Head of California Medical Board Kristina Lawson Says Anti-Vaxxers Followed Her to Work

Kristina Lawson, president of California's medical board, said in a Twitter thread Wednesday that she was followed from her home to work Monday, where a white SUV parked across from her in a garage near her office at a law firm. At the end of the day when she was returning to her car, four men got out of the car and confronted her with anti-vaccine-related questions and recording equipment in the dark parking garage.

Lawson said she noticed the car parked outside her home that morning, from which she tweeted the men "watched my daughter drive herself to school and watched me walk out of my house, get in my car, and take my two kids to school."

She said she called Walnut Creek, California police, who later told her the men told police they only wanted to interview Lawson. The men, according to Lawson, never contacted the medical board or the law firm where she works to arrange an interview, and instead decided to ambush her alone in the garage.

The men identified themselves as representatives of America's Frontline Doctors, a right-wing medical organization that has been discredited for spreading Coronavirus misinformation like unproven treatments and anti-vaccine statements.

Simone Gold, the group's public leader and a Beverly Hills physician, was arrested for taking part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Following the incident, the medical board's executive director Bill Prasifka publicly supported Lawson and said members of the board would not be intimidated.

In a statement, Prasifka said those involved with the board have been "advised to remain vigilant to their surroundings and provided security reminders."

Lawson, a former mayor of Walnut Creek who was appointed to the board by former Gov. Jerry Brown, said on social media on Wednesday she grew concerned Monday after she noticed the people in a white SUV parked near her home and saw a drone near the house.

"I was concerned when I saw someone flying a drone over my house and saw a mysterious white truck parked outside my home. Later that day, my concern turned to terror," she said in a statement.

Lawson added: "I arrived in the dark parking garage behind my office and experienced four men unexpectedly rush towards me, jumping out of the same white truck that had been parked outside my house. I then realized that these four men had been surreptitiously stalking me."

Lawson said she decided to go public with what happened to her "to shed light on these reprehensible, unacceptable tactics of intimidation"

"But like other Californians who believe in both science and fair play, I will not be intimidated," she added.

Walnut Creek Police spokeswoman Lt. Holley Connors said in a statement that a man claiming to be "a state detective from Georgia" called a police dispatcher on Monday and said that he was conducting "surveillance" in San Miguel, an unincorporated area near Walnut Creek.

The dispatcher asked the man, whose name was not made public, if he had a weapon, and the man responded that his gun was locked in a case, Connors said.

The dispatcher told the man that he should contact Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the area he said he was in.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office did not return email and phone messages seeking comment.

Connors said the same man called the Walnut Creek Police Department again later in the day to let them know he was in a parking lot in Walnut Creek with at least one other person.

"The Police Department determined that the man who called earlier in the day claiming to be a detective from Georgia was likely involved," in the incident with Lawson, Connors wrote, adding that police have no evidence of a crime but that investigators are still gathering information.