COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Many Republican lawmakers have criticized governors’ emergency restrictions since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. With most of the legislature back in session, a new type of pushback is taking root: misinformation.
In their own comments or by inviting skeptics to testify at legislative hearings, some GOP state lawmakers are using their platform to divulge false information about the virus, the steps needed to limit its spread, and the vaccines that the nation out of the pandemic.
In some cases, the inaccuracies faced rapid backlash and were even censored online. That has raised tricky questions about how aggressively to combat potentially dangerous misinformation from elected officials or at legislative hearings, while protecting freedom of expression and people’s access to government.
Last week YouTube pulled a video of the commission’s testimony at the Ohio House after a witness falsely claimed that COVID-19 did not kill children. The platform said the video violated community standards against the spread of misinformation.
Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology project, said YouTube went too far.
“When we talk about testimony that took place at a public hearing, the much better response would be contradiction, perhaps in the form of fact-checking or labeling, rather than this attempt to flush it down the memory hole,” Wizner said.
But votes against are not always allowed in committee hearings.
In Michigan, for example, the House Oversight Committee did not include state health officials or other virus experts in a discussion of an extended pause in youth contact at the behest of the Democratic Gretchen Whitmer government.
It featured Jayme McElvany, a virus skeptic who has also posted about the QAnon conspiracy and former President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations about election fraud. Founder of a group called Let Them Play, McElvany questioned the mask mandates and the science behind the COVID-19 data in a legislative hearing without witnesses from the other side.
Wizner said such imbalances should be emphasized, not suppressed.
“People need to know that this is what passes for the local government,” he said. When the hearings are posted online, YouTube owner Google will have plenty of tools to flag questionable information and lead people to facts, Wizner said.
In Tennessee, a Republican lawmaker is pushing for legislation that would prohibit most government agencies from requiring anyone to receive COVID-19 vaccines, which is nowhere mandated. Representative Bud Hulsey has been trying to build support to downplay the severity of the disease.
As he testified, he ticked off selective statistics that COVID-19 has a lower childhood mortality rate and falsely claimed the vaccines could cause genetic modifications.
Hulsey faced backlash from a fellow Republican, Rep. Sabi Kumar, a surgeon who has been a rare GOP advocate for wearing a mask properly while lawmakers gather at the Tennessee Capitol.
“The concern I have is that (the bill) creates an anti-vaccination stance,” Kumar said.
Kumar pointed out that vaccines have saved countless lives over the centuries and has repeatedly fact-checked Hulsey by emphasizing that the vaccines do not alter a person’s DNA.
Hulsey was not convinced.
“People all over the country have seen governments do things that have never happened in the history of the United States, and it scares them,” he said. “They have every right to be afraid.”
His bill has come from a subcommittee of the house.
In Alaska, Governor Mike Dunleavy is fighting what he called a pattern of misrepresentation by Senator Lora Reinbold, a fellow Republican, who said he would no longer send members of his government to her Senate committee.
In a damning February 18 letter referencing her Facebook posts, Dunleavy accused Reinbold of misrepresenting the state’s COVID-19 response and misleading the public.
“The misinformation must end,” the governor wrote.
Reinbold was an outspoken critic of Dunleavy, making disaster statements while the legislature was not in session. She has used her committee to bolster the voices of those who question the effectiveness of masks and the effects of government emergency aid.
On social media, she characterized the Dunleavy government as “wild” about “these experimental” vaccines. During a hearing in early February, Reinbold wondered to what extent the administration had suspended regulations during the pandemic.
“It’s almost like martial law,” she said.
The governor said that while he has tried to relax rules for businesses, such as suspending fees, he never imposed martial law or forced Alaskans to receive vaccines. Reinbold has called the governor’s criticism of her unfounded.
“Some call ‘misinformation’ information that they disagree with or don’t want to hear,” Reinbold said by email.
The cleanup prompted the intervention of the Senate president, who said he expected his committees to provide a “balanced approach.”
In Idaho, Rep. Heather Scott entered the legislative session in January by declaring, “The pandemic is over.” She said the more than 1,600 COVID-19 deaths in Idaho at the time were “nowhere near a pandemic.”
The average number of daily COVID-19 cases is declining in Idaho, but the death toll has risen.
During a live Zoom forum with voters in mid-February, Scott criticized the National Governors Association, which issued a statement last year with tips to combat misinformation about the virus. She claimed the group is led by “globalists” at the World Economic Forum and that “they are the ones who came out with COVID.” The term “globalists” is widely regarded as an anti-Semitic slur.
Scott did not immediately respond to a message asking for clarification as to what she meant.
Several of those spreading fake virus information in the legislature have also backed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
In Virginia, Republican Del. Dave LaRock, who attended the Trump rally in Washington, DC, which preceded the attack on the Capitol, a State House Health Committee warned in late January that COVID-19 vaccines could not be trusted. He said they were especially risky for various communities, including the elderly and people of color.
The Democratic Del. Cia Price, who is black, called LaRock’s false claims “downright dangerous.”
“There is legitimate hesitation about vaccines in the communities Mr mentioned, but factual and factual information is essential, not fueling the flames based on historical events,” she said.
Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska. Associated Press authors David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia; and Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.