NEW YORK — A New York midwife who gave nearly 1,500 children homeopathic pellets instead of required vaccinations has been fined $300,000, the state health department announced this week.
Jeanette Breen, who operates Baldwin Midwifery on Long Island, administered the pellets as an alternative to vaccinations and then falsified their immunization records, the agency said Wednesday.
The scheme, which dates back least to the 2019-2020 school year, involved families from across the state, but the majority live in suburban Long Island. In 2019, New York ended a religious exemption from vaccine requirements for schoolchildren.
The health department said the immunization records of the children who received the falsified records have been invalidated, and their families must now prove that the students are up to date on the required vaccinations or at least in the process of receiving them before attending can return home. school.
“Misrepresenting or falsifying vaccine data endangers lives and undermines the system in place to protect public health,” state Health Commissioner James McDonald said in a statement.
Breen, a government-licensed health care provider, provided patients with the “Real Immunity Homeoprophylaxis Program,” a series of oral pellets marketed as an alternative to vaccination but not recognized or approved by state or federal regulators as valid immunizations, the health department said.
She administered 12,449 bogus vaccinations to approximately 1,500 school-aged patients before providing information to the state immunization database claiming that the children had received required vaccinations against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and other diseases. a host of other diseases, the department said.
Breen’s attorney said Thursday that his client cooperated with investigators, paid her fine and plans to comply with all other requirements of her agreement with health officials.
“Suffice to say, Mrs. Breen has provided excellent obstetric services to many families for many years, especially on Long Island. She is now at the end of her career,” David Eskew wrote in an emailed statement. “From her perspective, this case is over, done and closed and she is now moving on with her life.”
As part of the settlement, Breen has paid $150,000 of the $300,000 fine, with the remainder suspended on the condition that she comply with state health laws and never again administer any immunization that is reportable to the state, the Department of Health said. Public health. She is also permanently locked out of the state’s vaccine registration system.
Department of Health spokesperson Erin Clary said Thursday that while parents and legal guardians had sought out and paid Breen for her services, they were not the focus of the agency’s investigation.
State health officials say they are now in the process of notifying hundreds of affected school districts.
