Teacher Arrested After Injecting Minor With What Appeared to Be a Covid-19 Vaccine – The New York Times

A 54-year-old public-school science teacher on Long Island was arrested on New Years Eve after being accused of giving a teenager an injection of what appeared to be Covid-19 vaccine without his parents consent, the Nassau County police said.

The police said that the teacher, Laura Parker Russo, administered a shot of what appeared to be a coronavirus vaccine to 17-year-old boy in her house in Sea Cliff, N.Y. The youth later went home and told his mother, who called the police and said she had not authorized the vaccination.

Ms. Russo was charged with unauthorized practice of a profession, the police said. She has been removed from her classroom in the Herricks Public Schools system in New Hyde Park and reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation, schools officials said in a statement. A school website, which has been taken down, said Ms. Russo teaches at Herricks High School.

Ms. Russo did not respond immediately to an email sent by The New York Times. She was released after her arrest and is scheduled to appear in criminal court on Jan. 21, the police said. Unauthorized practice of a profession is a felony under the state education law that carries a penalty of up to four years in prison.

The majority of states, including New York, require parental consent for minors to receive Covid vaccinations. Some parents have prevented their children from getting inoculated for various reasons, including concerns about possible side effects and safety.

Scientists say the vaccines are known to be safe for children 5 and older, and they urge vaccinating them because children can both spread the virus to others and become seriously ill themselves. The spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant has led to an increase in pediatric hospitalizations.

And because broad immunity cannot be reached unless minors are vaccinated, federal and state officials hope that more parents will vaccinate their children, especially as many students return to school.

Daily reports of new coronavirus cases have quadrupled in Nassau County over the past two weeks, according to The New York Timess tracker. Hospitalizations in the county have risen 47 percent in that time.

Seventy-six percent of Nassau County residents are vaccinated, according to The Timess tracker, and the rate for 12- to 17-year-olds is only slightly lower, at 72 percent, according to state data.

There is no statewide Covid vaccine mandate for schoolchildren in New York. But some private schools require vaccination, and New York City requires it for certain sports and extracurricular activities.

In September, Los Angeles became the first school district to mandate vaccines for children 12 and older, with a deadline of Jan. 10, but those plans have since been delayed. The Washington, D.C., Council has voted to mandate vaccines for students 16 and older starting March 1.

This is a major source of tension between what is important for public health and what is important in terms of individual liberties and parental autonomy, said Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.

Schools require other vaccines for enrollment, like vaccination against measles.

Thats the big question: Does Covid-19 fall into the same category as some of these other vaccine preventable diseases that we do require for school entry, or does it not? Dr. Nash said.

James C. McKinley Jr. contributed reporting.

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Teacher Arrested After Injecting Minor With What Appeared to Be a Covid-19 Vaccine - The New York Times