Midwife who gave 1,500 kids homeopathic pellets instead of vaccines put "lives in jeopardy," New York health officials say

A New York midwife who gave nearly 1,500 children homeopathic pellets instead of required vaccinations was issued an unprecedented $300,000 fine for putting "lives in jeopardy," 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.