Police probing Facebook post about Australian mom giving out chickenpox-tainted candy: report
Police are reportedly investigating after an Australian anti-vaccination mom said Wednesday that she would be handing out chickenpox-infected lollipops for Halloween.
The mom, who online goes by the name Sarah Walker RN, shared in “Stop Mandatory Vaccination,” a private Facebook group, that her son was sick with chickenpox and that she planned to “help” other kids in the neighborhood by giving out candy that had come in contact with the virus, Yahoo reported Friday.
“My beautiful son [redacted] has the chickenpox at the moment and we’ve both decided to help others with natural immunity this Halloween!” she wrote in her post.
{mosads}Walker’s Facebook page claims that she’s a registered nurse at Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, but Queensland Health, the parent company of the The Royal Children’s Hospital, has no records of her ever working at the hospital, which is actually located in Melbourne.
“There are no current or former employees by that name that have worked for Queensland Health as a registered nurse,” the hospital posted on Facebook.
“This is a serious issue and has been referred to police, who are investigating.”
In response to widespread criticism online, Walker reportedly took to Facebook again, saying, “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.”
Walker compared to what she was doing to parents who drop their sick children off at school.
“I’m offering life long immunity for the price of a couple of blisters and a few days off school,” she said.
Luckily, authorities say that even if Walker went through with her plan, the chance of children contracting chickenpox from the lollipops would be very low as the virus struggles to survive on surfaces.
That said, if Walker is indeed found guilty of food tampering, she could face significant jail time.
In 2018, Australia’s parliament increased the number of years for food tampering to 15 years in prison. The law also made making a hoax about tampering with food a punishable offense of up to 10 years in prison.