LOS ANGELES _ Dr. Bob Sears sits at a worn wooden desk near a cushioned exam table designed for pediatric patients. The room has only a few other trappings _ small molds of a child's foot and hand, hanging from a wall _ that suggest the routines of childhood. And there is nothing to suggest the notoriety that trails in his wake.
But this office is a hub in a nationwide movement that the medical establishment contends is a threat to public health. Sears' practice caters to parents the public largely labels as anti-vaxxers, people who no longer trust the scientists, doctors or government representatives who say vaccines are safe and that the risk of disease is far greater than the chance of an adverse reaction.
Parents travel from across California to Sears' family practice in affluent Capistrano Beach, all of them paying out of pocket for checkups. Some of them believe that vaccines caused a sudden allergic reaction or neurological change in their children; others question whether they should delay the standard vaccination schedule _ or ignore it altogether.
Sears gives these parents something they desperately crave _ a kind smile and an acknowledgment that it's OK for them to trust their intuition.
His patients, and even some of the parents, affectionately call him Dr. Bob, a formality-stripped name modeled after his well-known pediatrician father, Dr. Bill. But outside the welcoming confines of his office, Sears is referred to with a wide range of adjectives.
He is resolute or reckless. He's reassuring or fear-mongering.
Amid a measles outbreak afflicting nearly 1,200 people nationwide and the uproar surrounding a controversial bill to strengthen the state's school vaccination laws, it's unlikely you'll find middle ground between the extremes.
He's either Dr. Bob or, as some of his critics claim, a dangerous doctor.
