Forged via Facebook. The anti-vax parents faking child health records

Summary

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Podcast Summary:

The Morning Edition
Episode: Forged via Facebook. The anti-vax parents faking child health records
Date: February 1, 2026
Host: Julia Karkatzel
Guest: Kayla Olea (Reporter, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald)

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Episode Overview

This episode investigates how some Australian parents are using Facebook groups to connect with doctors and nurses willing to falsify their children’s immunisation records, allowing unvaccinated children access to education and government benefits. Reporter Kayla Olea shares the findings of her investigation, discusses public health risks, examines motivations behind these actions, and explores the challenge of enforcement and accountability.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Discovery of Falsified Records via Facebook

[01:25 – 02:38]

• Kayla Olea stumbles upon a Facebook post offering fake immunisations, promising:
  "I can get your child's full immunization schedule up to date and uploaded to your Medicare file without any jab being administered. And no, it's not a scam. I've helped hundreds of people since the COVID pandemic." (Kayla quoting Facebook post, 01:34)
• These groups have around 40,000 members; some parents pay up to $2,500 per child for false records.
• There are parents boasting online about using these services to get children enrolled in school or to access benefits.
• Notably, some anti-vax group members oppose this fraud, urging others:
  "If we have the same ideology, stick by it, don't commit fraud, don't skirt your way, don't cheat the system, stick by your decision." (Kayla, 04:30)

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2. Vaccine Mandate Policies in Australia

[02:43 – 04:55]

• No Jab, No Pay / No Jab, No Play:
  • No Jab, No Play prohibits unvaccinated children from attending childcare or preschool in most states.
  • No Jab, No Pay removes government benefits if children aren't vaccinated or on catch-up schedules, unless a legitimate exemption is granted.
• These financial and social pressures motivate some parents to seek fraudulent means to ‘comply’ without vaccinating their children.

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3. Public Health Risks of Non-Vaccination

[05:11 – 05:27]

• Kayla explains:
  "The risk really is that your child can get seriously infected or can infect others. The risk is also that it can lower herd immunity...which can potentially lead to death." (Kayla, 05:13)

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4. Personal Impact: Catherine Hughes' Story

[05:35 – 08:04]

• Catherine Hughes lost her son Riley at just 32 days old due to whooping cough.
• Riley’s infection was likely preventable if community vaccination levels had been higher.
• Catherine became a major vaccine advocate, founding the Immunisation Foundation of Australia after her tragic loss.
  • "She says her son is likely to be alive today if everyone in her community had been fully vaccinated against whooping cough." (Kayla, 05:53)

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5. Wider Context: Rising Vaccine Hesitancy and Disease Resurgence

[08:46 – 12:38]

• Pandemic aftermath: Mandates during COVID-19 created backlash and increased vaccine hesitancy.
• Online communities spread misinformation—some describe vaccination as “poison,” and perpetuate scientifically disproven links to conditions like autism.
  • "People see, especially in these Facebook groups, vaccinating children as poison. They use that word a lot." (Kayla, 11:22)
• Measles uptake declining:
  • 2025 saw 168 measles cases in Australia (up from 57 in 2024).
  • Diseases previously under control (measles, whooping cough, mumps, rubella) are resurging.

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6. Motivations & Case Studies of Medical Professionals Involved

[12:39 – 14:55]

• Doctors and nurses issuing fake immunisation records are motivated by anti-mandate beliefs or financial incentives.
  • Example: Dr. Dennis Boros (Victoria) suspended for fake COVID-19 exemptions in 2021.
  • Example: A Perth nurse allegedly administered “fake” vaccines; charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
• The issue is highly untraceable:
  "It's really hard to prove...it's an untraceable problem. It's really difficult to prosecute or to know who and where this is happening." (Kayla, 14:23)
• Even a small number of falsified records undermines the national data and herd immunity efforts.

