The government wants to fire inconvenient physicians who do not accept the health dictatorship. The false narrative stems from a bill that provides for the sanctioning of those physicians who are conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, and promote so-called "natural," pseudo-scientific treatments.
NEWS: MEDICAL ALERT! Dr. Anca Nițulescu: PSD, USR, PNL, AND UDMR SENATORS ARE CONSOLIDATING THEIR ABSOLUTE POWER IN THE MEDICAL FIELD! THEY HAVE VOTED ON A BILL THAT PROHIBITS PHYSICIANS WITH INCONVENIENT MEDICAL OPINIONS FROM PRACTICING THEIR PROFESSION.
THE BILL WILL BE DEBATED IN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.
WE ARE ALERTING DEPUTIES TO THE ABUSIVE NATURE OF THIS BILL AND ASKING THEM TO VOTE AGAINST IT!
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IF THIS BILL IS PASSED, IT WILL SET AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS PRECEDENT, WHERE ANY MEDICAL ISSUE WITH SOCIAL IMPACT COULD BE DECIDED BY DICTATORIAL POLITICAL DECISIONS.
Any social and medical debate on sensitive issues may be banned. The argument will be made that physicians who oppose the political will of the moment are in fact spreading "false information or information contrary to recognized scientific evidence." Under threat of losing their right to practice, doctors will no longer dare to speak out, defend medical truth, and, sadly, will no longer have the courage to defend their patients.
IF PASSED, THIS BILL WILL DESTROY THE DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP
Patients will know that their doctors no longer dare to defend their interests and will probably turn to so-called "conspiracy" theories for information and solutions. As a result, the vaccination rate, which is a concern for the initiators of the bill, will decline even further.
NARRATIVES: 1. Physicians with inconvenient medical opinions will be excluded from the system, and medical debates will no longer be allowed. 2. "Censoring" physicians will lead to lower vaccination rates and push patients toward alternative medicine.
Reality: The law targets physicians who spread disinformation and pseudo-medical theories
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The two amendments introduced by the new bill do not target the crime of opinion in the basic sense of the term (administrative or criminal penalties for expressing an opinion, ed.), but aim to combat disinformation and pseudoscience in the medical field in order to protect patients' health.
Both amendments explicitly and firmly highlight the problem of anti-vaccination messages publicly conveyed by certain physicians, as well as the problem of medical treatments that are not scientifically supported. Below are the excerpts that supplement and amend the original law, with the new additions highlighted in bold:
1. "Art. 450.- (1) Physicians shall be held disciplinarily liable for failure to comply with the laws and regulations governing the medical profession, the Code of Medical Ethics and the rules of good professional conduct, the Statute of the Romanian College of Physicians, for failure to comply with the binding decisions adopted by the governing bodies of the RCP, for disseminating in the public sphere, by any means, false information or information contrary to nationally and internationally recognized scientific evidence, which may endanger public health, as well as for any acts committed in connection with the profession that are likely to prejudice the honor and prestige of the profession or of the RCP."
2. "In Article 455, after paragraph (3), a new paragraph, paragraph (4), shall be inserted, with the following content: (4) The dissemination by a physician, in the public sphere, by any means, of false information or information contrary to nationally and internationally recognized scientific evidence, which may endanger public health, shall be punished by a ban on practicing the profession or certain medical activities for a period of one month to one year, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (1)(e), for the first offense, and with the withdrawal of RCP membership, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph (1)(D), for the second offense.
Therefore, the only physicians who could be banned from practicing their profession are those who spread false information or information that contradicts recognized scientific evidence and could endanger patients' health, not those who express their opinions, even if they are "inconvenient," in organized medical debates or in a professional setting.
The initiators of the law justify their decision to amend and supplement the law by the seriousness of misinformation in the medical field.
"Given the seriousness of these consequences and the need to protect public health, specific legislative provisions must be introduced to firmly punish the dissemination of false information by physicians, ensure the speed of disciplinary procedures, and provide for sanctions proportionate to the seriousness of the offense."
