Maine Boards of Medical Licensure: EXPOSED – Part I

By: Ronda Snyder

This is Part I of a 3-part series detailing the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine’s actions against Maine doctors. You will be shocked and dismayed to learn about the sway one such member on the Osteopathic Licensing Board has over other members and his seeming bias and lack of impartiality with regard to the case against Dr. Paul Gosselin; the Licensing Board’s authority to subpoena medical records of patients not involved in a complaint against a medical professional; and how much power and authority non-governmental organizations having in driving state action against individuals based on ill-defined terms such as “misinformation.”

There are two medical licensing boards in Maine. One is for those with an MD degree and the other board oversees those with a DO degree (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine). Both boards in Maine are targeting doctors in Maine who successfully treated Covid patients with early treatment protocols and who wrote medical exemptions for the Covid vaccine for healthcare employees.

Medical Licensing Boards in Maine oversee the medical licenses of medical doctors and osteopathic doctors and have seats for Public Members on the Board. One would think the role of a public member is to provide transparency and offer an unbiased voice to disciplinary or other administrative proceedings.

The members of the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine are appointed by the Governor. The mission statement includes “provide the public a forum to have complaints heard and impartially investigated (emphasis added).

Maine Journal News wrote an article on December 6, 2021, entitled “Define ‘Misinformation'” in response to the Osteopathic Medical Licensing Board’s suspension of Dr. Paul Gosselin’s medical license on November 18, 2021. In that article, (click HERE), we noted that Peter Michaud, is an attorney and registered nurse, and former General Counsel for the Maine Medical Association. He is also a “Public Member” of the Osteopathic Doctors Licensing Board. However, Michaud is not a random member of the public. He is part of the establishment. He is well connected within the state and medical community. In fact, Michaud, was instrumental in writing, supporting and working to get LD 798 passed by the Maine Legislature in 2019. LD 798 removed religious and philosophical exemptions to required school and health care vaccine requirements and was the start of the slippery slope we are on today with regard to vaccine mandates in Maine.

In the video below, Michaud downplays his role in writing LD 798 saying he “My authorship was pretty simple. XYZ is repealed…” Repealing “XYZ” from the existing law wasn’t “simple” because it was THE focal point and purpose of LD 798 which removed religious and philosophical exemptions from the existing vaccine law.

Dr. Gosselin’s legal team of Attorneys Ron Jenkins and David Bauer filed a Motion for Recusal of Peter P. Michaud on March 2, 2022. Set forth below are examples of instances of bias or lack of impartiality identified by Gosselin’s attorneys with regard to Peter Michaud in its Motion for Recusal:

From the start, it appears Michaud had his mind made up about Dr. Gosselin and rather waiting for an investigation (we’ll get into some of the steps the board has taken in its investigation of Dr. Gosselin in Part II of this series) he wanted to take action immediately without a hearing.

Lisa Wilson is an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Maine and the board’s legal advisor. She gave her opinion regarding an immediate suspension of Dr. Gosselin’s medical license stating, “I did talk with some of my colleagues in the office about whether this would be a candidate for immediate suspension…we don’t think it meets that threshold.”

Despite AAG Wilson legal opinion that the threshold wasn’t met for an immediate suspension, Michaud continued a push for his desired outcome which was an immediate suspension.

Even when two board members agreed with AAG Wilson, Michaud persisted.

Once more AAG Wilson attempted to dissuade Michaud but then seemed to give in to his continued pressure for his desired outcome of the November 18, 2021 hearing.

One of the complaints against Gosselin was his issuance of medical exemption letters for the Covid vaccine to healthcare workers. In his testimony in support of LD 798 on March 13, 2019, Michaud speaks about medical exemptions and states: “The practice of school nurses has been to accept a physician’s written statement that immunization against one or more the diseases may be medically inadvisable. That’s the language of that statute. It’s the language of the rule…physicians may write simply ‘in my medical opinion child X should not be immunized for disease Y or for any diseases because it is medically inadvisable.'” (Emphasis added).

The Michaud who testified at a committee hearing in March 2019 told us that physicians may simply write “in my medical opinion child X should not be immunized for Y because it is medically inadvisable.” The Michaud who was determined to immediately suspend a doctor’s license for writing medical exemption letters for the Covid vaccine is now telling us that a doctor’s opinion that a vaccine is medically inadvisable is no longer valid and if one has that opinion, they will be subject to proceedings by the licensing board.

What’s the difference between a medical exemption for school vaccines and a medical exemption for Covid vaccines? One could reasonably argue there is no difference and Michaud’s double speak makes no rational sense.

