As a medical advisor for La Leche League International, he is committed to breastfeeding success for all his patients to help babies get a right start in life.
Bob has a particular passion for helping parents understand childhood vaccines and the options open to them in choosing the safest possible vaccine schedule for their child.
As the solo author of The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child , his in-depth knowledge of vaccines and the diseases they prevent has helped parents nationwide get a better understanding of this complex and confusing issue.
Having had the privilege to help raise three active boys, Dr. He especially enjoys talking to parents in his practice about the joys, and trials, of watching their little babies and toddlers thrive through the first several years of life. Home About Us Meet the Searses. Bill Dr. Martha, RN Martha is the mother of Dr. Jim James M. Bob Robert W. March 13, November 13, Dr. So Mecklenburg said she started going to Sears.
He says you need to read the consent form and here are the things you should know before you vaccinate. Although he is called an anti-vax doctor, Sears does not consider himself anti-vaccine, and pointed out that he routinely immunizes children in his office. But his practice consists primarily of parents who avoid shots, he said. Offit said Sears overstates risks and links vaccines to conditions without an adequate scientific basis.
Much of the conversation about so-called vaccine injuries involves the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, and whether it can cause autism. He added that research has neither proved nor disproved that vaccines can be attributed to an increase in autism rates.
Experts say the increase can be tied, in part, to greater awareness and changes in diagnostic criteria. Such assertions of a link, which stem from a now discredited paper co-written by Andrew Wakefield, a former British doctor, in , have been widely refuted.
Public health officials say the language surrounding vaccine safety is critical. This year, for the first time, the World Health Organization named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 global health threats.
In the United States, debilitating, deadly and incredibly contagious diseases have been nearly eliminated by vaccines. But to keep polio, measles, whooping cough and other illnesses at bay, public officials say that a high percentage of the population must be vaccinated. Patient Zero in that outbreak was a 7-year-old boy returning from Switzerland.
Sears did not confirm or deny that when asked. He is simply a doctor willing to talk about the potential side effects, he argues. Sears is under investigation by the Medical Board of California for vaccine exemptions he wrote in That investigation, which was announced in June, comes as Sears is currently on a month probation issued by the medical board, which charged Sears with committing gross negligence after he wrote a letter in a court case siding with the mother of a 2-year-old boy who did not want her child to receive any more vaccines over the objections of the father.
Sears settled the case by accepting the probation, but did not admit wrongdoing. It meant children who are not fully vaccinated can attend school or daycare only if a doctor concludes there is a medical reason to skip some or all shots.
In crowded legislative hearings this year, Pan has repeatedly pointed to Sears as an example of a doctor who has financially benefited from writing questionable exemptions. The bill could significantly affect Sears if it is signed into law. While under investigation by the medical board, doctors would be barred from writing new medical exemptions.
If a doctor granted vaccine exemptions for a reason now found to be illegitimate, he or she could face sanctions — including license revocation. The bill passed the Assembly on Tuesday and now heads to the Senate, where an earlier version passed in May.
Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he wants changes to the bill before it reaches his desk. Kennedy Jr. Sears must submit the names of possible monitors for approval by the Board, and he must pay all monitoring costs. Regardless of which option he chooses, Sears is prohibited during his 3-year probation from supervising physician assistants and advanced practice nurses. There are some additional stipulations in the decision related to not-practicing, traveling outside the state for longer than a month, practicing in other states and similar activities, but the bottom line is this: Sears cannot practice medicine without a monitor or similar program over the next three years, and he risks losing his license permanently if he fails to meet the requirements of his probation.
One contributor to the Disneyland measles outbreak in included low immunization rates in Southern California, where Sears practices. The complaint also outlined several disturbing accusations against Sears, including not testing a toddler for neurological problems after a head injury from a hammer, failing to investigate alleged life-threatening vaccine reactions and prescribing a non-evidence-based treatment for an infection. I documented everything else but that one detail. According to the complaint, Sears had also recommended that the child never receive any vaccines because the child had supposedly experienced renal failure and a serious gastrointestinal problem preventing proper digestion following previous vaccination.
Yet neither of those is an established vaccine reaction and if they had actually occurred, Sears would have been potentially medically negligent in not following up with those conditions. In his Facebook post, Sears expresses the belief that "there is an attempt to keep me on probation for the rest of my medical career" because he "picked a fight with a California Legislator" sic who " has been very vocal about openly working with the medical board to prosecute doctors who excuse patients from their vaccines, regardless of the merits of a case.
Sears states that the Medical Board of California has lined up four additional cases against him. I have not yet independently confirmed the existence of these cases. An AAP representative said the organization does not comment on individual members. Note: This post has been updated with comments from Bob Sears' Facebook page.
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