The medical community rejects disinformation and pseudoscience and sanctions it through the College of Physicians
The dissemination of completely false and scientifically unproven statements related to the risks of vaccination already constitutes a violation of the Medical Ethics Code of the College of Physicians (Art. 22, para. 11, letter k): "public rejection, except for debates within the medical community, of means of diagnosis, treatment, and prophylaxis recognized by the academic medical scientific community, as well as public recommendation of scientifically unfounded treatments."
Therefore, the claim that the new bill prohibits medical debates is unfounded. The College of Physicians does not prohibit medical debates on treatment plans, protocols, pro/con positions on vaccines, etc., as long as these debates take place in an organized, professional setting.
The Constanța College of Physicians told Veridica, through medical neurologist Adrian Barbu, vice president of the branch, that the measures taken by the authorities and the legislative amendment are not intended to impose reprisals or sanction the freedom of expression of physicians, but that personal opinions cannot be presented by physicians as medical truths:
"However, we would like to remind you that the status of a physician entails a major professional responsibility, based on the trust that society places in the medical profession (...). We draw attention to the risks of presenting unvalidated hypotheses or interpretations as medical certainties. Personal opinions should not be presented as medical truths, especially when they have the potential to influence patients' decisions or alter public perception of medical practice."
Eleonora Gima, a senior cardiologist, explained to Veridica that prohibiting the right to free practice is "an extreme measure, but necessary in cases where a physicians's practice, which is not based on scientific data, would endanger the health and life of the patient":
"If you, as a physician, administer treatments that have no scientific basis, are not permitted by current medical guidelines, and put the patient at risk, you should no longer practice this profession! All professions are well regulated in terms of professional conduct (...). Why, when we talk about doctors who blatantly deviate from scientific truth and practice guidelines (which are mostly international, or with minor differences between them), should they have the right to continue practicing? If you choose to be a quack and not a doctor, you give up/or your right to practice freely is withdrawn."
The anti-vaccine movement and alternative medicine are denounced by physicians and promoted by "influencers" and populist/extremist politicians. Russia, China, and Iran are amplifying disinformation in this area.
The medical community promotes vaccination and rejects pseudoscientific treatments both through national and international representative bodies (e.g., the College of Physicians, the World Health Organization, etc.) and through the voices of the overwhelming majority of physicians practicing this profession.
On the other hand, resistance to vaccination is promoted by individuals with no medical training, who have embraced this conspiracy-driven misinformation and praise the scientifically unproven virtues of so-called alternative treatments. Some of these individuals are what we call "useful idiots," but to a large extent, the misinformation originates from state actors whose goal is to undermine Western populations' trust in their own medical institutions. A European Parliament study found that Russia – and to a lesser extent China and Iran – are behind the health “infodemic” amplifying false narratives about vaccination, cancer treatment, the Ebola virus, and more. US authorities have reached similar conclusions about Russia’s efforts to undermine American population’s in vaccines.
In Romania, Olivia Steer, a public figure with a significant social media presence who promoted conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination sentiments, challenged conventional wisdom and publicly raised the issue with Dr. Mihai Craiu on a PRO TV show with high ratings, asking wether vaccinated people were the ones making unvaccinated people sick.
Teodosie, Archbishop of Tomis, was also one of the most influential anti-vaccine advocates and even violated the rules imposed by his superiors in the Romanian Patriarchate to protect the population. Teodosie organized services with dozens and hundreds of participants who did not wear protective masks, shared communion with the same spoon, and constantly opposed medical restrictions.
