A Long Island midwife is accused of falsifying vaccinations for more than 1,000 New York school children, most of them from the New York City metropolitan area, the state health department announced Wednesday.
The state alleged that midwife Janet Breen falsified immunization records for approximately 1,500 children across the state at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. Breen was fined $300,000 and permanently barred from administering any vaccines that must be reported to the state, officials said.
“The New York State Department of Health takes this matter seriously and will investigate and pursue all efforts at its disposal against anyone found to have committed such violations,” State Health Commissioner James MacDonald said in a statement. We will use enforcement tools.”
The Department of Health did not say which schools were affected due to privacy concerns, but 300 schools across the state were notified Wednesday morning, with most of their children on Long Island, New York City and the lower Hudson Valley. He is from the watershed, state health officials said. Most of the affected students in New York City were in Queens and Brooklyn, the state said. Students in Erie County, about 600 miles away from the Breen clinic on Long Island, were also affected.
“This licensed medical professional simply put the health and safety of our school community at risk by intentionally falsifying a student’s immunization record,” state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said in a statement. “Instead, it has damaged the public’s trust.”
The state said the fabrication included vaccine records for polio, chickenpox, measles, mumps and rubella, but excluded COVID-19 vaccinations. Students will be required to prove they have received or are in the process of getting a vaccine in short supply before returning to school.
City and state officials did not immediately say how many school children were affected in New York City or whether they attended public schools.
Breen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
School vaccinations have become a major issue in New York state in recent years. The state in 2019 eliminated non-medical religious exemptions for mandatory school vaccinations, sparking an outcry from anti-vaccine activists and some parents.
The parents of the affected school children allegedly sought out and paid Breen to avoid the state’s vaccination mandate shortly after their religious exemptions ended, according to the health department.
Breen, who lacked the necessary federal approvals and approvals, is also accused of giving students oral substances in the form of “pellets” that were illegally sold as substitutes for vaccinations.
Breen is paying half of the fine from the state, and the rest will be waived if he follows all the terms of the agreement, which state officials have not made public.