Parents are paying $2500 to falsify vaccine records. It’s endangering babies like Riley

Catherine Hughes’ baby Riley died from a vaccine-preventable disease before he was old enough to smile. “He was just peaceful. He didn’t cry much. He was just a sweet little thing with blonde hair, blue eyes and beautiful, soft skin,” she said. “Then everything turned upside down.”

Riley was three weeks old in February 2015 when she began developing what Catherine thought were mild cold symptoms. Catherine called a doctor to check on her sniffly son and said he looked “perfectly fine.” But when Riley stopped feeding, Catherine had one of those sickening intuitions only a mother can have. “The next morning I tried to feed him but he wasn’t interested; he just kept falling asleep,” she said. “So we took him to the children’s hospital.”

By his third day in the hospital, doctors suspected Riley had whooping cough. The fourth time, he developed pneumonia, and the fifth, he was put on life support. The Bordetella pertussis bug had taken over his tiny body.

“He passed away when he was 32 days old,” Hughes recalled.

“If everyone in my community had been fully vaccinated against whooping cough, my son would probably be alive today.”

Now, a reporter And Age The investigation finds that parents bragged about paying anti-vaccine doctors and nurses to falsify Medicare records and fraudulently seek government payments to enroll their children in child care.

“Imagine being a mom dropping your two-year-old off at child care, and one of the kids there has whooping cough or measles, and that spreads throughout child care, putting your child at risk?” Margie Danchin, professor of paediatrics and vaccinology at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, said: “This is a huge public health issue.”

Health experts warn that unvaccinated children risk infecting themselves with preventable diseases, while reducing herd immunity and putting others at risk of severe illness or death. Vaccine uptake in Australia falls short of national targets in a global global environment Anti-vaccine sentiment is increasing sentiment fueled in part by the United States. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.said Danchin.

“No vaccine, no copay” and “no vaccine, no play” policies mean that in most parts of Australia, unvaccinated children cannot enroll in childcare or nursery, and families cannot benefit from tax benefits unless they have medical exemptions or are included in the vaccine catch-up scheme.

The restrictions have led some parents to contact their health care providers to change their vaccination records, Danchin said.

‘2500 dollars per child’

Parents are using an anti-vaccine Facebook group with more than 40,000 members to find doctors or nurses to fake their children’s vaccination records.

“Can anyone find a good doctor who is willing to sign off on full childhood immunizations or consider them medically exempt even though the child has not been vaccinated?” An article was read.

“I can update your child’s entire immunization schedule and upload it to your Medicare file without any further action. [syringe emoji] is managed,” came the reply. “And no, this is not a scam. I have helped hundreds of people since the COVID epidemic. If interested, send a DM on the Signal app.”

Another post read: “Very hard to find because they are risking their jobs doing it. From what I can find it costs thousands of dollars. Someone recently told me they knew a nurse who did this and charged $2500 per child.”

A father said he approached a GP about forging his daughter’s vaccination schedule.

“I am grateful to share that my daughter’s vaccination records were successfully updated in the database without requiring vaccinations,” the comment said. “He has since been accepted into kindergarten without any problems. If you are looking for information about alternative options for vaccination registrations, I would be happy to provide more details about the medical professionals who assisted me.”

Those authorized to register a vaccine on the Australian Immunization Register (AIR) are specialist qualified nurses who are registered as vaccine providers.

“You’re relying on the integrity of the medical provider to check those vaccine boxes correctly,” Danchin said. “While some parents will never be convinced, it is clear that we need to openly address parents’ concerns with better communication and resources to prevent this problem from growing.”

public health Experts warn 2019 vaccine mandates could backfireand “encouraging parents to look for loopholes and, worse, fueling negative attitudes towards vaccination”.

In November 2021, Perth nurse Christina Hartmann Benz was charged with fraudulently registering a vaccine after she allegedly witnessed a doctor inserting a needle into a 15-year-old boy’s arm but not dispensing the vaccine. A police prosecutor told the court that suspicions grew when patients kept asking about him specifically and he closed the door to his room, citing privacy reasons in a “clearly anti-vaccine stance”.

WA Police said a lack of health information hampered its ability to prosecute the 51-year-old and the case was dropped.

in Victoria, Registration of Doctor Denes Borsos suspended After issuing fake COVID-19 vaccine waivers to allow children to enroll in early education.

A spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia said it was aware that some healthcare professionals had been offered and rejected bribes during the Covid-19 pandemic to falsify vaccination records, adding: “This practice is not something our members have raised with us in recent years.”

The threat of childhood diseases returns

Health authorities in NSW Warns of increased risk of measles – a vaccine-preventable, airborne disease – 14 cases since December 1, 2025. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is given free of charge to children in 12 and 18 month doses. There will be 181 cases of measles in Australia in 2025. National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System – More than three times the figure in 2024.

A parent on Facebook The group asked if anyone “personally” knew of child care centers in Sydney’s southwest that were registering unvaccinated children despite their children being partially vaccinated. One mother said she had enrolled her child in Camden and could “share some places.”

One 2025 study on parents Of 2,000 under-fives, 47.9 percent of unvaccinated parents did not believe vaccines were safe, and 46.7 percent did not feel guilty if their unvaccinated child contracted a vaccine-preventable disease. Nearly 40 percent do not believe that vaccinating children helps protect others in society.

Permanent medical vaccine exemptions are granted under strict conditions to patients who have a life-threatening allergic reaction to a vaccine or have a severely weakened immune system.

PhD candidate Bianca Devsam, who researches medical exemptions, found that vaccine-hesitant and anti-vaccine parents seek medical exemptions at specialist clinics because they believe vaccines may not be safe for their children.

“Clinicians encountered very fixed beliefs, and some described experiences of aggression, abuse or threats in these consultations,” said Devsam, of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Results

Head of the department of paediatrics and child health at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Dr. Niroshini Kennedy said the introduction of childhood vaccines is transforming pediatrics.

“Measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough — these are all diseases that have become substantially less common because of our vaccination program,” he said. “Frankly, it is quite worrying to think that this situation may change due to increasing hesitancy about the vaccine in society.”

Any medical practitioner registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) found to be acting fraudulently risks suspension or deregistration.

A spokesman for the regulator said: “AHPRA is concerned about any behavior involving practitioners or practitioners that does not put the health and welfare of patients first.” “Allegations of fraudulent activity in vaccination practice are thankfully very rare. Anyone with a complaint about a practitioner is urged to do so. Contact AHPRA.”

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said vaccines played a crucial role in protecting children and misinformation and disinformation were factors fueling vaccine hesitancy and rejection.

“I am shocked and appalled that any doctor or nurse would falsify vaccination records,” he said. “If these reports are true, these doctors and nurses need to be referred to AHPRA for investigation.

“These diseases can spread rapidly, especially in schools and child care settings, and can lead to serious complications, hospitalization and, in some cases, death.”

The federal Department of Health said it was unaware of any confirmed cases of parents paying health practitioners to fraudulently update children’s records.

Medical practitioners who knowingly submit false or misleading information to the national registry face disciplinary action and/or imprisonment.

Services Australia is investigating members of the public involved in Medicare and Centrelink fraud.

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