Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, has buried a small central Texas pediatric practice in document demands as part of his investigation into what he calls a conspiracy to push parents into vaccinating their children.
The New York Times reported that Paxton's Consumer Protection Division sent her a letter in December demanding 10 years of vaccine purchase records and her practice's vaccine policy, and the letter added that citing the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended childhood schedule would not be enough – and warned her to stay quiet.
"You are requested NOT to inform other entities of this request, as this request relates to an ongoing confidential investigation that would be jeopardized and impeded by disclosure," the letter stated.
The 28-item demand sought every "reward, financial benefit, bonus, discount, return, rebate or other consideration" she had received from vaccine makers.
Her answers went as far as a $40 batch of cookies a drug rep once brought to her office, but she said her most significant discounts were small price cuts for paying bills on time. Paxton's office replied with follow-up demands, calling some of her responses frivolous or improper.
The doctor, who asked to be identified only by her middle name, Rachel, has treated children in her community for 20 years, but she has spent nearly $15,000 on legal fees so far, digging up receipts for $18 vaccines from a decade ago. Now she is reconsidering whether to keep practicing.
"I took it very personally," she told the Times. "It felt like it was such a slap in the face and an insult."
Paxton announced the investigation in January, vowing to stop "Big Pharma and Big Insurance" from bribing providers "to pressure parents to jab their kids with vaccines they feel aren't safe or necessary." He said he was working "alongside President Trump" and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He billed the probe as targeting the state's "largest medical providers," and it's unclear why a tiny practice was swept up.
Paxton has since expanded the probe to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has sued the Trump administration and won.
"This is another attempt at intimidation," said Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a Vanderbilt University pediatrics professor. She added that pediatricians are "not being intimidated because their moral core is about the well-being of children."
Paxton's announcement came 10 days after a federal judge ruled that Kennedy's health department had illegally retaliated against the academy by cutting $12 million in grants. The same day, Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded, sued the academy.
Rekha Lakshmanan of the Immunization Partnership warned that the investigation could have a "chilling effect" on pediatricians. Measles and polio vaccination rates among Texas kindergartners have already fallen from nearly 97 percent in 2019 to about 93 percent.
Paxton's office did not respond to the Times' request for comment. He trails Democrat James Talarico 51 percent to 45 percent in a recent New York Times/Siena poll.