The rhetoric of all these figures, as well as many others, was taken up and promoted by representatives of the extremist wing in Romania, which gained a voice and consolidated its position during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the most prominent of these were George Simion and Diana Șoșoacă, who were extremely aggressive towards doctors during that period. Thus, the extremists from AUR and SOS parties were the main beneficiaries of the COVID-19 "plandemic," a term coined by conspiracy theorists that completely trivialized the seriousness of the international medical context.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, reluctance towards medicine and anti-science were amplified by the mystification spread widely by the pro-Russian Călin Georgescu and his wife, Cristela, who took "treatments" for any ailment to a whole new level:
While Cristela Georgescu was promoting miracle oils and skirts as a gateway for beneficial energies to enter women's bodies, her husband, who was about to enter the second round of the presidential elections after a controversial and concerted promotion on social media, was doing PR by swimming in a lake in Austria in winter and promoting the slogan: "Food, Water, Energy," the only things a person needs, he claimed.
In fact, Călin Georgescu was heavily promoted by a network of online accounts and influencers who had built their audience by popularizing natural therapies and disinformation about vaccination ; that network, built up over several years, was linked to Russian funding sources.
Refusal to vaccinate kills. Disinformation, the main reason why Romanians refuse vaccination
CONTEXT: The explanatory memorandum accompanying the bill cites a study by the Save the Children Association, which shows that 77% of measles cases in Europe are reported in Romania, and that the vaccination rate against this highly contagious disease, caused by a virus that spreads very quickly through the air, has been falling dramatically.
Romania was one of the European Union countries most affected by COVID-19 mortality, relative to its population.
3.5 million Romanians were infected with COVID-19 between 2020 and 2023, and nearly 70,000 people died.
In the first year of the pandemic (February-December 2020), approximately 19,000 people died, but mortality exploded in 2021, amid pressure on the healthcare system due to more severe variants of the virus, but also in the context of the revolt against health restrictions and vaccination.
These figures are only those recorded and reported by the authorities, and it is believed that the number of deaths caused by coronavirus infection may be higher in reality.
Most of the patients who died from COVID-19 were unvaccinated, according to data provided daily by the authorities at the time.
In 2021, only 27% of Romanians were vaccinated against COVID, and the avoidable mortality rate was the third highest in the EU, according to State of Health in the EU · Romania · 2021 Country Profile on Health.
The Groșan precedent: a doctor who spread pseudo-medical theories and became a victim of them herself
During the COVID-19 pandemic, which particularly affected patients' lungs and cardiovascular systems, the anti-science and anti-vaccine wave was raised among the medical community by a pulmonologist, Flavia Groșan, who quickly went viral after announcing that she was treating patients infected with coronavirus according to her own treatment plan and urging the population to reject the vaccine.
Groșan has recently died of lung cancer with multiple metastases after writing on Facebook that instead of going to the hospital, she was sitting in an armchair at home, downplaying the symptoms she had been experiencing and publicly reporting for several months.
Flavia Groșan was allowed to continue practicing medicine and was not sanctioned by the College of Physicians for four years, until, at the height of her statements, she went so far as to claim that unvaccinated people could get sick if they had sex with vaccinated people.
The stumbling blocks and lack of transparency of the Romanian and European authorities during the pandemic have generated mistrust in the system
GRAIN OF TRUTH: Romanian and European authorities purchased massive quantities of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, but the lack of transparency surrounding they way these purchases were made generated suspicion, fueling public distrust in the system and giving rise to a series of conspiracy theories. This background was fully exploited by some MEPs (including Cristian Terheș, who arrived in Brussels on the list of the extremist AUR party) who won their case against Ursula von der Leyen regarding the secrecy of the contracts for the purchase of coronavirus vaccines.
Against this backdrop, the European Public Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal investigation targeting the European Commission. The EPPO announced in a press release in May 2024 that on October 14, 2022, following an "exceptionally high number" of reports and complaints, the European Public Prosecutor's Office had begun investigating the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU.
The lack of trust in the Romanian healthcare system has also been caused by a series of major problems and crises in the field—underfunding, cases of corruption and malpractice, scandals such as those related to nosocomial infections that caused the deaths of some of the victims of the Colectiv club fire and Hexipharma. There have been many attempts to cover up serious situations, which has also amplified mistrust.