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7. Accountability and Systemic Challenges

[15:05 – 17:14]

• The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) confirms fraudulent practitioners risk suspension, deregistration, and criminal charges—but prosecutions are rare.
• Prosecutions are hampered by challenges in tracking and proving falsification.
• The Pharmaceutical Society notes members were offered bribes during the COVID-19 pandemic, though such reports have dwindled since.
• Kayla notes:
  "I'm just sort of relying on these Facebook groups of people really seeking to cheat the system..." (Kayla, 17:03)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Discovering fake immunisation services online:
  "I saw a really specific post by an anonymous participant...‘I can get your child's full immunization schedule up to date and uploaded to your Medicare file without any jab being administered. And no, it's not a scam. I've helped hundreds of people since the COVID pandemic.’" (Kayla, 01:29)

• A parent’s proud testimonial:
  "I'm grateful to share that my daughter's immunization records were successfully updated in the database without requiring vaccination. She has been accepted into kindergarten without issue." (Quoted by Kayla, 03:38)

• On internal anti-vaxxer debates:
  "There are anti vaxxers in these Facebook groups who actually reply saying, hey, if we have the same ideology, stick by it, don't commit fraud..." (Kayla, 04:30)

• On community responsibility:
  "Fundamentally what vaccinating your child means is that you are participating in protecting everybody, not just your child, but people who cannot be vaccinated..." (Kayla, 11:55)

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Important Segments with Timestamps

• Discovery of Facebook group fraud — [01:25 – 02:38]
• Vaccination mandate policies explained — [02:43 – 04:55]
• Personal story (Catherine Hughes & Riley) — [05:35 – 08:04]
• Pandemic’s impact on hesitancy — [08:46 – 12:38]
• Doctors and nurses falsifying records — [12:39 – 14:55]
• Systemic and enforcement challenges — [15:05 – 17:14]

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Conclusion

This episode exposes a hidden dimension of Australia’s anti-vaccination movement, where organized online networks and a few complicit health professionals enable parents to evade life-saving policies. The practice threatens public health, undermines herd immunity, and raises complex challenges for policymakers and regulators. While fraud and data manipulation remain difficult to trace and prosecute, the investigation highlights the critical importance of community immunity, trust in science, and ethical conduct—within both the public and medical communities.

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Transcript

[A]

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[B]

No jab, no play. Policies mean unvaccinated children can't be enrolled in childcare or preschool in most Australian jurisdictions. But some parents have found ways to evade those laws. According to an investigation by reporter Kayla Olea, these parents are using Facebook groups to share the contacts of doctors who will falsify their children's immunisation records. This as vaccine uptake in Australia has stalled. Below national targets. I'm Julia Karkatzel and you're listening to the Morning Edition from the Age and Sydney Morning Herald. It's Monday, February 2nd. So, Kayla, welcome to the podcast.

[C]

Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

[B]

Julia, now, you've been reporting on parents who have boasted about finding doctors and nurses online to falsify their children's vaccination records. How did you discover this was happening? And can you tell me a bit about how this actually works?

[C]

Yeah. So the discovery of it was quite random. I saw it on my Facebook, just naturally scrolling. And I saw a really specific post by an anonymous participant in this Facebook group for unvaccinated children that read, I can get your child's full immunization schedule up to date and uploaded to your Medicare file without any jab being administered. And no, it's not a scam. I've helped hundreds of people since the COVID pandemic. Up until now, DM me on signal if interested. My username is X and I thought it was obviously quite outrageous. I didn't really understand what was at the heart of this, whether it was someone hacking Medicare. But then after speaking with a colleague from the Health Department in my newsroom, they told me that though this is most likely a nurse, it's most likely a doctor. And. And then that led me kind of into this realm of unvaccinated children Facebook groups where a lot of parents are boasting, mainly using that anonymous feature on Facebook, to say, I've paid or I know a nurse who will charge $2,500 per child to alter the Medicare records.

[B]

So, Kayla, what are the rules around vaccinations and education?

[C]

So there are two nationwide policies. They're both called quite similar things. One is called the no pay, no jab, and the other one is the no jab, no play. These policies mean unvaccinated children either can't be enrolled in childcare or preschool in most states or face barriers or families lose tax benefit payments unless they have a medical exemption or are on a vaccine catch up program. So, so both of these are sort of vaccine mandate. They essentially say to parents, hey, you won't receive your full Centrelink payment unless you have your child fully vaccinated or there's a legitimate reason why your child cannot be vaccinated or you're not, or you're planning and you're intending to vaccinate your child otherwise. In some states you do have to pay complete fees. So parents just can't afford that or they can't afford to be a stay at home parent state. So the kind of allure of potentially paying $2,500 for a child is quite big. And I mean in one of those Facebook posts there was a father who fully name attached to the post said, and I quote, I'm grateful to share that my daughter's immunization records were successfully updated in the database without requiring vaccination. She has been accepted into kindergarten without issue. If you're seeking information on alternative options for immunization records, I'd be happy to provide more details about the medical professionals who assisted. And most of these posts as well, I will say have loads of comments of people saying, can you please message me? And they always are like, I've just sent you and it's a community and this specific Facebook group has 40,000 members and I'm not suggesting that all of them are potentially anti vaxxers. I do know that there are a lot of posts of pro vaxxers who are saying, you know, this is really murky, that this is really unethical. And there's also anti vaxxers in these Facebook groups who actually reply saying, hey, if we have the same ideology, stick by it, don't commit fraud, don't skirt your way, don't cheat the system, stick by your decision. So it is interesting to note that it's quite controversial even amongst the anti vax community in these Facebook groups.

