Baldwin midwife, Amityville nurse cases highlight vaccine fraud; more state investigations active

Following a measles outbreak in 2019, New York State clamped down on exemptions for vaccines. And it worked — at least on paper. A study published this month showed an increase in reported student vaccinations outside New York City and a “small, but significant” decrease in medical vaccination exemptions.

But two recent high-profile Long Island cases illustrate how phony vaccinations have been recorded in state registries and the lengths some people will go to avoid immunization requirements.

Last month, the state announced Baldwin midwife Jeanette Breen was fined $300,000 for submitting phony student immunization records to the state after it eliminated nonmedical exemptions in June 2019. Instead of giving required shots for measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and other illnesses, Breen gave about 1,500 children a homeopathic remedy marketed as an alternative to vaccines.

The state Health Department announced in December that it's investigating whether Amityville nurse practitioner Julie DeVuono and her Wild Child Pediatrics practice administered a broader array of false vaccinations, and recommended schools probe students' immunization records.

Last year, DeVuono pleaded guilty to selling $1.5 million in fake COVID-19 vaccination cards in 2021 and never administering the shots.

While state and county health officials declined to discuss how widespread fake vaccinations might be, some experts expressed concern that the recent cases only reveal the surface of the problem.

Are there more investigations into vaccination fraud?

The state Health Department is “currently engaged in similar investigations across the state and will continue to use all available enforcement mechanisms to combat vaccination fraud in New York,” spokeswoman Danielle DeSouza said in a statement to Newsday.

The investigation into Breen and resulting enforcement action were the first by a new unit in the department.

“Enforcing against and preventing vaccination fraud is a top priority,” she said.

How widespread is vaccination fraud?

State officials would not estimate how widespread the fraud might extend across the state. Officials from both the Nassau and Suffolk county health departments declined to discuss vaccination fraud on Long Island.

“I think that we probably only see the surface of this,” said Dr. Matthew Harris, a pediatric emergency department specialist who served as medical director for Northwell Health’s COVID-19 vaccine program.

Harris said he thinks some practitioners target families and sections of society that are skeptical of vaccines and offer what they claim to be alternatives.

“As a pediatrician and as a parent, these types of efforts are profoundly concerning and not based in science or evidence,” he said.

What do the midwife and nurse practitioner say?

More than $174,000 was raised for midwife Breen through an online crowdfunding site. She has paid half her fine already and will not have to pay the rest if she adheres to her agreement with the state, which includes being barred from administering any vaccination that has to be reported to the New York State Immunization Information System, which keeps track of immunizations for people under the age of 19.

When asked to comment on the fundraiser and if she had received the money, her attorney, David Eskew, said Breen had no comment.

Nurse practitioner DeVuono's attorney, Jason Russo, of Garden City, said she is “adamant that she has never issued any false vaccination records regarding any other vaccine than the COVID ones for which she accepted responsibility.”

Russo said he has asked the state “repeatedly” to show proof of such activity and they have not provided any.

Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University and an expert on vaccine policy, said Breen “created a massive public health threat to children in the community by lying and flat out falsely representing vaccination when it never was done.”

Did parents know their children were not getting traditional vaccines?

Breen gave children a homeopathic remedy in tablet form and then claimed they were properly immunized, according to the settlement she signed.

Caplan said while he can’t say for sure whether all the parents were aware of the fraud, it is more than likely these were “people who are just anti-vaccine, who don’t really know what she’s doing and don’t much care.”

“I think it’s just a way to avoid getting your kids vaccinated, and it’s tragic,” Caplan said. “When they went to her, they came from all over Long Island and so they put huge numbers of people at risk because the unvaccinated kids wind up going to school, but they also wind up going to amusement parks, bus terminals, airports, train stations and grandma’s house.”

The Health Department required that children who received the phony vaccinations from Breen be removed from schools until they could show proof of immunization, or that they were in the process of getting required shots. Parents of students in Franklin Square and Cold Spring Harbor filed lawsuits last month, demanding they be allowed to return to school. An attorney for one of the families said at the time the parents thought their children were getting “legitimate immunizations.” 

Do these homeopathic therapies work?

“I think these practitioners are offering a witch's brew and not medical therapy,” Harris said. These therapies “are not based in science, have no evidence base and not only may subject children themselves to adverse effects, but do not provide them with any protection against some of these very much preventable serious bacterial and viral infections.”

He pointed out that many pediatric vaccines have been around for more than 50 years and “have an extended track record of both efficacy and safety, especially for really high risk infectious diseases such as the measles, haemophilus influenzae and streptococcal disease, which used to cause significant mortality and morbidity, especially in infants.”

What happens when large numbers of children are not vaccinated against measles and other diseases?

“Having unvaccinated kids in the community puts children who have not yet received all their vaccines at risk,” Harris said.

In addition, people who have compromised immune systems or cannot be vaccinated for other medical reasons could be exposed to these diseases. Elderly people who received their vaccinations decades ago could also be placed at risk by coming in contact with unvaccinated people.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said if the country stopped vaccinating, the few cases of vaccine-preventable diseases now rare in the U.S. could “very quickly become tens or hundreds of thousands of cases.”

“Children who don’t receive all vaccinations and are exposed to a disease can become seriously sick and spread it through a community,” the agency said on its website.

Are there some children who cannot be vaccinated?

Yes. Some children who have some underlying diseases or are receiving certain types of chemotherapy either can’t receive certain vaccines or receive them on a different schedule, Harris said.

Can midwives give vaccines?

Yes. But local midwives said it’s uncommon for them to provide school-mandated childhood vaccines.

“Certified midwives are able to give vaccines — that’s part of our scope of practice,” said Jessica Hilsenroth, a certified nurse midwife and supervisor at Huntington Midwifery, which is affiliated with Huntington Hospital. “The majority of midwives care for women from adolescence through menopause and vaccines needed for that time we obtain consent and give it.”

They generally give or refer flu shots for pregnant women, and the HPV vaccine for eligible women.

Hilsenroth said people seeking childhood vaccines from her would be directed to her pediatric medicine colleagues at Northwell Health.

Most local midwives did not want to comment on the case, but the statewide group New York Midwives released a statement denouncing the “alleged vaccine fraud.”

“It is the hope that the recent news stories concerning one NYS midwife will not detract from the vital work that over a thousand NYS midwives are doing every day,” the statement read. The group said it “stands firm against outliers in our profession who operate outside clinical and moral standards.”

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.