Julie DeVuono, nurse who admitted to COVID fraud, reported giving 7,555 childhood vaccinations, records show
Julie DeVuono, a former nurse practitioner convicted of COVID-19 vaccine fraud, in court for her sentencing on June 11. Credit: Tom Lambui
The former Amityville nurse practitioner who admitted filling out thousands of fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination forms did not report administering a childhood vaccine in New York for 17 years — until shortly after the state ended religious and other nonmedical exemptions, state records show.
Over the next two years, Julie DeVuono then reported giving kids more than 7,500 vaccines.
DeVuono reported 153 measles, mumps and other childhood vaccinations in 2019, a number that soared to 3,421 in 2020 and 3,981 in 2021, according to state Department of Health records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request. She was arrested for falsifying COVID-19 documents in January 2022 and later pleaded guilty for the COVID-19 falsifications.
The state Department of Health on June 11 publicly announced it had filed administrative charges against DeVuono, alleging she gave “at least 226 separate vaccinations to at least 26 pediatric patients when, in fact, they had not administered the reported vaccinations.”
WHAT TO KNOW
- Julie DeVuono, who was convicted of falsifying COVID-19 vaccination records, never reported administering a childhood vaccine in New York for more than a decade — and then started reporting thousands of vaccinations shortly after the state ended religious exemptions for childhood vaccines.
- DeVuono reported 153 childhood vaccinations in 2019, 3,421 in 2020 and 3,981 in 2021.
- The state Department of Health on June 11 publicly announced that it had filed charges against DeVuono for reporting 226 vaccinations to at least 26 pediatric patients even though, the state said, she never administered the reported immunizations.
With each violation carrying a maximum fine of $2,000, DeVuono could face fines of up to $452,000.
The state has no record of vaccinations administered by DeVuono from when she was licensed in 2002 as a registered nurse and nurse practitioner until after she enrolled in the state's immunization registry in October 2019. That was four months after the state ended nonmedical exemptions for vaccines and just after the start of the first school year that the policy was in effect. Anti-vaccine parents on Long Island held protests against the new rule, which was implemented following the nation’s worst measles outbreak in decades.
“That jump in the number from nothing to thousands just sets off every possible alarm bell,” said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University and an expert on vaccine policy.
The state continues to look into DeVuono and her former practice, Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare, Health Department spokeswoman Erin Clary said in an email. She declined to comment on whether health officials believe DeVuono falsified childhood vaccine records beyond the 226 listed in the statement of charges, and how the department determined that the 226 records are false, citing the “ongoing investigations.”
DeVuono’s Garden City attorney, Jason Russo, said his client insists she did not falsify childhood vaccine records, and “if people came to her for vaccinations for their children, they got vaccinations.”
Asked why DeVuono reported administering shots to kids starting in 2019 after not doing so for years, Russo said, “I really don’t know what sparked an increase in that part of her business. This is the first time I’m hearing that.”
DeVuono, who could not be reached for comment, surrendered her New York nursing licenses, effective in December.
After DeVuono and her corporation, Kids-On-Call Pediatric Nurse Practitioner P.C., pleaded guilty in September in connection with the COVID-19 falsifications, the Suffolk and Nassau health departments recommended — although they did not mandate — that school districts require any child with a Wild Child vaccination record receive proof of immunization from another health care provider.
Charges against DeVuono for allegedly falsifying 226 vaccination records
Some school districts followed those recommendations and warned parents that their children would not be able to attend school unless they received the additional proof of vaccination. But at least several districts backed down from the mandate after either receiving warnings of potential legal action if they did not drop the requirement or after being contacted by parents, attorneys for parents said. It's unclear if any Wild Child patients were ever excluded from a Long Island school.
The state cannot provide an accurate estimate as to how many children Wild Child's 7,555 reported vaccinations represents, Clary said. The allegations of 226 falsified vaccines for 26 children works out to an average of 8.7 shots per child. If the same ratio were used for all reported vaccinations in 2021, that would mean she reported vaccines for roughly 460 children in 2021.
Caplan said the surge in reported vaccinations is “exceedingly suspicious,” especially because of DeVuono’s conviction for forging COVID-19 vaccine documents, and because she started reporting large numbers of childhood immunizations just weeks after unvaccinated children were required to obtain the shots to legally attend school.
“Given her conviction, the numbers are sending out a signal that goes past suspicion over to probability” that DeVuono was falsifying records for childhood vaccines, Caplan said.
New York has required that health care providers report vaccinations for anyone 18 or younger to its Immunization Information System since the system first began operating in 2008. Reporting to regional vaccination registries before then was voluntary, but any health care provider who gave a vaccine to someone 18 or younger after Jan. 1, 2008, was required to report that person’s previous immunizations as well.
The state doesn’t mandate that children obtain vaccines, but kids cannot attend school or day care without them. That, experts say, is to not only protect children receiving the vaccines, but to protect children who cannot get certain vaccines for medical reasons, such as allergic reactions. It also safeguards children whose immune systems may not respond effectively to vaccines.
In addition, the more children not vaccinated, the more risk there is of a disease outbreak, said Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside, and an expert on vaccine uptake.
Falsifying immunization documents to get kids enrolled in school “creates huge risks, not just for your child but for others as well,” he said.
Before the advent of vaccines, measles, diphtheria and other diseases for which immunizations are now required killed thousands of people each year and sent tens of thousands to hospitals.