[B]

That is interesting and we will get into the ethics of the anti vaxxer movement in a bit. And it is a movement that's kind of evolved over the decades. But just as a reminder, what are the public health risks of not vaccinating children?

[C]

The risk really is that your child can get seriously infected or can infect others. The risk is also that it can lower herd immunity and that has serious consequences of leaving others at risk of serious illness and can potentially lead to death.

[B]

And Kayla, you've been speaking with a woman called Catherine who lost her son under tragic Circumstances. Can you tell us her story?

[C]

So, in early 2015, Catherine Hughes, who's from Perth, she had given birth to her second baby, a baby boy named Riley, who was, as she described, a really peaceful boy who didn't cry much. She said he was such a sweet little thing with blonde hair, blue eyes and beautiful soft skin. But when he was about three weeks old, he started to develop what Catherine thought were mild cold symptoms. So he was sniffling. She called a doctor to her home who said that her boy looked perfectly fine. But really, the next day when he stopped feeding, she just instinctually knew that something was wrong, that her boy was not fine. He stopped crying for food and he kept falling asleep while feeding. And so they took Riley to the hospital. By his third day in hospital, doctors suspected Riley had whooping cough just by listening to his cough. The next day, he had pneumonia and on his fifth day, he was on life support. At that point, his little body was just completely overwhelmed by whooping cough. I'll note one in four infants with whooping cough will develop pneumonia. And then he passed away when he was only 32 days old. Catherine says her son is likely to be alive today if everyone in her community had been fully vaccinated against whooping cough. Catherine took to social media to start a petition so that pregnant women can have access to the whooping cough vaccine. And that led her to establish the Immunisation foundation of Australia, which actually helped lobby every state in Australia to allow pregnant women to have the whooping cough vaccine. And she's been an immense vaccine advocate for ever since. But, yeah, she obviously still carries that grief and she has two children now and a little dog, Augustus. But that's a consequence, you know, in probably the most extreme manner, death is the consequence, and it's just. It's just a really heartbreaking case.

[B]

After the break.

[C]

In New South Wales, health authorities have issued a warning about the increase of measles vaccine preventable airborne disease, which was at its peak in the early 1990s, I think one year, Australia saw hundreds of deaths of measles. And that wasn't really that long ago. That was three decades ago that we're talking about.

[B]

We'll be right back. Definitely heartbreaking. And that was back in 2015. But we're talking today about a rise that health authorities are observing in unvaccinated children now in 2026. What do you think is fueling that increase?

[C]

