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Tennessee Medical Board Removes COVID Misinformation Warning After GOP Pressure

Fearing reprisals from powerful conservatives, the medical board removed any reference to a new policy to revoke the licenses of doctors pushing COVID conspiracies.

The medical licensing board of Tennessee has voted to remove any reference to a new policy warning against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation from its website, essentially buckling under pressure from a conservative Republican who opposed it. The policy, which holds that doctors who knowingly spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines can be suspended or have their licenses revoked, has not been rescinded, but any information about it has been scrubbed from public view. The decision came after Rep. John Ragan of Oak Ridge, who is on the Tennessee Joint Government Operations Committee, said board members did not have authority to discipline individual doctors. The Tennessean reports that the board removed reference to the policy out of fear Ragan might make good on a threat to replace board members if they did not.