A Tennessee physician has misplaced his medical license for issuing covid-19 vaccine waivers to sufferers he by no means met in a minimum of three states. One, it turned out, was a canine named Charlie Kraus.
Robert Coble, 76, of Goodspring, Tennessee, agreed to give up his license in a Could settlement with the Tennessee Division of Well being that was introduced by the company on June 15.
Coble issued the vaccine waivers in August and September 2021 whereas working for MedChoice, an organization that offered waivers on-line for $139, in line with a well being division doc summarizing the case. The MedChoice web site supplied “handwritten medical waivers personally reviewed and signed by a licensed doctor,” and let clients select from preset causes for a waiver, together with “I’ve an autoimmune illness” and “I’m very anxious about getting the vaccine.”
Coble then issued a waiver to these clients regardless of “the absence of any affected person/doctor relationship,” in line with the well being division doc. The doc doesn’t say what number of waivers MedChoice offered or Coble signed, but it surely does say waivers had been despatched to folks in a minimum of Tennessee, Maine, and Washington.
Coble’s waivers had been issued within the second yr of the covid-19 pandemic, when vaccine hesitancy was rampant however some employers, school campuses, and occasions had begun to require proof of vaccination. Some MedChoice clients submitted Coble’s waivers to their jobs or colleges, and if these waivers had been rejected, Coble would “contact the division that rejected the waiver to attempt to persuade them to reverse their choice,” in line with the doc.
The MedChoice waivers had been uncovered in a November 2021 investigation by Nashville’s NewsChannel 5, which bought a waiver for a canine owned by investigative reporter Jennifer Kraus, a black Labrador retriever named Charlie, by saying he had “an irrational concern of needles.”
Though Charlie was not examined by a medical skilled, MedChoice mailed the canine a waiver signed by Coble and a laminated waiver card saying he was “licensed medically exempt from the COVID vaccination,” NewsChannel 5 reported.
The well being division doc made public in Coble’s case makes no point out of NewsChannel 5 or Charlie. Coble couldn’t be reached for remark. No lawyer is listed for the physician within the doc. MedChoice has been dissolved, in line with Tennessee enterprise information.
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