If a person stands on a street corner handing out pamphlets falsely claiming that some individual, let's say a public figure, is a child molester, I understand the libel and liability. If, instead, that person handed out pamphlets saying that the Pfizer vaccine was experimental "gene therapy" that will result in "infertility," what happens then? I ask because the second seems closer to the liability you allege than cases of libel.

In practical terms, the effect of this bill would be the government flagging "misinformation," the social media companies rushing to take it down (and likely being proactive to take down "misinformation"), and then the person or group allegedly wronged by the take-down having to fight it all out in court. The first amendment is fundamentally about protecting political speech. Curbing speech because of "public health emergencies" is — I will assert — a sly attempt at getting around that. What we're talking about is political speech by another name. Isn't this the "chilling effect" we hear so much about?