Steve Politi, a Central Islip attorney who represents Brooke Hogan, formerly a receptionist at Wild Child, said people drove long distances — from places such as Laurel, 55 miles away — to obtain vaccination records from Wild Child.
“I can't imagine a scenario where somebody is going to drive an enormous distance just to get a shot,” he said.
Hogan had no direct knowledge of any fraud because she was not a medical employee, he said.
Newsday received records following Freedom of Information Law requests to several school districts that also showed that some Wild Child patients lived many miles away. For example, there were 10 students from the Eastport-South Manor Central school district who had vaccination records from Wild Child as of November, even though schools the children attended are as many as 40 miles away from Wild Child.
Caplan, the NYU professor, said the anti-vaccine movement has an informal network in which word spreads about which practitioners will falsify documents.
Jeanette Breen, a Baldwin midwife that the Health Department said administered homeopathic “oral pellets” instead of required childhood vaccines to nearly 1,500 students, and then falsely claimed they were vaccines, also had a wide geographic range of patients, including from upstate and New York City, the state said. On Long Island, patients came from 81 of the region’s 124 school districts, a Newsday review of state records found. Breen acknowledged the falsification of 12,449 vaccine records, which began three months after the nonmedical exemptions ended.
These are just two people getting caught ... Who knows who else has been doing this who hasn’t been caught?
—Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside
Credit: Stan Lim/ UC Riverside
“These are just two people getting caught,” Carpiano said of Breen and DeVuono. “Who knows who else has been doing this who hasn’t been caught?”
Hogan was charged with second-degree forgery in connection with the falsified COVID-19 records, but Politi said he reached an agreement June 14 with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office that resolved her case “without a criminal conviction.” The case is sealed, he said.
Hogan could not be reached for comment.
Marissa Urraro, a licensed practical nurse at Wild Child, also was charged with second-degree forgery. Her attorneys did not respond to requests for comment, and Urraro could not be reached for comment.
State Education Department records show that the Board of Regents accepted the surrender of Urraro’s nursing license in May 2023 and that “licensee did not contest the allegations of having acted in concert with others” to falsify COVID-19 records.
The district attorney’s office did not respond to questions on what happened with Hogan’s and Urraro’s criminal cases.
Russo said DeVuono “is not anti-vaccination. She is anti-mandate,” whether for COVID-19 or childhood vaccines. He criticized the state for its latest charges against her and said that the state so far has declined to identify the 26 children other than by their initials, making it difficult for DeVuono to defend herself.
Clary declined to comment, citing “pending litigation.”
DeVuono's online hearing before an administrative law judge on the new Health Department charges is scheduled for Sept. 9.
DeVuono currently lives in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. In her updated LinkedIn profile, she identifies herself as “pediatric nurse practitioner — self employed.”
She has not applied for a nursing license in Pennsylvania and cannot practice nursing in the state, Pennsylvania Department of State spokesman Matt Heckel said in an email.
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No new guidance for schools
The Nassau and Suffolk health departments in October recommended that school districts require any child with a Wild Child vaccination record receive proof of immunization from another health care provider.
At least several school districts initially followed those recommendations and told parents that their children would not be able to attend school unless they obtained additional proof of immunization.
But more than eight months later, it’s uncertain if any districts are still adhering to the departments’ advice.
Some districts had reversed themselves after attorneys warned them of potential legal action if they didn't drop the mandate or after parents contacted them, lawyers for parents said.
James Mermigis, an attorney representing parents in some of those districts, said he is unaware of any Wild Child patients who were excluded from school.
“I think we resolved that by sending the school districts letters,” he said.
Another attorney who represented parents of Wild Child patients, Chad LaVeglia, did not respond to requests for comments.
Some districts that had reversed themselves on excluding children, such as Miller Place, Rocky Point and Smithtown, said in statements in December that they were doing so pending further investigation of Wild Child by the state.
Asked if the state’s new charges against DeVuono would affect their policies, Rocky Point and Smithtown declined to comment via their public relations agency, Syntax. Miller Place Superintendent Seth Lipshie said in a statement to Newsday that the district is “adhering to all applicable laws pertaining to student immunizations,” but would not say whether the district would continue to allow former Wild Child patients to attend school without updated verification of vaccinations.
Mermigis said the Eastport-South Manor and Island Park districts also rescinded warnings to parents to exclude students — although those districts have not publicly confirmed that. They also declined to comment, Syntax said.
The Nassau health department’s recommendation that Wild Child patients receive further proof of vaccination stands, spokeswoman Alyssa Zohrabian said in an email. She did not respond to questions as to whether the state notified the county if any of the 26 children named in the latest charges against DeVuono attend Nassau schools, and if so, if the county contacted those schools.
The Suffolk health department has “not received any communication from NYSDOH on this matter,” spokeswoman Grace Kelly-McGovern wrote in an email, referring to the state Health Department, and will “await further information and guidance” from the state on DeVuono’s former patients.
State Health Department spokeswoman Erin Clary reiterated that the state cannot comment on its ongoing investigation of DeVuono, but, she said, in general, “if at the conclusion of an investigation and/or litigation it is found that students are attending school without the required vaccinations,” the health department would notify county health departments, school districts and the parents and would require the districts to exclude the students unless they obtain an updated proof of immunization.
David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
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