sentences. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether they were entitled to a "good faith" defense at trial.

Dr. Vinay Prasad: “Public Health’s (Mis)Truth Problem”
Dr. Vinay Prasad continues to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the government response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

FTC targets physicians’ COVID claims with cease-and-desist letters
The FTC recently announced it had issued 20 more cease-and-desist demands to physicians and others claiming their products and services prevent or treat COVID-19 without sufficient scientific backing. Unfortunately, this has not stopped many of the targets from making other bogus health claims.

State legislators dispense with standard of care for COVID treatment and encourage medical misinformation
State legislatures are considering bills that protect doctors and other health care providers from being held accountable for using unproven COVID-19 treatments and spreading medical misinformation.

Vitamins are not for vaping
Vaping vitamins is a bad idea.

Why are physicians threatened by efforts to report doctors to their state medical board for COVID-19 misinformation?
It's not "cancel culture" to delicense physicians promoting dangerous misinformation about COVID-19. It's quality control. Why do so many physicians think it is?

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.