So the experts I've spoken to have pointed to the pandemic where vaccine mandates sort of began to push people in the other direction, in 2019, public health experts also warned that vaccine mandates can backfire and induce parents to seek loopholes and feel negative attitudes towards vaccinations. So that hesitancy that was sort of sparked during the COVID pandemic has really stalled national vaccine uptake in Australia, below national target. And this is also all in a global climate where rising anti vaccine sentiment is partially fueled by figures like U.S. health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And policies that the CDC is implementing in the U.S. about vaccinating children, which in the U.S. as well, a lot of doctors are not aligned with, even if we take it more locally. In New South Wales, health authorities have issued a warning about the increase of measles, but vaccine preventable airborne disease, which was at its peak in the early 1990s, I think one year, Australia saw hundreds of deaths of measles. And that wasn't really that long ago, that was three decades ago that we're talking about. So since December, New South Wales has seen 11 cases and last year across Australia there were 168 cases. According to the ABC, that's nearly a threefold rise from 57 cases in 2024. So measles, whooping cough, mumps, rubella, these are all conditions that have largely been made less common because of vaccination. And experts are quite concerned that these sort of quote unquote childhood diseases are returning. So along with our vaccination rates stalling behind national targets is sort of a movement of not trusting what doctors are saying. There is a lot of misinformation that, you know, even experts have noted is extremely worrying. And people see, especially in these Facebook groups, vaccinating children as poison. They use that word a lot. They think that it's poisoning children. They also believe that it fundamentally does lead to disabilities and disorders in whatever capacity. That is, autism being the one that's frequently brought up. I don't think people are acting in the traditional motives that I think we can, you know, believe. I think that they do love their children and I think that they sincerely believe that they are doing the best for their children. Herd immunity relies on a portion of the community to be immunised against a disease. And fundamentally what vaccinating your child means is that you are participating in protecting everybody, not just your child, but people who cannot be vaccinated, who are undergoing chemotherapy or are immunocompromised. It's a commitment to not allowing hundreds of deaths of measles each year. It's a commitment to saying we would prefer to have very low cases coming from overseas and being forced into a medical decision through vaccine mandates is a tough reality, but I think most Australians understand it is for the greater good. It's not a decision made by governments, but a decision that is thoroughly backed by science.

[B]

And just going back to the doctors who are falsifying the records, what's the incentive for them? Do they share some of these beliefs or is it financial? Can you tell me more about the reasoning you think is behind some of these doctors doing this?

[C]

Yeah, I mean, really the only motivation, I guess as a doctor to do these services is if you fundamentally do not believe that vaccines should be mandated. I can't exactly speculate per case attitude that each doctor or nurse has, but there has been two notable cases in the past few years of anti vax doctors and nurses. So in Victoria, a doctor called Dennis Boros had his registration suspended after he was issuing fake COVID 19 vaccine exemptions allowing children to enroll in early childhood education, as well as to allow families to access their full government payments in 2021 as well. So there's a Perth nurse who was charged with fraudulently recording a vaccine after a doctor allegedly witnessed her insert a needle into a 15 year old's arm but did not dispense the needle. A police prosecutor told the court that suspicions were raised when patients kept specifically asking for her and she would close the door to her room, citing privacy reasons, in what was, quote, clearly an anti vaccination stance. That case was dropped a month later because WA police cited a lack of health information which hindered their ability to prosecute her. And that's kind of another aspect to the story that health experts are raising, which is that it's an untraceable problem. It's really difficult to prosecute or to know who and where this is happening. It's also a problem with no size. We don't know how many people are walking around who on air or on those Medicare records are vaccinated, but in reality are not. And that's. I think the really worrying part is that even if it's a really small portion, very tiny portion of Australians who are falsely vaccinated, it's still actually compromising our national data.

[B]

Okay, so we've seen a suspension, but besides that, it seems, as you say, that doctors are escaping accountability. What do you think needs to change?

[C]

Yeah, So I asked the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency how often this occurs and what the consequence is if this occurs. And they said that if any medical practitioner is found acting fraudulently, they risk being suspended or deregistered. And once a medical practitioner is suspended, that can lead to state based investigations which can be also criminal falsification of documents. You don't really have to be a legal expert to know that that is probably forgery. And to that extent as well, you could see how a parent would be involved in that process and themselves potentially being liable for forgery as well. So there are criminal consequences to this. But in the case of the Perth Nurse, we can see that it's really hard to prove our procedure was really concerned by this behaviour, behaviour that fails to put the health and well being of patients first. Allegations of fraud, they said, in an immunisation administration, are thankfully rare. So they said if anyone has any information to contact them. I'll also note that I reached out to the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and they said they were aware of that some of their health professionals were offered and rejected bribes during the COVID 19 pandemic to falsify vaccination records. And they did note that this practice is not something our members have raised with us in recent years. So it's not so much as common potentially as during the COVID 19 pandemic. But as I said, it's so hard to know when and how often this is occurring that I'm just sort of relying on these Facebook groups of people really seeking to cheat the system, seeking ways to not vaccinate their child and gain the benefits that vaccinating a child allows everybody else.

[B]

Well, thank you so much for your time today, Kayla.

[C]

Thanks, Julia.

[B]

Today's episode was produced by Josh Towers. Our executive producer is Tammy Mills, and our podcasts are overseen by Lisa Muxworthy and Tom McKendrick. If you like our show, follow the Morning Edition and leave a review for us on Apple or Spotify. Thanks for listening.