The Ohio State Board of Medicine is threatening to limit, suspend or even permanently revoke the medical license of Sherry Tenpenny, a notorious anti-vaccination doctor who made headlines last year for falsely telling state lawmakers that COVID-19 shots make people sick. magnetic… among supporting other nonsensical anti-vaccine conspiracy theories.
“I’m sure you’ve seen pictures all over the internet of the people who took these pictures and now they’re magnetized,” Tenpenny said in her viral testimony. “You can put a key on your forehead – it sticks. You can put spoons and forks anywhere and they can stick because now we think it’s a piece of metal.”
She went on to suggest that there could be a “yet-to-be-defined interface” between lifesaving vaccine components and “all 5G towers”. She added that the link is “not proven yet,” but “we’re trying to find out [it] outside.”
This surprising testimony was given on June 8, 2021. About a month later, on July 14, an investigator from the state medical board showed up at Tenpenny’s medical office wanting to ask her a few questions, according to letter of the state medical commissionwhich was dated September 14, 2022.
The medical board did not disclose that the investigator was there to question Tenpenny or why she was under investigation. However, it is hard to imagine magnetism not being touched upon in conversation.
However, that conversation did not take place, according to a September letter from the medical board. Tenpenny was not in the office when the investigator showed up and did not respond to his request for further action or to a follow-up email. But the board’s investigation continued, and on September 7, 2021, the board sent Tenpenny a certified letter with written questions. Later that month, her lawyer sent a letter to the council saying Tenpenny “does not believe the council has a legitimate basis” to send the questions and would refuse to answer any.
A sharp warning
The board tried again in October, issuing a subpoena for Tenpenny to appear at the inquest on November 3. Tenpenny was not present. Finally, in June of this year, the board tried again to summon Tenpenny to an “investigative office conference,” but she said she did not believe the investigation had a “legitimate basis” and did not show up.
Regardless of the subject matter or outcome of the investigation, the board decided that Tenpenny’s failure to cooperate with the investigation was in itself a serious violation. So they informed her that her license was now in jeopardy. The board could issue a reprimand or probation, or it could limit or revoke her license, which was reinstated last September during the investigation.
Tenpenny has the option to request a hearing which she reportedly has, although the date of the meeting has not yet been set. However, the board appears to have included a stark warning about the hearing request in its letter, writing:
Please note that regardless of whether you request a hearing, Ohio Revised Code section 4731.22(L) provides that “[w]if the board denies the applicant a license or a practicing certificate, [or] revokes an individual license or certificate to practice … the board may direct that its action is permanent. A person against whom a permanent action is taken by the board shall be permanently ineligible thereafter to hold a license or certificate to practice…’
Whether the council will take such permanent measures remains to be seen.
Since Tenpenny initially made national headlines with her claims about magnetic people, she continued to spread anti-vaccine misinformation as well as other conspiracy theories and QAn-connected rhetoric.
The bill, supported by Tenpenny’s nonsensical testimony, HB 248that broadly bans statewide vaccine mandates remains deadlocked in committee.
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