As we wait for SB 276 to be signed into law, we are still hearing a lot of misinformation about those inappropriate medical exemptions that docs have been writing in California.
Is it true that no doctors have been found writing inappropriate medical exemptions?
About Those Inappropriate Medical Exemptions in California
Well, it’s kind of true, but only on a technicality.
Many California docs are being investigated for writing inappropriate medical exemptions, including:
- Bob Sears
- Kenneth Stoller
- Kelly Sutton – an holistic and anthroposophic doctor
- Michael Fielding Allen
- Ron Kennedy – a psychiatrist who runs an anti-aging clinic
And others have been called out in the media for writing excessive numbers of medical exemptions, including Tara Zandvliet, Tiffany Baer, Sabrina Sonneman, and Lonna Larsh. And selling those exemptions!
So have any of them been found guilty of writing inappropriate medical exemptions?
“In recent years, however, the board has sanctioned only one doctor for inappropriately writing a medical vaccine exemption in a case that made headlines. Since 2013, the board has received 106 complaints about potentially improper vaccine exemptions, including nine so far this year, said spokesman Carlos Villatoro.
One pending case involves Dr. Ron Kennedy, who was trained as a psychiatrist and now runs an anti-aging clinic in Santa Rosa.
Medical board investigators took the unusual step of subpoenaing 12 school districts for student medical records after receiving complaints that Kennedy was writing inappropriate exemptions. They found that Kennedy had written at least 50 exemptions, using nearly identical form letters, for students in multiple communities, including Santa Rosa, Fremont and Fort Bragg, saying that immunizations were “contraindicated” for a catchall list of conditions including lupus, learning disability, food allergies and “detoxification impairment.”
Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital and the medical board’s expert witness, said that the exemptions issued by Kennedy appear to have been provided “without an appropriate evaluation,” according to court documents.
Kennedy has refused to respond to the board’s subpoenas seeking the medical records of three of his patients, according to court documents. The board has yet to file a formal accusation against Kennedy, and he continues to practice.
Exemptions Surge As Parents And Doctors Do ‘Hail Mary’ Around Vaccine Laws
They haven’t been found guilty, but maybe because the Medical Board of California has not been able to properly investigate their cases!
That is one of the things that SB 276 changes and why the Medical Board of California has supported SB 276.
“Since the passage of SB 277 in 2015, the Board has faced obstacles in investigating complaints related to medical exemptions. For all quality of care cases, the Board must obtain authorization from the patient or their parent or guardian (if the patient is a minor) to release the medical records. For medical exemption cases, many times the parent or guardian does not want the Board to investigate the physician who issued their medical exemption, so the parent will not sign an authorization. This has created barriers to the Board investigating these cases because for most of these medical exemption cases, the Board does not have enough evidence to subpoena the medical records. Without the medical records, the Board’s physician expert cannot review the case to determine if the physician acted within the standard of care.”
Medical Board of California Legislative Analysis
To say that “no doctors have been found writing inappropriate medical exemptions” is very misleading.
It would be much more appropriate to say that many doctors have been found writing inappropriate medical exemptions, but the Medical Board of California just couldn’t prove their case using pre-SB 276 guidelines.
More on Medical Exemptions
- Elisa Song’s Letter to Governor Newsom
- Understanding Immunization Signs That Protestors Carry
- Does SB 276 Eliminate Medical Exemptions?
- Why Should Medical Exemptions Be Based on CDC Contraindications?
- Will SB276 Revoke Legitimate Medical Exemptions?
- Autoimmunity as a Contraindication to Getting Vaccinated
- Is a Family History of Altered Immunocompetence a Contraindication to Getting Vaccinated?
- Is SB 276 a Civil Rights Issue?
- Medical Board of California Legislative Analysis
- California broadens investigation of doctors for issuing questionable vaccine exemptions
- California’s vaccine battle: Here are the doctors behind Bay Area students’ medical exemptions
- Exemptions Surge As Parents And Doctors Do ‘Hail Mary’ Around Vaccine Laws
- Must Reads: California doctor critical of vaccines is punished for exempting 2-year-old boy from all childhood immunizations
My reading is that the board’s process is just not over. Including against Kennedy. He has certainly not been cleared.