Anti-vax doctor sanctioned by Minnesota medical board for telling parents to skip pediatric shots

On Thursday, the Star Tribune reported that a doctor in Eden Prairie, Minnesota has been sanctioned by the state medical board for spreading medical misinformation and encouraging parents not to have their children vaccinated.

According to the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice said Dr. Robert Zajac engaged in "unethical or improper conduct" for delivering "false or misleading information" to his patients.

"The board received four complaints against Zajac dating to 2017, some filed by other physicians," writes the Star Tribune. "Some of the complaints alleged that he was not following evidence-based medicine and that he was 'actively encouraging parents not to vaccinate their children.'"

According to the report, Zajac sought to have a federal court quash the investigation into him as a violation of his free speech — only to be rebuffed. As part of the settlement, he has agreed "to pay a $10,000 fine and take courses on medical ethics, communicable diseases, professional boundaries and patient communication."

In recent years, the handful of doctors who have challenged medical consensus on vaccines and spread false claims have been signal boosted by Republican politics.

One doctor in Indiana went viral after falsely claiming to a school board that COVID vaccines are causing more infections. And GOP groups promoted Trump's belief in the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure through Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston doctor who believes medicine contains "alien DNA" and illness is caused by demon sperm.