San Francisco officials are investigating a doctor and outspoken vaccine skeptic on suspicion that he is handing out illegal exemptions from the shots amid the measles outbreak sweeping the US.
Dr Kenneth Stoller, a San Francisco physician of 'hyperbaric medicine', has been subpoenaed to turn over redacted versions of his patient files.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced Wednesday that his office is launching an inquiry into whether Dr Stoller 'violated state nuisance laws by providing medical exemptions for patients who didn't qualify for them.'
The subpoena comes amid the nationwide measles outbreak that has sickened 764 Americans, including 42 in California, and Herrera warned that inappropriate exemptions put at-risk children 'in real danger.'
Dr Kenneth Stoller (left) has been an outspoken vaccine critic and some websites suggest visitors go to him if they need 'help obtaining medical exemptions.' San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera (right) has subpoenaed Dr Stoller's patient files on suspicion his exemptions put at-risk kids 'in real danger'
Earlier this year, Dr Stoller and other California doctors came under fire on suspicion that they were advertising and selling improper vaccine exemptions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all children get two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine - the first between 12 and 15 months of age and the second between four and six.
Shots are federally recommended, but not mandated. It is up to states to decide legal requirements and exemptions.
States must allow religious exemptions in order to comply with the First Amendment, but 17 still allow children to attend school but skip the shots if their families have moral, philosophical or other objections to vaccination.
California was among them until 2015, when it passed a law to prohibit philosophical exemptions in the wake of a 2014 measles outbreak that began at Disneyland and sickened 147 Americans.
Now, City Attorney Herrera says his office suspects that Dr Stoller is in violation of that measure, Senate Bill 277 (SB 277).
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