Dr. Paul Thomas lost his license after showing vaccinated patients visit the doctor more than unvaccinated ones.

Question

Dr. Paul Thomas lost his license after releasing a study showing that vaccinated individuals visit the doctor's office more than unvaccinated individuals for a number of illnesses.

Answer 1

This statement is not true for several reasons. First, Dr. Thomas' medical license was suspended in December 2020, not even the same year this post claims. Second, his license was suspended for spreading misinformation about vaccines to several of his patients and their parents. Eight cases were used as evidence against Dr. Thomas in his trial, including several children contracting illnesses that are directly linked to a lack of vaccination due to Dr. Thomas' vaccination program. This program strays far from the CDC's recommended vaccine program for pediatricians as claims his program, "prevents or decreases the incidences of autism and other developmental disorders." Since this suspension in 2020, his license has been reinstated in 2021 with some restrictions such as only being able to see patients with acute injuries and not being allowed to talk about vaccines with any of his patients. In 2023, he started his practice where he continues to preach his ideas about vaccines and their alleged side effects. Some doctors even blame him for the outbreak of measles in both Washington and Oregon that killed 78 kids, which could have been prevented with vaccinations. In not one article did I find the chart in the tweet used as evidence for this claim, so I believe it to be false as there is no evidence supporting the graph in the tweet.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/93566

https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/our-work/reporting/prominent-anti-vaccine-pediatrician-dr-paul-thomas-has-license-suspended-oregon

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:di7ls55h6ggk6x6nnhvdaw3g/post/3lau5v2hmic25

Comments

You do a great job picking apart the claim and finding specific pieces of evidence to prove that it is not true, especially in finding the years not lining up. Most of your sources seem good, except you might want to find more concrete evidence for your third source, given that it is just a screenshot of a graph posted to a social media site, and doesn't have any evidence that he made the study beyond the original poster saying so.

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Ironically, Dr. Thomas was my pediatrician growing up. My mom really liked him because he spaced out vaccines and was very knowledgeable about keeping children safe when it came to vaccines. But then, when I was 12, I got really sick and he insisted I was fine even though I was constantly passing out, it hurt to breath, and I was rapidly losing weight. I visited him three times in one week and eventually went to the emergency room when he was doing nothing for me. I ended up having pneumonia and was in the PICU for 2 weeks. It was shortly after he lost his license and rightly so! It stunned me how little he tried to help me when I was at my worst! Just an interesting story that relates to him as a doctor.

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Wow! The same doctor highlighted in the claim was your pediatrician. Thanks for sharing your personal experience.

Answer 2

Dr. Paul Thomas did have his license suspended, but it was not specifically over this (questionable) study. On multiple occasions he did not vaccinate patients following the recommended schedule, told parents information that does not line up with current research about vaccines, and on one occasion did not even have vaccines in his clinic when the mother of one of his patients requested her child be given vaccines. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/12/anti-vaccine-portland-pediatricians-license-suspended-cases-include-boy-hospitalized-with-tetanus.html