Bob Sears, MD faced down the Medical Board of California (MBC) and has come through with his license to practice fully intact. There was no admission of wrongdoing by Dr. Sears, the case never went to trial and hence there was no hearing.
The end result of an investigation spanning several years yielded a record-keeping issue and Dr. Sears being put on probation. In a recent Facebook post, he explains:
“A child and his mother came to me for help. The mom described how her baby had suffered a moderate to severe neurologic reaction to vaccines almost three years prior, and she was afraid a judge in her upcoming hearing was going to force her to resume vaccines now. Medical records of the reaction were not available yet, and I gave the patient a letter of opinion to show the judge that the reaction was severe enough to justify not doing any more vaccines.”
The lack of sweeping disciplinary action in the case against Dr. Sears ran counter to the continued mainstream media narrative of an anti-vax doctor on trial for his anti-science beliefs. As media outlets beat the drums of an inevitable medical license removal spelling doom for any pediatrician who dare write vaccine medical exemptions in California, an unsensational reality has just came into focus.
You may be wondering, who is Dr. Sears? If you have been reading the reporting of outlets like the Los Angeles Times, Forbes or Jezebel, you may not have a wider, balanced understanding of Dr. Sears or his practice. A California pediatrician for two decades, Dr. Sears has been out-front in promoting a more patient-centered approach to pediatrics appearing on the “Dr. Phil” show, the “Ellen DeGeneres” show, CNN’s “House Calls” with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CBS and PBS among others.
Publicly confronting the conflicting science and inherent risks of a one-size-fits-all vaccine schedule, Dr. Sears has been a vocal, early adopter in respecting parental choice and giving his patients full informed consent. He is the co-author of six books as well as his Amazon Best Seller solo work titled The Vaccine Book – Making the Right Decision for your Child. The Vaccine Book, which aimed to provide parents with a fair and objective look at childhood vaccines, coupled with Dr. Sears’ growing mainstream popularity appeared to be the transition point in which both corporate media and the orthodox medical community began to turn on him.
Despite being on-record admitting vaccines work, Dr. Sears was, and has been continually, labelled anti-vaccine and a quack. His implicit guilt throughout much of the media appears to stem from his offering of an alternative vaccine schedule, for publicly opposing mandatory vaccination and for questioning the conflicting science underpinning the current US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine schedule.
The national mood and discussion about vaccines changed in July of 2016 when California enacted one of the most aggressive mandatory vaccine laws in the nation. Passed in the face of large, sustained public protests against the legislation, California Senate Bill 277 (SB277) was the wake-up call for all American families who thought forced medicine couldn’t happen to their children in this country.
Although Dr. Sears’ MBC case started before SB277 took effect, the media jumped at the opportunity to use his case as an example to create a chilling effect for other pediatricians with concerns about vaccines. Leading the pack was the Los Angeles Times, now owned by a pharmaceutical company billionaire, who targeted Dr. Sears with bias reporting while simultaneously using his ongoing case as a symbolic springboard to float headlines like 2017’s Why hasn’t California cracked down on anti-vaccination doctors?
Often using nebulous groups to insert talking points, writers for the Los Angeles Times used catch-all phrases like ‘experts’ and ‘vaccination advocates.’ For example, 2016 Los Angeles Times articles stated, “Vaccination advocates see the medical board’s action [against Sears] as essential to enforcing a new California law…” and “Public health experts say fears about vaccine safety are rooted in a report linking vaccines to autism…” Such sweeping statements, all too common in media today, only serve to muddy the waters of legitimate debate taking place in public and professional settings. Improper media polarization has also led to the the unfair persecution of parents with appropriate and logical concerns surrounding their child’s vaccinations.
