Bob Sears

Robert William Sears was born in 1969 and grew up on the East Coast and in Canada, the son of the famous pediatrician William Sears and nurse Martha Sears, whose parenting philosophy shaped a generation of attachment-parenting advocates. Bob earned his medical degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1995 and completed his pediatric residency at Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 1998, joining his father's practice in Dana Point, California.

In October 2007, Sears published The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child, which included 'Dr. Bob's Alternative Vaccine Schedule' — a formula spreading vaccines out over a longer period with fewer administered at each visit. The book became enormously successful, selling over 180,000 copies and becoming the most widely used reference for parents seeking to delay or modify their children's vaccine schedule. Pediatricians and public health officials criticized the book extensively. A 2009 paper in the journal Pediatrics by Rahul Parikh concluded Sears' schedule was based on 'misleading innuendo and factual errors' and that there was 'not one whit of evidence' it was safer than the standard schedule.

Sears also championed vaccine exemptions, advising parents how to obtain medical exemptions from school vaccine requirements even without genuine medical contraindication. This activity drew the attention of the California Medical Board after he issued a vaccine exemption to a toddler whose mother was seeking it for custody-related reasons, with no documented adverse reactions or medical basis. The Board placed Sears on 35 months' probation in 2018, staying the revocation of his license on the condition he complete medical education and ethics courses and submit to practice monitoring.

Sears has never admitted wrongdoing and continues to practice pediatrics and promote his alternative vaccine views. His case illustrates how a physician with legitimate credentials and a famous name can drive population-level health harm through a bestselling book without ever making the most extreme anti-vaccine claims — the veneer of medical moderation making his influence particularly insidious.

“Spreading vaccines out on an alternative schedule is safer than the CDC-recommended schedule”

No clinical trials have ever tested the safety or efficacy of Sears' alternative schedule. The American Academy of Pediatrics has explicitly stated that the recommended schedule is designed based on when vaccines are most effective and when children are most vulnerable to disease — delaying vaccines leaves children unprotected during their most vulnerable windows. Pediatricians including Rahul Par

“The MMR vaccine is linked to autism”

Sears has promoted and amplified the thoroughly debunked claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism in his book and public appearances, providing what appears to be physician endorsement to a claim refuted by hundreds of studies.

“Medical vaccine exemptions are appropriate for children whose parents prefer not to vaccinate”

Medical vaccine exemptions are intended for children with documented contraindications such as severe allergic reactions to vaccine components or specific immune conditions. Sears was disciplined by the California Medical Board precisely for providing a vaccine exemption to a child without documented medical contraindication, in response to a parental preference.