In JAMA Health Forum, Stanford law professor Michelle Mello asked, “If officials may ban false advertising to prevent people from ingesting unsafe, unproven treatments, why can they not also ban false statements to prevent people from forgoing safe, proven vaccines?” Mello cited statistics claiming that misinformation has resulted in “an estimated 1200 excess hospitalizations and 300 deaths per day,” and she proposed legal penalties for “reckless” dissemination of misinformation “that materially influences people’s vaccination decisions.”

Similarly, Stanford professor Melloacknowledged “there is a risk of suppressing speech that ultimately proves to be truthful, and of chilling discourse by making people worry about whether they can back up their claims.”