Recently, the Los Angeles Times reported on California pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears’ role as a favorite among vaccine-fearing parents. What he tells them is absolute nonsense that he has freely admitted he made up in a Reddit interview. Now he’s let a little more honesty shine through. He told the reporter:
“I do think the disease danger is low enough where I think you can safely raise an unvaccinated child in today’s society,” he said. “It may not be good for the public health. But … for your individual child, I think it is a safe enough choice.”
I had wondered: Is it possible that a board-certified pediatrician, one from a family of influential and well-known children’s health experts including Dr. William “Attachment Parenting” Sears and Dr. Jim “The Doctors” Sears, could really believe the idiocy in his own book? Now we know. Dr. Bob Sears says screw public health, screw everyone else’s children, screw your neighbors and their families. It’s fine if you skip your child’s vaccines, because for your child the risk isn’t great. That may not be good for the public, Bob says, for all of those other idiots out there — we know if people start skipping vaccines the disease will surge back. But for your snowflake, well, it’s OK. You can even picture him winking when he says it.
This is just despicable. Mendacious, vile … I’m running out of adjectives, here. Dr. Bob thinks his own special pals, his patients, the suckers who buy his books, they don’t need their vaccines — they can just hide in the herd, as long as the rest of us get our kids vaccinated. His white, affluent, Orange County kids can’t be bothered with needles. Sure, it’s no good for public health, but public health isn’t something his parents need to think about.
Dr. Bob freely regurgitates long-disproved anti-vaccine canards throughout his The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child. The book has sold well. He’s telling people exactly what they think they want to hear, blaming all sorts of ills on vaccines, fueling fear and anxiety and a mistrust of every legitimate health authority on the planet. They’re all wrong, he says, the CDC and the IOM and every county health officer and every single country’s health ministries and all of the pediatricians, family medicine docs, infectious disease specialists, and everyone else who’s invested their careers in protecting the public health. We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence.
He’s making oodles of money off of your fear, while freely admitting that what he’s doing is no good for the public health. Don’t forget: The public is you, your children, your family. We’re all in this together, sharing our planet and sharing these infections. You can help keep your children and communities safe by making sure your kids are vaccinated. Or you can join the “me first, screw you” brigade led by Dr. Bob.
Roy Benaroch is a pediatrician who blogs at The Pediatric Insider. He is also the author of Solving Health and Behavioral Problems from Birth through Preschool: A Parent’s Guide and A Guide to Getting the Best Health Care for Your Child.
