Dr. Tara Zandvliet, a San Diego physician, has been formally charged with negligence by the Medical Board of California. The board brought its complaint against the doctor because she granted a vaccination exemption to a girl whose parents hadn't provided enough documentation to prove that she had a medical history that made receiving vaccinations too risky for her health. Additionally, board members have accused Dr. Zandvliet of inappropriately approving vaccination exemptions since 2016.
In 2016, a new law was passed in California that prevented parents from receiving personal beliefs vaccination exemptions for their children. Before this law was passed, parents could claim that receiving vaccinations were against their personal beliefs, and they would be legally allowed to refuse to vaccinate their children based on their beliefs. After the law was passed, doctors could only grant medical vaccination exemptions to parents of children who were extremely allergic to vaccinations or had extremely compromised immune systems.
Evidence shows that after the 2016 law went into effect, there was a dramatic increase in the number of medical exemptions that were granted by doctors since personal beliefs exemptions were now illegal. Dr. Zandvliet contributed to this increase by granting about one-third of all requests for medical exemptions in San Diego Unified School District institutions since 2016. Records show that the doctor has allegedly granted 1,000 childhood vaccination exemptions since 2016. These significant statistics led officials from the Medical Board of California to accuse Dr. Zandvliet was granting the exemptions inappropriately.
The charge against Dr. Zandvliet could lead to more serious consequences. The complaint is only the first step in a formal hearing process, but it could eventually lead the Medical Board of California to revoke or suspend Dr. Zandvliet's license due to her actions. It is too early to say if the doctor will encounter more severe consequences for her actions, but it is clear that this case will show all Californian doctors the results of improperly signing off on vaccination exemptions for children.
More information on this development can be found here.