The Delaware Attorney General's office and the state's Division of Public health sent letters earlier this week to nearly 5,000 families whose children were seen by Dr. Earl Bradley after a former fellow doctor claimed that Bradley used diluted and expired vaccines on patients, reports the Delaware News Journal. Bradley, you'll recall, is the ex-pediatrician accused of sexually molesting and raping more than 100 patients over a 15-year span.
The accusing physician, Dr. Melvin Morse, told the newspaper that Bradley--whom he had considered working with--admitted to him that instead of giving some patients vaccines, he instead gave them saline. Morse also said Bradley tried to convince him to use expired vaccines on patients when he briefly worked at Bradley's Milford office.
Morse added that in February 2007, he sent a letter to various state authorities, expressing his concerns about Bradley. Deputy Attorney General Patricia Dailey Lewis, however, told the News Journal that she never received any such letter, and hadn't heard any complaints from Morse about Bradley until this past April, well after Bradley's arrest.
Likewise, Vivian Rapposelli, director of Family Services, told the newspaper that she, too, had no record of any complaints by Morse.
"We did everything we could to prove or disprove this," Dailey Lewis said. "[But] no one said they observed him giving expired or watered-down vaccines."
Despite being unable to validate Morse's claims, state public health officials still suggested that all of Bradley's patients get revaccinated, just in case.
"We are not able to confirm the accuracy of these allegations, and it is possible that we may never know if these allegations are true," the letter to the families reads. "Receiving diluted or expired vaccine will not likely cause harm by itself, but your child may not be adequately immunized against infection."
For more information:
- read the News Journal article
- here's the letter sent to Bradley's former patients (.pdf)