Police are investigating a mother who claimed to be selling lollipops infected with her son’s chickenpox to ‘help’ the anti-vaxxer community.
The woman wrote about her bizarre offer on an anti-vaccination Facebook page ahead of Halloween, revealing while everyone else was preparing to give out shop-bought sweets to excited trick-or-treaters, she was apparently tainting lollipops.
Her name on Facebook ends with RN, standing for registered nurse, with her profile description claiming she works as a staff nurse at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, Australia.
The Royal Children’s Hospital is actually located in Melbourne, however, with the only children’s hospital in Brisbane called the Queensland Children’s Hospital.
A spokesperson for Queensland Health, which oversees the staffing at all of the state’s hospitals, has confirmed the woman was not a nurse – nor has she ever been, news.com.au reports.
They explained:
There are no current or former employees by that name that have worked for Queensland Health as a registered nurse.
This is a serious issue and has been referred to police, who are investigating.
The woman shared a picture of the lollipops on Facebook and explained her ‘beautiful son’ has chickenpox so together they’d decided to ‘help others with this natural immunity’.
It’s not clear exactly what she’d done to the sweets, but she referred to having opened the packaging and wrote ‘can’t wait to help others in our community’, suggesting the lollies had been contaminated in some way.
The mum then went on to say she was selling the candy for $1, plus postage. Because why protect yourself against a disease when you could pay to have it?
The supposed nurse’s post gained attention when it was shared by Light For Riley, a Facebook page stressing the importance of vaccination created after the parents of Riley Hughes lost their son to whooping cough.
Riley’s dad criticised the woman’s bizarre offer, writing:
Have you ever seen something that instantaneously makes your skin crawl? How’s this.
1. Get excited by your child being infected with the chickenpox virus.
2. Formulate a plan to intentionally infect other people’s children unknowingly by distributing contaminated lollipops to the community on Halloween.
3. Proceed to gloat about it on a Facebook anti vaccination group.
It’s not often I’m lost for words but this just about does it.
Though the father claimed the lollies would infect other people’s children ‘unknowingly’, the mum’s post did not suggest she was being deceitful about what the sweets were. In fact, her horrific honesty was what caused the controversy in the first place.
Queensland Health have stated the risk of chicken pox transmission from the lollipops would be extremely low, though the post is still being branded as irresponsible.
Despite receiving criticisms, the mother reportedly took to Facebook once again to argue her case.
Standing by her original post, she wrote:
Dear internet trolls.
You think you’re right by judging me and my trying to report me and get me fired. I don’t care. The health and wellbeing of my baby is far more valuable than any job.
The mum continued:
You say I’m vile and gross like I have done something that hundreds of thousands of parents haven’t already done.
How many times do you see children dropped off to day care or school when they’re clearly sick and contagious? Exactly!
And I’m offering life long immunity for the price of a couple of blisters and a few days off school.
A spokesperson for Queensland Police has confirmed it was aware of the post and is investigating.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.