Comprised of physicians, scientists, and attorneys, the advocacy group Physicians for Informed Consent released the following statement in response to Dr. Sears and the current MBC probationary action against him:
Physicians for Informed Consent stands with Dr. Sears. The patient’s mother described two severe vaccine reactions, and Dr. Sears had an ethical obligation to protect the two-year-old child from further harm. It’s not clear why the Medical Board of California disregarded the mother’s statements about the severe vaccine reactions that her child survived as an infant. Too often, patient medical histories get disregarded, and it’s rare to find a physician who listens carefully to the patient. It is even more outstanding to find a pediatrician who not only listens to the patient (or patient’s parents) and acts in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath, but also keeps up-to-date with current vaccine research and is knowledgeable about severe vaccine side-effects.
In the end, after all the suggestive headlines and leading rhetoric, Dr. Sears’ uneventful MBC disciplinary action showed the lengths at which some media outlets will go to provide sustained, unbalanced coverage towards influential people who champion parental choice, extol informed consent and question the incomplete science of pharmaceutical products.
At this stage, the public is no further along in understanding how the MBC feels about vaccine medical exemptions and the California doctors who write them. As it stands now, patient-centered pediatricians appear to have been given encouragement to continue their collaboration with parents while upholding the tenet of informed consent and their oath to do no harm. The green light also signals a continued opening for pediatricians to exert their honest medical judgement while focusing on the care and needs of each individual child.
Note: This article was reprinted with the exclusive authorization of the author, as per his Terms of Use. It was originally published at www.jeffereyjaxen.com. Jefferey Jaxen is an independent journalist, writer, and researcher.
25 Responses
Despite the good doctor’s admission, no, vaccines don’t work – not the way we’re told they work – and the fact alone that he’s on probation for doing what physicians are supposed to do – first do no harm – is onerous.
I agree with Shawn Siegel. Too many questionable ingredients. Too much suppression of information as to whether or not these vaccines have risks. Too much suppression of their safety. A one size fits ALL vaccine schedule is ludicrous. Vaccinating newborns right out of the womb is ludicrous. The amount of vaccines children receive today is ludicrous. The mandate and no right to choose is ludicrous. No vaccines, no public school entrance is ludicrous. Follow the $. This is a MULTI BILLION $ business.
It’s really is a disgrace that in a “FREE” country, the state of CA is forcing healthy children with strong immune systems and no illnesses to be poisoned against parents wishes. No liability to the very profitable drug companies should be very big red flag. How can any parent with child’s best interest truly at heart go along with this nonsense? They are forcing migrating to other states and homeschooling. How is there no civil rights class action suit on its way to the supreme court? Just some thg thoughts…..
Completely agree.This is Nuremberg laws scoffed at! The Geneva Convention and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights spat upon, this the California and the American Constitution, burned and buried. Forced medical experimentation, injection of known toxins into a healthy individual without conformed consent is a bad as it gets.
No, it’s not a ‘disgrace’ and no, they are not being poisoned.
I believe vaccines have done more harm than good but what news outlets are going to print any evidence? The LA times is owned by a pharmaceutical company billionaire who will continue to increase his fortunes at the expense of our children’s and our health. We need reliable institutions to keep testing vaccine safety and reliable sources to keep this discussion going until the truth is exposed. Vaccine safety is not a settled science!
Dr. Sears has never said that vaccines do more harm than good. Nor would any reasonable person. Check your facts. A modified schedule is not saying no to vaccines, it’s using reason and logic to create a care plan that in most cases DOES include vaccines.
Thank you Dr. Sears…for your courage to stand your ground and have a voice for so many that have had their voices taken away by vaccines. If there is a risk, there should ALWAYS be a choice.
I am glad he didn’t loose his license. He practices medicine the way he is supposed to. Do no harm. I wish the California legislature would think about what that really means. To force vaccinations on children by the legislature is practicing medicine without a license. I was vaccine injured as an adult when I enlisted in the military. Other women got sick too after receiving 8 vaccines all at once. I don’t know why they vaccinated me since I wasn’t going out of the country. I had the measles, chicken pox and mumps when I was a kid so I had lifetime immunity. The vaccines only give you 8 to 10 years immunity before you have to get a booster. In my opinion vaccines don’t work.
