Medical Licenses Are at Risk for Those Spreading Misinformation About the Covid-19 Vaccine

The Board of Directors of The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), the US counterpart of the Turkish Medical Association, regarding misinformation shared on social media by doctors and other healthcare professionals about COVID-19 vaccines, issued the following statement in response to the dramatic increase in its spread:

"Doctors who produce and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation risk disciplinary action by state medical boards, including suspension or revocation of their medical licenses. Through their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians enjoy a high level of public trust. They also have an ethical and professional responsibility to practice medicine in their patients' best interests and should share factual, scientifically based and consensus-based information to improve public health. Spreading false COVID-19 vaccine information conflicts with this responsibility, further erodes public trust in the medical profession and puts all patients at risk."

How Many Lives Have False and Distorted Information Cost in 1.5 Years?

Failure to understand this new coronavirus and the pandemic it caused, along with misinformation spread intentionally or unintentionally, is estimated to have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths so far.

These fatal errors have cost lives not only in the United States but in almost every country worldwide.

Fatal Errors

• The world's first mistake was to assume that the outbreak would remain confined to China.
• Some developed countries subsequently said they were prepared for the outbreak. Then-US President Donald Trump said on March 14, 2020: "The virus will not have a chance against us, no nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States." (The virus will not have a chance against us; no country is more prepared or more resilient than the United States.) Nevertheless, as of August 5, 2021, ADB had the highest death toll worldwide, with 630 thousand deaths.
• Similar fallacies occurred in Turkey. Some doctors in Turkey made the mistake of claiming that the population was genetically resistant to coronavirus. Others claimed that various foods or vitamin supplements could protect against the virus; we now see that these were all serious mistakes. Instead of masks, distancing and especially vaccination, relying on other protective measures is still taking its toll.
• "There is no need to panic; flu is worse" was a claim whose inaccuracy took only a few months to understand. While flu is now barely mentioned, hundreds of thousands of new people are affected by Covid-19 every day in the middle of summer.
• Early debates that masks were not protective have now evolved into "wear 2 masks if possible".
• The mistaken belief that young people and children were not at risk from this disease also quickly took its place on the misinformation shelf.
• In March 2020, spread from people without symptoms was thought to be rare; by March 2021, it was understood that at least 40% of transmission occurred through people carrying the disease without symptoms.

The Cost of Vaccine Hesitancy

According to a research study, vaccine "low", "medium" and "high" hesitancy scenarios were modeled and compared with an "ideal scenario" in which 98% of people aged 15 and above were vaccinated.

Compared with the ideal model, Covid-19 deaths within 2 years were:

• Approximately 30% higher in a low-hesitancy country such as the United Kingdom
• 350% higher in a country with medium hesitancy such as Germany, and
• 770% higher in a high-hesitancy country such as France.

Conclusion

The Covid-19 Pandemic is not slowing despite the summer; 2 factors are particularly influential:

1. The much more contagious Delta variant
2. Vaccine hesitancy

BioNTech and other mRNA vaccines were recently shown to provide protection of up to 88% against the Delta variant. Thus, the greatest obstacle to ending the pandemic is misinformation, sometimes spread by healthcare professionals as we now see...

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About The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB)

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB = Federation of State Medical Boards) is a national nonprofit organization representing medical boards and healthcare professionals in the United States and its territories, licensing and disciplining allopathic and osteopathic doctors, and representing other medical boards in some jurisdictions. FSMB serves as the voice of state medical boards through education, assessment, research and advocacy, offering services and initiatives promoting patient safety, quality healthcare and regulatory best practices. Its public service includes a free physician search tool providing background information about more than 1 million doctors in the United States: docinfo.org.

RELATED TOPICS

• Covid-19: Current World and Turkey Statistics
• Latest News and Scientific Developments About Coronavirus

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