NYS invalidates more student vaccine proof, subpoenas schools in expanding Julie DeVuono case

The state Health Department has widened its investigation into whether former Amityville nurse practitioner Julie DeVuono falsified childhood vaccine records, subpoenaing more than 100 additional schools and invalidating 35 students' proof of immunization.

Most of those 105 schools are private and on Long Island, state Health Department spokeswoman Erin Clary said in an email. The latest subpoenas seeking students’ records for vaccines against diseases like measles, polio and whooping cough, which were sent in October, came after the state in 2024 subpoenaed nearly three-quarters of Long Island’s 124 public school districts, along with private schools, and schools in New York City and upstate. That geographic range raised suspicions of fraud among vaccine experts, because parents typically do not travel long distances to obtain routine vaccinations.

DeVuono pleaded guilty in 2023 to selling more than $1.2 million in fake COVID-19 vaccine cards through her Wild Child Pediatrics practice.

In June 2024, the health department filed administrative charges against DeVuono, alleging she also falsified records for childhood vaccines. She could face millions of dollars in potential fines. The health department said it would not release the charges against DeVuono without a Freedom of Information Law request — which Newsday submitted more than a year ago. The department has not provided Newsday the list of charges.

The state has publicly revealed the invalidation of 169 children’s vaccination records: the 35 voided in December and another 134 — all but one from Long Island — invalidated in September 2024. Parents were told they must receive proof of vaccination from another provider  – or in the case of some vaccines, blood tests showing immunization – for their children to attend school. The department would not release the names of the schools or districts that the 35 students attended, nor the total number of children's records it believes DeVuono falsified, without a new Freedom of Information Act request, which Newsday filed on Jan. 21.

Though concerned about the pace of the administrative case, New York University vaccine-fraud expert Arthur Caplan welcomed the state’s expanded investigation, especially amid a climate of increasing vaccine skepticism and resistance.

"I’m pleased they’re continuing to push," said Caplan, a professor of bioethics. "You really do have to punish those who put kids at risk."

Concerns about anti-vaccine sentiment

Caplan said the sharp rise in measles cases nationwide among unvaccinated children, the Trump administration’s relaxation of vaccine requirements and recent comments from the head of a federal vaccine advisory board that vaccines should be optional, even if that leads to children’s deaths, makes it critical for the state to enforce the law requiring immunizations for children to attend schools in New York. The DeVuono case is one of the largest vaccine-falsification cases that Caplan is aware of nationwide — although he said the extent of fraud is unknown because it’s difficult to detect.

Richard Carpiano, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Riverside, and an expert on vaccine use, said the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office should prosecute DeVuono if there is evidence of fraud. Vaccine mandates don't only protect school kids, but also those too young to be vaccinated — typically those under a year old for the measles vaccine. 

"There's a reason why we have the law," Carpiano said. Children under 5 are especially susceptible to severe measles and other diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Before the release of a measles vaccine in 1963, 400 to 500 people a year nationwide died of the disease and tens of thousands were hospitalized.

Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office filed criminal charges against DeVuono in the COVID-19 vaccine fraud case. But his office has not filed charges in the childhood vaccine case. Tierney spokeswoman Tania Lopez declined to comment on whether the district attorney's office investigated allegations of childhood vaccine fraud.

DeVuono — who in her biography for X calls herself a "justified felon" — could not be reached for comment. William Nolan, her lawyer in the administrative case, did not return calls.

Her attorney in the COVID-19 criminal case, Jason Russo, said he hasn’t spoken with DeVuono for months, but she told him she never falsified childhood vaccine records. He said the district attorney's office never contacted him about a potential criminal investigation.

"Not one single parent has come forward and said that that happened," Russo said. "So it hasn’t been corroborated. Whoever put this allegation out there, it wasn’t supported by anything."

Clary said the department does not publicly release evidence from open administrative enforcement cases.

Carpiano said it’s difficult to get parents to admit to seeking or buying falsified documents. But there are other ways to obtain evidence of fraud, including potentially from people who worked in the medical office in question, remarks on social media or tips the health department may receive, he said.

Dozens of parents filed suits in 2024 in federal and state courts to fight their children’s exclusion from school for not providing proof of vaccination from a provider other than DeVuono. Those suits were dismissed, court records show.

In the administrative case, the state held five days of hearings in January, March and April 2025, followed by multiple rounds of written arguments, Clary said. Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald will issue a final decision, after a recommendation from an administrative law judge, she said.

Excluded students

The 35 students were excluded from school until they obtained new records, Clary said. Schools do not inform the department when an excluded student returns to classes, so it's unclear how many parents complied with the vaccine requirement, she said.

Caplan said the lack of resolution to the administrative case more than a year and a half after charges were filed indicates that the health department needs more people and money to investigate vaccine fraud.

"This needs to go faster," he said. "You want to send a message to providers that lying, forging, falsifying is not acceptable for any reason."

Clary said the department conducts random and targeted audits of public and private schools’ immunization records to look for potential fraud, and it investigates tips received through a vaccine-fraud email.

The DeVuono investigation, she said, is complicated because the state had to match Wild Child patients with the schools they attend, and it can be especially difficult to investigate the records of children at private schools because less enrollment data is available to the state.

As Caplan urged more expansive investigations, John Gilmore, of Long Beach, who heads the vaccine-skeptical Autism Action Network and was recently appointed to a federal autism panel, said the DeVuono case illustrates how the state is "taking a very aggressive and heavy-handed approach to enforcing vaccine mandates in the state of New York."

The state hasn’t presented evidence against DeVuono on childhood vaccine fraud, but even if it did, "I don’t think this should be a crime in the first place," he said.

Parents should be able to decide whether their children should be vaccinated, just as they make other medical decisions for their kids, he said. New York is one of only four states to not allow any non-medical exemption for vaccines, such as for religious or personal reasons, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But, Caplan said, a decision to not vaccinate a child can harm other children, including those for whom vaccines are not effective or less effective, and those who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons.

DeVuono surrendered her New York nursing license as part of her plea deal in the COVID-19 fraud case. Early last year, her LinkedIn page listed her as a "freelance" pediatric nurse practitioner in Pennsylvania, where she now lives. But the Pennsylvania Department of State last month said in an emailed statement that DeVuono doesn’t have a Pennsylvania nursing license and hasn’t applied for one.

Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Medicine, said she and colleagues are hearing from more parents who do not want their children vaccinated, many of whom trust what they read online over what physicians tell them.

"It’s still small, but it’s growing," Nachman said, noting that it’s "very common" among homeschool parents, who are not subject to school vaccination requirements.