Midwife Falsifies Vaccine Records for Thousands of New York Schoolchildren

Overview

A Long Island midwife has been fined $300,000 for falsifying vaccine records for nearly 1,500 schoolchildren in Nassau County and surrounding areas over the past decade. Jeanette Breen admitted to giving the students homeopathic pellets instead of actual vaccines and falsifying state immunization records to make it appear the children received required vaccinations.

This scheme allowed the parents to improperly secure religious exemptions for their children to attend school without required immunizations. The county health department is now trying to verify if the students ever received proper inoculations or if they need to be revaccinated.

The scale of Breen’s fraud is stunning – fake records were created for thousands of children which means large numbers of students in New York schools may be without proper vaccinations, putting them and others at risk for diseases like measles. Authorities are launching a widespread effort to correctly identify which students need vaccines.

Lead Up

Breen operated her midwife practice in Baldwin, NY for over a decade. Starting around 2014 parents began coming to her asking to help them get around mandatory vaccine requirements for school enrollment. New York eliminated religious exemptions for vaccines in 2019 but allowed exemptions for valid medical reasons.

Some parents did not want to vaccinate their children and asked Breen for help in falsifying medical exemptions. Initially Breen complied by writing medical exemption notes even when there was no valid medical reason. But as scrutiny over medical exemptions increased, Breen switched tactics.

She began administering homeopathic pellets to students while telling parents she was giving them legitimate vaccines. Breen then falsified official New York State immunization records, entering fake dates for vaccines the children never received. The fake records allowed the students to improperly secure religious vaccine exemptions and still attend school.

This went on for nearly 10 years with Breen falsifying records and administrating fake “vaccines” to children before authorities finally uncovered the scheme. Investigators estimate Breen generated over 12,000 fake immunization records for students that allowed them to bypass vaccine requirements. The New York Department of Health believes over 3,500 students statewide may have had vaccine records falsified by Breen.

Latest Developments

The Nassau County Department of Health recently completed a 9 month investigation into Breen finding rampant fraud. They uncovered the fake vaccine records of nearly 1,500 children in Nassau County alone. Authorities say Breen was operating a large scale scheme bilking parents while putting schoolchildren in danger.

Breen was arrested on January 12th and faces multiple felony fraud charges. If convicted she could spend decades in prison for her role in the scheme. Beyond the criminal charges, Nassau County has levied a $300,000 fine against Breen – $200 for each instance of fraudulent record keeping.

With Breen’s scheme now exposed, the health departments in Nassau, Suffolk and Erie counties face a massive effort to identify which children may need revaccination. They will need to contact thousands of parents, verify medical records, and properly immunize students who were impacted. The full fallout from Breen’s fraud could take months or years to sort out.

In the meantime, health officials are extremely concerned about potential disease outbreaks. Large pockets of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated students creates an environment ripe for the spread of illnesses like measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox in the school setting. Health departments are urging parents to immediately check their children’s vaccine records for accuracy.

Impact and Analysis

The uncovering of Breen’s long running fake vaccine scheme has broader implications and leaves many unanswered questions:

How was the fraud able to go on so long undetected?

Breen falsified state vaccine records for nearly 10 years without authorities uncovering it. The systems designed to maintain and verify vaccine data seem inadequate if a private citizen could generate over 12,000 fake records. More oversight and auditing is clearly needed.

Are other practitioners engaged in similar schemes?

If Breen was able to fool state regulators for years, it raises the possibility of more widespread fraud. Are there other doctors, nurses or midwives telling parents they are vaccinating children when they are not? More investigations into the validity of existing medical and vaccine exemptions may be warranted.

How many under-vaccinated students are there statewide?

Now that Breen’s records have been invalidated, the number of under-vaccinated students attending New York schools is unclear. Efforts to contact impacted parents and verify actual vaccine status will take time. In the interim, there may be thousands of students attending school who are not up to date on immunizations, need revaccination, or require first time vaccination.

What is the disease risk for schools?

The immediate concern is the disease risk created by potentially thousands of under-vaccinated students across New York schools. Measles, mumps and rubella could easily spread among clusters of unvaccinated children. Health departments are closely monitoring schools for any outbreaks while trying to validate vaccine records.

Will more oversight lead to conflict?

Authorities will likely increase auditing and verification around vaccine and medical exemptions. But more scrutiny and oversight often creates pushback among factions like the anti-vaccination movement who will see this as an attack on personal rights and freedoms. There could be ongoing conflict and legal challenges around vaccination and enrollment requirements.

The exposure of mass vaccine record falsification has sent shockwaves through the New York healthcare regulatory system. As officials scramble to assess the fallout, the ultimate impact on families, schools and vaccination efforts remains uncertain. With disease risk heightened, authorities are racing to validate immunization records and close dangerous vaccination gaps created by Breen’s fraudulent scheme.

Tables Summarizing Key Data Points

Fake Vaccine Records Generated By Midwife

• Nearly 1,500 students had fake vaccine records created in just Nassau County alone
• Total number of falsified records could exceed 12,000 statewide

Fake Vaccines Administered

• Administered fraudulent vaccines and created fake inoculation records over 10+ years
• Activity peaked around 2016-2018 with over 1,500 false vaccines per year

Next Steps & Areas to Monitor

With the unraveling of the midwife’s fake vaccine scheme, there remains much uncertainty about impacts to families, schools, and health departments. Some key next steps include:

• Contacting Parents: Health departments must try to contact all impacted families to verify actual vaccine status of students. This could be thousands of students across multiple counties.

• Revaccinations: Students without proper vaccinations will need to receive inoculations, or revaccinations in some cases. County health departments will likely hold dedicated vaccine clinics.

• Monitoring Schools: With high numbers of under-vaccinated students, disease surveillance needs to increase. Schools will be monitored closely for outbreaks of measles, mumps, rubella and other illnesses.

• Assessing Exemptions: Audits will be launched on existing vaccine exemptions to ensure they are valid. More legal and policy changes could occur limiting reasons for vaccine exemptions. Conflict over vaccine requirements is likely to increase.

• Provider Investigations: If the midwife’s fraud went undetected so long, further investigations may occur on other practitioners related to vaccines. More enforcement and oversight on vaccine administration and record keeping could follow.

The ultimate impacts of the uncovered scheme are still developing as officials work urgently to assess and close dangerous vaccination gaps. With the midwife now facing justice, the focus shifts to protecting schoolchildren and communities from consequences of the fraudulent vaccine records which could reverberate for years to come.

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