The Dr. Sears allegations explained

Two and a half years ago a mother brought her two-year-old son to see Dr. Bob Sears at his office for the first time, where she described to Dr. Sears that her child’s renal and digestive systems went into shock after his first round of vaccines at two months old, and that the baby was limp as a ragdoll for 24 hours after his next round one month later. We don’t know what records she shared with Dr. Sears then or later, but we know that Dr. Sears wrote a letter of exemption from vaccination for the boy. As almost all general practitioner doctor records are, the notes in this case were brief and didn’t include a detailed narrative.

The boy was seen four more times in the next year for severe constipation and severe ear infections, and we all know what that sounds like. At some point the mother brought the child in two weeks after his father allegedly hit his son on the head with a hammer, so I’m guessing either the father is a piece of trash that beats up on a kid, or the mom is a piece of trash who makes up allegations against a spouse she doesn’t like. By my reading of the complaint, Dr. Sears did make a Child Protective Services referral that was closed. Clearly, there was some drama up in these parents’ lives.

Flying in the face of their own testimony on SB 277, on September 2nd the California Medical Board filed an accusation against Dr. Sears regarding this child he’d written a vaccine exemption for. Click that link to download the complaint.

The board’s first allegation wraps up by saying that Dr. Sears screwed up by not getting a history of the vaccines the boy had in the past, as well as the reactions that occurred from those vaccines. We don’t know whether the mother brought in a shot card that wasn’t copied into the Sears file, and we don’t know if her previous doctor refused to document the vaccine reactions, as we all know happens all the time.

The second allegation says that Dr. Sears failed to conduct a neurological test on the boy two weeks after his father allegedly hit him with a hammer, in the incident that CPS closed . Does this mean Dr. Sears failed to see if the kids’ eyes tracked equally? How could they possibly know he didn’t do that?

The third allegation says that Dr. Sears failed to keep accurate medical records. Not just because there wasn’t a copy of the exemption letter on file, but because he didn’t document what exam he performed on the kid two weeks after being hit with a hammer.

People, I invite you right now to request your kids general pediatrician medical records and you will be shocked by what they don’t say. If Dr. Pan is your doctor, pul-eeze do this and report back. The records hardly say anything at all. “Kid fell out of tree. Mother reports no change in behavior.” That’s the kind of riveting notes you’ll read. Dr. Sears is no different.

Before you think I’m the world’s biggest Dr. Sears fanboy rushing to his defense, know that I’m not. I don’t agree with his final recommendations in any version of his vaccine book and I think his book requires a good bit of reading between the lines that most people are not capable of doing. I think he’s said some stupid things (sorry Bob, you’ve shared my writing in the past and I appreciate that, and I do still recommend your book all the time to new parents), like talking about herd immunity as it pertains to the pertussis vaccine, despite the fact that you can’t protect another person from pertussis by vaccinating yourself.

I think he has researched some things very well, like the intravenous limit for aluminum or the fascinating history of the hepatitis B vaccine mandate. On the other hand, he prescribed the sickly toddler in this case both Miralax and Tamiflu at different points in time, which is far more heinous than the accusations against him, considering that Miralax is not approved for children and can worsen autism symptoms, and Tamiflu depresses brain activity, can cause hallucinations, psychosis, and suicidal thoughts, and was banned from being to given kids in Japan in 2007.

That said, Dr. Sears is no “anti-vaxxer.” As far as I know, his own kids are vaccinated. But he’s been putting his career on the line by vocally sticking up for all our kids for the past year and a half as one of the most well known critics of SB 277.

So that’s all they’ve got? That’s the whole charge? A two-year old case of loose record keeping? Clearly this is trumped up bullshit about a kid I’m guessing Dr. Sears could see was on his way to being on the spectrum and he wanted to lessen the severity of that diagnosis.

The Medical Board doesn’t know what testimony the mom gave to Dr. Sears, and they don’t know if Dr. Sears looked up his shot records in the California Immunization Registry. The Medical Board doesn’t know if Dr. Sears thought the hammer incident was fabricated, even though CPS obviously did, not that their opinion means anything. And what’s going on with the parents now? Are they divorced and the dad is going after the mom to vaccinate the boy, as we’ve seen hundreds of times in our circle? We’re supposed to believe that a mother who brought her son in for 5 sick child visits in 13 months waited two weeks for medical care after what the board thinks was a serious head injury? If the kid has got neurological damage now, my money is on it being caused by the vaccines, not the hammer.

Feel free to watch a few key points of the June 9, 2015, SB 277 testimony where several issues were raised over and over again.

At 1:33 Dr. Pan invited families whose doctors will not write exemptions based on sibling reactions to have their physician send a letter to Dr. Pan’s office if they feel there is some pressure or other influence aside from their professional judgment at play. He also says that the Medical Board has never investigated or removed the license of a physician for giving a medical exemption.

At 2:06 Pan says for doctors to use their professional judgment– subject to review by the Medical Board, which he stresses repeatedly has never investigated or removed the license of a physician who writes medical exemptions. He says that the department of health does not review exemptions, which we already know is a lie. He stresses that the CDC contraindications to vaccination are only guidelines, and there is not a requirement that a doctor apply only the CDC guidelines.

At 2:14 Dr. Jay Gordon makes it clear that doctors would be way out of line from the CDC’s guidelines if they wrote these exemptions under the protection of SB 277.

At 2:36 an Assemblyperson asks if there have been any physicians in California disciplined or even investigated for providing a medical exemption?

Jennifer Simoes,the Medical Board’s Chief of Legislation responds, “To my knowledge, no.”

At 3:03 Pan says, “There is no cloud over these physicians. There is no legal barrier to writing medical exemptions. They look to their own expertise and knowledge.”

At 3:07, right at the end, before going to public comment, Ms. Simoes from the Medical Board says that, “A doctor would use their clinical judgment. We don’t track medical exemptions, we would have to receive a complaint.”

And I guess this is where we are today. The Medical Board received a weak, watered down complaint– the point of which I cannot even discern– and the witch hunt has begun.

We are standing by to see what we can do to support Dr. Sears during this episode of being Wakefielded, but in the meantime, please go follow his Facebook page right this moment as a sign of your solidarity with doctors doing the right thing for our kids.