612
submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] stoly@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

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

[-] doctorcrimson@lemmy.today 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

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.

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Thanks for the research.

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

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

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

That makes a great deal of sense.

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

totally, and generally is effective until you run into fuckwits like this lady. We had awesome, science-based midwives to help our delivery and it went great. Some states like WA license both at the state level and require other education / certs.

this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
612 points (98.7% liked)

News

37770 readers
527 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.


Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.


7. No duplicate posts.


If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.


All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS