Sherri Tenpenny

Sherri Jane Tenpenny was born around 1958. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toledo in 1980 and a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1984. From 1986 to 1998, she served as director of the emergency department at Blanchard Valley Hospital in Findlay, Ohio — conventional medical work that would later lend false credibility to her anti-vaccine campaigns.

In the early 2000s, Tenpenny pivoted from emergency medicine to anti-vaccine activism, opening the Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center in the Cleveland area. She became a prolific author of anti-vaccine books and began building a large social media following promoting vaccine refusal. The Center for Countering Digital Hate's 2021 'Disinformation Dozen' report identified her as one of twelve individuals responsible for producing up to 65% of all anti-vaccine content on major social media platforms.

Tenpenny's most notorious moment came in June 2021 when she testified before the Ohio House Health Committee that COVID-19 vaccines cause magnetism, claiming vaccinated people could have metal objects stuck to their bodies and suggesting a 'yet-to-be-defined interface' between vaccines and 5G towers. The testimony was filmed and widely circulated, becoming a symbol of the dangerous misinformation spread by credentialed physicians. Her Twitter account was permanently suspended and her YouTube channel removed for COVID-19 misinformation violations.

Following approximately 350 complaints filed against her, the State Medical Board of Ohio opened an investigation. In 2023, the board indefinitely suspended her medical license for repeatedly failing to cooperate with its investigation. Her license was reinstated in May 2024, allowing her to return to practice. Tenpenny continues to sell books, online courses, and consultations premised on anti-vaccine ideology, generating revenue from the very misinformation that triggered regulatory action.

“COVID-19 vaccines cause people to become magnetized, enabling metal objects to stick to their skin”

Tenpenny testified this claim before the Ohio House Health Committee in June 2021. The CDC explicitly states vaccines contain no metallic or magnetic ingredients. Demonstrations purporting to show magnetism are explained by skin oils and static electricity, not vaccines.

“COVID-19 vaccines interface with 5G cell phone towers via a metal component”

There is no metal component in any approved COVID-19 vaccine. No vaccine can create a biological-cellular interface with a telecommunications network. This claim conflates unrelated technologies and has been rejected by every relevant scientific authority.

“Vaccines cause a wide range of serious harms and should be avoided”

Tenpenny has authored four books and runs a business selling anti-vaccine materials. While vaccines carry small, well-documented risks, the overwhelming scientific consensus from hundreds of studies confirms their benefits vastly outweigh harms for the general population. Her claims characterize vaccines as uniformly dangerous without proportionate evidence.