Timeline of fake vaccine allegations around Julie DeVuono, Wild Child Pediatrics
Julie DeVuono arrives at court in Riverhead to face sentencing for faking COVID-19 vaccine cards. Credit: Tom Lambui
Jan. 28, 2022
Julie DeVuono, a nurse practitioner and the owner and operator of Wild Child Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, is arraigned on felony charges that she falsified COVID-19 vaccination cards. Wild Child employee Marissa Urraro, a licensed practice nurse, was arraigned on similar charges. Prosecutors said they charged $220 for forged vaccination cards for adults and $85 for children, netting a $1.5 million profit. Receptionist Brooke Hogan is charged the following day. Prosecutors later alleged that Wild Child threw the vaccines in the trash.
Jan. 15, 2023
Newsday reports that during the January 2022 raid on DeVuono’s home, investigators found more than $869,000 in cash.
March 21, 2023
A Suffolk County grand jury indicts DeVuono and her corporation on upgraded felony charges. In April, she pleads not guilty and tells a judge she is still operating her practice.
Sept. 15, 2023
DeVuono pleads guilty to felony charges of second-degree money laundering and second-degree forgery. She also pleads guilty to a charge related to an illegal prescription for 180 tablets of oxycodone she obtained for herself in the name of her brother. She agrees to surrender her nursing licenses, close her practice, forfeit more than $1.25 million and serve 840 hours of community service.
October 2023
The Suffolk and Nassau County health departments advise schools to not accept measles, chickenpox, polio and other immunization records from Wild Child. Some schools require blood tests to prove a child was immunized or proof of vaccination from another provider. Others, under pressure from lawyers for some parents, say they will wait for guidance from the state.
December 2023
The New York State Department of Health confirms that it is investigating whether Wild Child faked certificates of immunization against diseases like measles and polio.
Jan. 17, 2024
In a separate case, the state Health Department fines Baldwin midwife Jeanette Breen $150,000 for falsifying vaccination records for nearly 1,500 children, about 670 of them from Long Island. She instead administered oral pellets that do not provide protection against disease. The children’s immunization records were invalidated. In September 2024, Breen agreed to surrender her midwife license, Education Department records show.
April 24, 2024
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced it had fired one Metro-North Railroad employee and suspended 11 Long Island Rail Road workers for submitting fake COVID-19 vaccination cards that DeVuono’s practice provided.
June 17, 2024
The Health Department serves administrative charges against DeVuono, alleging falsification of childhood vaccination records. The state holds five hearings in early 2025 but has not yet issued a decision. If found guilty, DeVuono could potentially face millions of dollars in fines. The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office has declined to say if it has investigated DeVuono.
July 1, 2024
Newsday reports that state records show that DeVuono never reported administering a vaccine for the first 17 years she was licensed as a registered nurse and nurse practitioner — but then reported giving children more than 7,500 vaccines over the following two years. She only began administering vaccines after the state ended religious and other nonmedical exemptions in 2019.
Sept. 9, 2024
The state voids vaccination records for 133 children from Long Island and one from Orange County because, the Health Department said, DeVuono had falsified them. The state says that, as of September 2024, it had identified more than 1,500 pediatric vaccination records that DeVuono had falsified.
February 2, 2025
Newsday reports that the state Health Department had subpoenaed records from nearly three-quarters of Long Island’s 124 school districts, along with schools in New York City and upstate, seeking vaccination records. Vaccine-fraud experts said the 240-mile geographic span of subpoenas raised suspicions of fraud.
October 2025
The state subpoenaed records from an additional 105 schools, mostly private institutions on Long Island, the Health Department said.
December 2025
The Health Department invalidates the vaccination records of 35 DeVuono patients. The children were excluded from school until they receive proof of vaccination from another provider, or blood tests showing they are immunized. The state's administrative case against DeVuono is ongoing.
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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