Update: Please sign the petition asking Dr. Bob Sears to withdraw his odious comparison.
Dr. Bob Sears is a jerk.
That’s not news.
What’s news is he’s now serving his typical anti-vaccine effluvium, seasoned with self-pity and accompanied by a side of Jew baiting.
From his Facebook page:
The effluvium:
So, I’ve been getting a lot of new patients. Well, refugees really. Patients who have been kicked out of their doctor’s offices all across Orange County as pediatricians band together to form a united front against parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. Even declining one vaccine gets you cut from the team. Not exactly sure what team that is. Society perhaps? …
When I tell them they are completely welcome here, that about half my patients don’t vaccinate, and that they are in good company, I can see all the tension leave and the relief flood into them. It angers me to see how other doctors, sworn to serve these families, have made these patients feel. It’s so far outside the Hippocratic Oath that I don’t even know what to say.
[pullquote align=”right” color=”#5a5a5a”]When was the last time an anti-vaxxer was worked to death, starved to death or gassed to death. NEVER![/pullquote]
Dr. Sears wouldn’t known the Hippocratic Oath if it slapped him in the face. He apparently needs to be reminded of one of its first principles, primum non nocere, first do no harm. It’s hard to imagine anything more harmful than encouraging patients to turn their backs on one of the most important and successful public health measures of all time. The only thing more harmful than that is to do so knowingly, unethically and simply for profit.
Dr. Sears knows that vaccines work. That’s why he explains in his best selling book touting his “alternative” vaccine schedule that it is okay to skip vaccination … as long as you make sure that your neighbors don’t skip it, too.
As a 2009 article in The New England Journal of Medicine The problem with Dr. Bob’s alternative vaccine schedule explained:
Perhaps the most disingenuous comment in the book is directed at parents who are afraid of the measles-mumps- rubella (MMR) vaccine. “I also warn [parents] not to share their fears with their neighbors,” writes Sears, “because if too many people avoid the MMR, we’ll likely see the diseases increase significantly.” In other words, hide in the herd, but do not tell the herd you’re hiding; otherwise, outbreaks will ensue…
Dr. Sears’ warning implicitly acknowledges that vaccines are highly effective and that their effectiveness is dependent on herd immunity. Those are the benefits of vaccination. But vaccines also have burdens: side effects. Therefore, he advises parents to foist the burdens on others and claim the benefits for themselves … and that’s unethical both for him to advise and for parents to follow.
The self-pity:
Each time I meet one of these new families, I can see the scars. The fear. The uncertainty. Even in MY office. It’s as if they can’t yet believe there’s an office who will accept them. As I ask each new patient what brought them to my office, they look around the room (not sure what or whom they are looking for – listening devices, hidden cameras, Child Protective Services? Their previous doctor? A state Senator?). They fidget with their hands, and whisper “We didn’t want to vaccinate.” …
So I tell them they don’t have to whisper. They can say it loud and clear, with confidence…
How sad for them that they can’t proudly blare their stupidity, gullibility and unethical behavior.
How about the Jew baiting? First, a definition. The best definition I’ve seen is that Jew baiting is making provocative, anti-Semitic statements while innocently declaring that the statements aren’t anti-Semitic.
Sears wrote:
Scarlet “V” anyone? No, not scarlet. Let’s make it yellow. And not a V – a star would be better. That way everyone can know at first glance who is safe to be around and who is not.
The yellow star has a long and ugly history of anti-Semitism. According to the Holocaust Memorial Center:
The Jews of Europe were legally compelled to wear badges or distinguishing garments … at least as far back as the 13th century. This practice continued throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissnace, but was largely phased out during the 17th and 18th centuries…
The Nazis resurrected this practice as part of their persecutions during the Holocaust…
…Those who failed or refused to wear the badge risked severe punishment, including death. For example, the Jewish Council (Judenrat) of the ghetto in Bialystok, Poland announced that “… the authorities have warned that severe punishment – up to and including death by shooting – is in store for Jews who do not wear the yellow badge on back and front.”
And then, as is characteristic of Jew baiting, he declared that the statements aren’t anti-Semitic.
This post is not intended as a reference to a holocaust. Rather, it’s intended to raise the issue of prejudice and discrimination…
Bullshit. Obviously it is intended as an EXPLICIT reference to the Holocaust, a monstrous event that resulted in the death of 6 million Jews (and many millions of others) for no other reason than having even one Jewish grandparent. They were slaughtered not for what they did, not for choices that they made, but because of who they were.
When was the last time an anti-vaxxer faced death for his beliefs? NEVER!
When was the last time an anti-vaxxer faced deportation to a concentration camp for her belief. NEVER!
When was the last time an anti-vaxxer was worked to death, starved to death or gassed to death. NEVER!
Dr. Sears is not merely anti-Semitic; he’s profoundly confused. There is nothing prejudiced about holding people to account for actions that harm others. An anti-vaxxer claiming that people are prejudiced against him is no different than a drunk driver claiming that laws against drunk driving indicate prejudice against drunk drivers. As two different Supreme Court Justices have noted: “The Constitution is not a suicide pact.” In other words, although government power should be restricted, the government must be able to ensure survival of the state and its people.
The Tuteur family was a German family. Everyone who has ever had the last name Tuteur was descended from two brothers. Almost the entire family, hundreds of members, were living in Germany at the time the Nazis came to power. Every single Tuteur either escaped or died, from the oldest to the youngest. There are Tuteurs who survived the early years of the Holocaust who are still living. The horrors they endured are beyond description.
That Bob Sears chooses to compare the inconveniences faced by anti-vaxxers (because of their dangerous beliefs) to the horrors endured by Jews in the Holocaust (simply because their parents or grandparents were Jews) demonstrates that he is not merely an unethical charlatan shilling for profits. He is also a reprehensible human being and a vicious bigot.
