this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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A New York midwife who gave nearly 1,500 children homeopathic pellets instead of required vaccinations has been fined $300,000, the state’s 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 goes back least to the 2019-2020 school year, involved families throughout the state, but the majority reside on suburban Long Island. In 2019, New York ended a religious exemption to vaccine requirements for schoolchildren.

The health department said immunization records of the children who received the falsified records have been voided, and their families must now prove the students are up-to-date with their required shots or at least in the process of getting them before they can return to school.

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[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 101 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (5 children)

Homeopathy should be outlawed. Pseudoscience masquerading as healthcare.

[–] mihies@kbin.social 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

There is placebo effect as well, so it might somehow help. But not the way they think and it shouldn't be a substitute for proper medicine.

[–] sjmarf@sh.itjust.works 25 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Not for babies, it won’t

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[–] derf82@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

The placebo effect isn’t stopping measles or polio.

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[–] ryan213@lemmy.ca 53 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wow, she avoided jail time!

[–] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 48 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Didn't even lose her license from what it reads like. That's crazy. These kinds of people are dangerous.

[–] EdibleFriend@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

I swear in the last story it said she lost her license. Still not good enough but yeah.

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

That really sucks

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago (6 children)

"My six-year-old needs to be protected from a deadly disease but I don't trust vaccines. I know! I'll call a midwife!"

She is awful and deserves prison time, not just a fine, but the parents are also fucking stupid.

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

The importantance of vaccines are "I need to do my part to protect OTHER kids AND adults from deadly disease"

That's the biggest part of this problem though, it's not "my six year old" on the table here - it's everyone's six year old. I have a responsibility to understand that.

If we can't understand the above, then we don't live in a functioning society.

[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

Unfortunately at this point we actually don't live in a functioning society.

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[–] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So much pain caused by this person. Forcing all the families to re-do everything. Stupid bitch; should be sitting in jail.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 49 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Apparently the families came to her to try and get fake vaccines.

[–] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Ah. Thank you for the additional information. It wasn't clear from the headline and description, although I probably should have inferred that detail. As well, I did not read the article.

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[–] derf82@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The families are the ones that sought her out. No sympathy for them. She was helping anti-vaxxers skip the law who previously used a religious exemption.

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And jailtime? She actively and knowingly risked the lives of children FFS, not only the ones she gave crap, but also the ones around them.

She should be jailed for a long time

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[–] Rooter@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago

No jail time? That's disappointing.

[–] Legendsofanus@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Why would someone do this? Do they feel like a rebellious hero?

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 10 months ago

Or they got paid under the table for faked vaccine records by nutcase parents

[–] TwinTusks@bitforged.space 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They would feel like they are saving the children from the evil government that try to give dangerous drugs to kids.

[–] Legendsofanus@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Is there any way to stop this kind of thinking in old people?

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago (1 children)

be the us government in the last 100 years and don't ... deliberately infect people with syphilis (Tuskagee), deliberately test lead paint on their children (JH-KKI), test chemical weapons on them (Whitecoat), enact compulsory sterilization (Buck v Bell), adding spinal taps to kids (Wentworth), replace prison inmates testicles with dead men's/animal testicles (San Quentin), or give them malaria (Stateville) or spray them with pesticides until they get lupus, brain issues or their skin is forever damaged (Holmesberg) spray an entire US city (San Francisco) with pneumonia-inducing bacteria (Seaspray), give a school class hepetits (Willowbrook), try to give the entire state of Georgia malaria (Operation Big Buzz), hire sex workers to give out their services for free and then inject people with experimental drugs and LSD (Midnight Climax), deliberately put mental health patients into months-long medical-induced comas, then wake them into them wearing a blacked out helmet where they can't see or hear but are played a loop saying "You are a good person" while physically restrained, being randomly electrocuted and fed a cocktail of drugs... for weeks or months without rest, causing the patients to end up completely incapable of normal human function afterwards (MKULTRA Sub-proj 68)...

probably some of that eroded some trust among the general populace (not an anti vaxxer btw but wanted to add some context that some concerns aren't totally unfounded)

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[–] GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca 14 points 10 months ago

Why is she not in prison for life?

[–] GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Only $200 per incidence? That doesn't seem very steep for giving with peoples' lives

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[–] ChewTiger@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

I'll say the same thing I just said in another post.

What a trash bag of a human being.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm amazed that vaccines are part of a midwife's role.

[–] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I looked it up and while it doesn't have a specific number of credits to be a licensed midwife in the state of New York, they do require you complete a Midwifery Course and require at least some Nutrition and Pharmacology credits as well as a comprehensive examination. The lowest number of credits I could find for Midwifery was 88 which is a lot less than an average bachelor's degree, but some higher level courses required RN status to complete. It appears the term is synonymous with Nurse in a lot of contexts so at first I thought it might be a difference in dialect, but upon closer inspection many midwife organizations appear holistic in nature, as in "spiritualism."

I really hate people who actively harm others based on their spiritual beliefs. The world would be better if she spent her life in prison, not just fined.

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[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

they're simply trying to increase the number of opportunities to vaccinate.

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That makes a great deal of sense.

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[–] ExfilBravo@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Wait until she needs a doctor and then send her to a clown doctor instead. So she knows how it feels.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Isn't that a crime?

Edit:

while parents and legal guardians had sought out and paid Breen for her services, they weren’t the focus of the agency’s investigation.

Ok, that's slightly different. I thought she was giving children fake vaccines without their knowledge. Still incredibly shitty, and it isn't clear but it sounds like she's still allowed to practice as a midwife, just not vaccinate people.

[–] SharkAttak@kbin.social 6 points 10 months ago (11 children)

Endangering childrens' lives? Yes, I think..

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago

Child Endangerment is also a crime

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

That's exactly the type of person Long Island is full of

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