The Motion for Recusal goes on to state more about Michaud’s background and his role in removing the religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccine requirements in Maine. The vaccine exemptions which were repealed in the bill authored by Michaud (LD 798) could have been used by the healthcare workers to keep their jobs. Michaud was adamantly against allowing any exemptions to vaccines except for a medical exemption.

Those who were against LD 798 collected signatures to place a referendum on the ballot so the Maine voters could on this important legislation. Unfortunately, the Secretary of State scheduled this referendum question during a democratic primary so many independent and republican voters did not turn out to vote on this issue. As such, Mainers are stuck with draconian legislation…for now.

The Motion for Recusal goes on to list examples of 11 social media posts which clearly show Michaud’s personal bias regarding vaccines. Set forth below are several examples of Michaud’s social media posts:

• A scare tactic post about Iron Lungs and urging folks to vote NO on Question 1;
• A retweet from MMA urging folks to vote NO on 1 with “Stop the anti-science, anti-public-health referendum. Protect Maine children, vote “No” on Question 1!”;
• A retweet saying, “The people’s veto to nix the vaccine bill could end lives. Voting “yes” won’t stick it to big pharma. It will put you at risk from dangerous diseases. We dipped below herd immunity status; we can’t afford exceptions. Vote NO on 1”;
• A retweet which says, “Prominent scientist @PeterHotez wants to lead a campaign against antivaxxers: For the first time since their movement began 20 years ago, children are dying or in ICUs because of anti-vaxxers. Time to speak up far more forcefully in praise of vaccines” (emphasis added).
• A scare tactic post about Iron Lungs and urging folks to vote NO on Question 1;
• A retweet from MMA urging folks to vote NO on 1 with “Stop the anti-science, anti-public-health referendum. Protect Maine children, vote “No” on Question 1!”;
• A retweet saying, “The people’s veto to nix the vaccine bill could end lives. Voting “yes” won’t stick it to big pharma. It will put you at risk from dangerous diseases. We dipped below herd immunity status; we can’t afford exceptions. Vote NO on 1”;
• A retweet which says, “Prominent scientist @PeterHotez wants to lead a campaign against antivaxxers: For the first time since their movement began 20 years ago, children are dying or in ICUs because of anti-vaxxers. Time to speak up far more forcefully in praise of vaccines” (emphasis added).
• On July 24, 2020, Mr. Michaud shared on his Facebook page an article from TheGuardian.com entitled “Boris Johnson says ‘anti-vaxxers are nuts’” (emphasis added).

Finally, the Motion for Recusal notes Michaud’s role as General Counsel for Maine Medical Association (MMA). The Motion points out that pharmaceutical companies are, in fact, listed as corporate affiliates of the MMA.

To summarize, the Governor appoints “Public Members” to Board of Medical Licensure. One would presume that these public members would have a general knowledge of medicine and be there to provide a voice for patients and the general public on the board.

One would NOT presume that a Public Member would be a member of the establishment with extensive ties within the medical community who appears to have a clear-cut agenda as we have clearly seen from Michaud’s actions at the November 18, 20201 board meeting. One would NOT presume that a Public Member would have such sway over the legal counsel and other members of the board made up of doctors, nurses, PA’s, etc. which Public Member repeatedly ignored AAG Wilson’s legal opinion and pushed for a desired outcome with regard to Dr. Gosselin’s medical license. However, based on the Motion for Recusal filed by Gosselin’s attorneys, we can see these presumptions were incorrect.

The actions taken by the board against Dr. Gosselin were because of complaints, not complaints by patients, but complaints by people who disagreed with Gosselin’s medical opinion on treatment of Covid 19 and his medical opinion that the Covid 19 vaccine was medically inadvisable for some. You’ll recall Michaud’s testimony in committee regarding the bill he authored, LD 798, where Michaud clearly states: “physicians may simply write ‘in my medical opinion child X should not be immunized for Y because it is medically inadvisable.'” What changed? Why is Dr. Gosselin (and others) being vilified for holding a different medical opinion regarding treatment? Why is a doctor’s medical opinion regarding the medical inadvisability of the Covid 19 vaccine suddenly grounds for suspension of a license? Could it be that Michaud and his allies, particularly those in Maine Families for Vaccines (of which Michaud was a member) who worked tirelessly to remove the religious and philosophical exemptions really don’t want doctors to write any exemptions to vaccines?

The final question is will Michaud recuse himself from the proceedings against Dr. Gosselin or will hubris not allow him to do so? We reached out to the board and left a message for Michaud regarding the Motion for Recusal and were told by the board secretary that “board members are prohibited from commenting on matters before the board.”

Stay tuned for Part II of this series where we dive into tactics used by the board to investigate doctors related to Covid treatment and their opinions thereon.

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