Amen to all the above comments and to Dr. Sears. I keep wondering when California parents will stand up and say “No”. We’ve seen what happens when large groups speak up…what is a more noble cause than the health of our children? Big Pharma owns too many medical schools, the high priced T.V.. ads only they can afford (for 45 sec.-1 full minute) and being in bed with our legislators is all too much. It has to stop! And now to learn that one of their billionaires bought the L.A. Times. I keep asking how this can be happening in a blue state like CA. Dr. Pan (who wrote SB277) was bought and paid for by the pharmaceutical company who makes vaccines. It’s all legalized bribery! Makes me sad and sick to my stomach. Maybe start by boycotting the L.A. Times???
I for one will NEVER give the L A Times my business. What else do they lie to the public about?
Thanks you Dr. Sears! You are truly an admirable doctor who puts patience health in your heart. Thank you for standing up for our children for protecting them from harm!
God bless Dr. Sears.
That reminds me, I need a couple power tools.
Add to that that those of us that work in the medical field are forced to get vaccines or we are unemployable nurses are getting fired by the thousands because they refused to get annual flu shots. And they State it’s because we are to do no harm to our patients, really I am pretty sure that a lot of the practices that the doctors have such as giving out narcotics willy-nilly, not teaching patients to take care of themselves, but just throwing more drugs on top of drugs on top of drugs, to control things that could be controlled by Lifestyle Changes, is doing a lot of harm. Me not getting my annual flu shot is not going to hurt my patients.
We need to spread the word that Dr. Sears did not lose his license so that other pediatricians will be as brave as he has been. The main stream media will not be nearly as loud in this ruling as they were about the possibility of a doctor losing his licence trying to protect someone choosing not to vaccinate so we must spread the word ourselves.
It’s good to see Dr. Sears prevail. Anyone who wants to challenge vaccine mandates would benefit from studying his example: if you are going to speak out, know your science, stick to the facts, do NOT use inflammatory rhetoric, do NOT lean on emotional appeals and don’t back down. He did a good job.
So thankful for physicians like Dr. Sears who truly stand on their oath to do no harm. May there be others who are not afraid to stand up to pharmaceutical companies for the sake of the patients.
Well, it is good that Dr. Sears has not lost his license (at least not yet), but this ruling does not seem like much of a victory to me. He is being put on a short leave, with his practices under such scrutiny, and his discretion has surely been compromised. One false move and his license will be yanked.
We are told the lie that medical licensing was instituted as a means to protect the public against unqualified or incompetent practitioners, or unproven therapeutics, but a case like this reveals the REAL reason for medical licensing: it is a weapon to wield against innovative and conscientious doctors who try to do better for their patients than the status quo. Medical licensing was, in fact, an early 20th century coup in the U.S. which gave allopathic medicine a legal monopoly. If we want to live in a free society, with open competition in health care and health care that improves and becomes less expensive over time, then we must abandon this practice, and the medical fascism it gives rise to.
Dr. Sears is not the quack. He is not the criminal. The quack is the average pediatrician, who, in a rational world, would be sent to prison for child endangerment, assault, and in some cases, manslaughter.
I am SO relieved to know that this attempted vilification of a good doctor did not succeed! This gives me hope — even in the face of Pinterest removing NVIC’s page and Facebook removing hundreds of pages including Cowspiracy’s.
Fellow citizens — PLEASE WAKE UP FAST before the corporate oligarchy (Read: Democracy in Chains) permanently removes our freedom of speech, right to informed consent and much more and cements their power in our laws.
How do I convince my baby’s mom that is so blind and wants to vaccinate my kid that she is taking a risk with our healthy kid by wanting to vaccinate him.
Travis, you can have her watch the docu-series, “The Truth about Vaccines”. You can get the first episode for free on Youtube. There are 7 Episodes, and they run maybe 2 times a year all Episodes for free. You can at least start her on the first. Also Dr. Suzanne Humphries has videos on Youtube and a book with another author called, “Dissolving Illusions”. Good Luck.
Travis, I would recommend having her watch the documentary VAXXED.
You nutty people. Ah, life in the misinformation ecology.
In total agreement with your sentiment Rachel.