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Long Island Midwife Gave Pellets Instead of Vaccines to 1,500 Children
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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United States | News & Politics
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How is a midwife authorized to give vaccines in the first place? Seems like a job for pediatricians and nurses.
She’s graduated from nursing school with a master’s degree, which probably means she’s not a nurse (because why would you phrase it like that), but a professional equivalent.
I don't think the requirements for giving vaccines are that high. It's not that difficult to do (for most vaccines at least). Most pharmacists do it as well.
It’s not that it’s hard, but you need to have qualifications to avoid fakers.
And to that point why not authorize a midwife to vaccinate? They're already delivering a baby.
These were not newborns. They were school age kids.
Ah - yeah - I just mean that if you're going to trust somebody to be a midwife it's not much of a stretch to trust them to do vaccinations.
I mean, I don’t trust midwives as it is. But their “expertise” is limited to delivering babies.
I don't understand what you're objecting to. Why wouldn't you want more people being able to distribute vaccines? Making it easier for people to get vaccinated is a Good Thing(tm). What "expertise" do you think is needed?
This woman wasn’t distrusting vaccines, she was helping people fake them.
More people with fewer qualifications to offer them is more opportunity for antivaxxers to help people fake vaccination.
I.. I know.
And less people with qualifications to administer vaccines means fewer people vaccinated.
Is that really a major problem? I know during the pandemic it was an issue, but who can’t get an MRR due to not enough doctors available?
So - you realize the issue here isn't one of competence but one of fraud right? It's not like she did this by accident. She did this on purpose. Nurses can commit fraud. The credentials of the midwife had absolutely nothing to do with what she did. I guarantee more nurses than you are comfortable with are anti-vax.
It would be easier to catch if not in some fly by night private practice. And certainly a practice that regularly vaccinated children like a pediatric office is less likely to see this happen.
And it still makes no sense. I’m not going to go to a cardiologist for a flu shot. Why bring pediatric patients to a birthing specialist?
Yes, there are way too many anti-vaccines nurses and doctors and every damn one of them should lose their license to practice medicine. And this woman should be jailed.
Okay - whatever. I don't even know what you're arguing for - just that you seem to be "opposed to bad things".
A pharmacist is still a medically trained doctor, they usually have at least one RN on staff as well, and the last time I got a vaccine at Walgreens it was the RN that administered it to me.
A midwife is by definition a nurse. The full title is certified nurse midwife (CNM). Midwifery is extra training beyond normal nursing duties but they still have all standard nurse training as well.
Ok. Why would you take a school-aged child to a midwife?
I don't see why not. Like I said, they're still a nurse. Being a midwife is additional training on top of that. At most hospitals when they aren't midwifing then they are still just doing other nurse stuff elsewhere. My mom is literally a midwife but she also frequently works shifts in various other departments. It doesn't take anything special to administer vaccines. Any nurse can give someone a shot.
I don’t see why when there are pediatricians.
And this wasn’t someone doing side work at a hospital, this was a charlatan selling fake vaccine records as a business.
Your original comment that I was replying to asked why a midwife could give vaccines when that was a job for nurses and pediatricians. I was pointing out that midwifes are nurses. I wasn't responding to the article. As far as administering a vaccine, which is what I assumed your second comment was talking about, any nurse can do that. Even a pharmacy intern can administer vaccines.
The fact that this person is a quack has nothing to do with what a midwife is or weather they can administer vaccines.
I am not arguing it’s hard to administer vaccines. I’m arguing, in this anti-vaccine world, who do we trust to actually do it and document it properly?