Two New York nurses are accused of marketing solid COVID-19 vaccination playing cards and coming into false data into the state’s immunization database, allegedly netting them greater than $1.5 million.
Julie DeVuono and Marissa Urrao of Lengthy Island have been arrested final week after allegedly charging shoppers $220 for an grownup vaccination card and $85 for a kid’s, thru DeVuono’s well being care observe the place Urrao used to be hired, the Suffolk County Police Division stated Friday.
DeVuono acquired clean vaccine playing cards thru her trade, Wild Kid Pediatric Healthcare in Amityville, in addition to COVID vaccine doses and syringes, the New York Day by day Information reported, bringing up the Suffolk County District Legal professional’s administrative center.
Undercover detectives visited the trade and acquired vaccine playing cards however have been by no means given a vaccine, prosecutors stated.
A seek of DeVuonos’ house on Thursday recovered $900,000 in money and a ledger indicating that the pair had made greater than $1.5 million in the course of the vaccine scheme since November, consistent with the prosecutor’s administrative center.
“As nurses, those two folks will have to perceive the significance of reputable vaccination playing cards as all of us paintings in combination to offer protection to public well being,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Okay. Harrison stated in a observation saying their arrests.
Each girls have been charged with one second-degree depend of forgery, whilst DeVuono used to be additionally charged with an extra first-degree depend of providing a false device for submitting.
Urrao’s lawyer, Michael Alber, recommended the general public not to rush to judgment.
“We look ahead to highlighting the prison impediments and defects on this investigation. An accusation will have to now not overshadow the nice paintings Ms. Urraro has finished for youngsters and adults within the clinical box,” he stated in a observation to HuffPost. An lawyer for DeVuonos may just now not be in an instant reached.
A consultant for Wild Kid Pediatric Healthcare didn’t in an instant reply to HuffPost’s request for touch upon Sunday. A message posted at the trade’s Fb web page on Friday thanked its supporters and requested for prayers all through “this tough time.”
Closing month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a invoice that makes it unlawful to falsify COVID-19 vaccination playing cards or to make use of a pretend one.