A New York biology teacher is facing up to four years in prison for allegedly giving a Covid-19 vaccine to a 17-year-old boy against his mother’s wishes – and despite not being a trained medical professional with authorization to do so.
Laura Russo, who teaches at Herricks high school on Long Island, reportedly administered the jab to one of her son’s friends after he asked for it. The teen’s mother had not wanted him to be inoculated against the deadly virus and did not consent to the injection.
Video published by NBC New York allegedly shows Russo giving the shot at her residence in Sea Cliff, a village on Long Island. “There you go, at-home vaccine,” someone says in the background.
The boy later told his mother what had happened. She alerted the police, who arrested Russo on New Year’s Eve after finding that she was not a medical professional and was not authorized to give vaccines.
Russo has been charged with unauthorized practice of a profession under New York state education law, a felony offense that carries a sentence of up to four years, the Washington Post reported. She has been released and is expected to appear in court on 21 January, police said.
District officials for the Herricks public schools said the incident was not school-related and Russo “has been removed from the classroom and reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation”.
It is unclear how Russo obtained the vial of an approved Covid-19 vaccine, which only medical professionals and healthcare facilities are able to order, according to the Post.
Experts frown upon unauthorized Covid-19 vaccinations as generally dangerous and ill-advised, given the complexities of administering the jab. Intramuscular injections like the Covid-19 vaccines require specific training even for medical professionals, and the mRNA technology can break down if it is not stored and handled correctly.
“Besides being illegal, it’s just not a smart thing to do,” Aaron Glatt, the chair of the department of medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau, told NBC New York.
“An authorized, licensed professional should be providing vaccines to know how to give them properly – to make sure if there’s a complication, that can be dealt with immediately and very efficiently.”