An estimated 273 Suffolk County students had vaccination records with the office of a Baldin midwife who has been fined for falsifying vaccination reports, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services said Thursday.
The department said that Jeanette Breen of Baldwin Midwifery admitted to providing fraudulent vaccines and entering false vaccination records into the New York State Immunization Information System.
Those students will need to meet vaccination requirements to attend school, the department said.
“Immunizations recommended by the CDC have gone through rigorous testing and are proven to be safe and effective against diseases that can cause serious harm and take lives,” said Dr. Gregson Pigott, Suffolk County health commissioner. “We encourage all parents to ensure their children have received all recommended vaccines in order to protect them from serious illness.”
The Suffolk County Department of Health Services is awaiting the list of impacted Suffolk County students. Families may call 631-854-0222 for information and assistance.
The state health department said that about 1,500 students around the state affected.
The vaccination scheme began at the start of the 2019-2020 school year, just three months after the June 2019 elimination of non-medical exemptions for required school immunizations, the state said.
Patients were given a “Real Immunity Homeoprophylaxis Program,” a series of oral pellets marketed by an out-of-state homeopath as an alternative to vaccination. The homeopathic pellets are not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the Department as an immunizing agent against any disease. The false vaccinatio program began in the school year 2019-2020, and did not include the Covid-19 vaccines.
Breen administered 12,449 fake immunizations to roughly 1,500 school-aged patients as pretext for submitting false information to the New York State Immunization Information System, the state said.
The immunizations that were part of the scheme included: diphtheria, tetanus toxoid-containing and pertussis vaccine (DTaP or Tdap); hepatitis B vaccine; measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR); polio vaccine; varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine; meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY); booster doses of MenACWY; and the Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine (HiB) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) required for day care and pre-k only. Although not required for school enrollment and attendance, the scheme also included vaccines for flu and hepatitis A.
She was fined $300,000 by the state.