For doctors like Eileen Barrett, a pending Supreme Court case challenging the government’s ability to communicate with social media companies isn’t principally a fight about the fraught politics of online speech. Instead, they say, it’s a matter of life and death.
“I have seen countless statements that are at best problematic and at worst flat-out disinformation that I’m terribly fearful are causing harm to patients,” said Barrett, who chairs the board of regents of the American College of Physicians. “We’ve all taken care of somebody who has died from the flu. And now we’ve all taken care of people who have died from Covid.”
Biden administration officials have for years persuaded social
