Dismissed by the medical establishment, this movement has nevertheless built momentum as distrust in government and medical systems grew after the coronavirus pandemic. It has also gained new influence in Washington<\/a>, where longtime vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. oversees the nation\u2019s health agencies. As President Donald Trump\u2019s Health and Human Services secretary, Kennedy has replaced members of a federal vaccine advisory panel<\/a> with his own picks and pushed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to restrict access to some vaccines<\/a>, including the coronavirus shot. The Trump administration\u2019s evisceration of long-standing federal vaccine guidelines and rejection of scientific evidence have alarmed the American Medical Association<\/a> and other professional medical groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just days before Bondi\u2019s decision, a federal prosecutor from her department had stood before the jury in Moore\u2019s case and accused him of enrolling in the federal government\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program in order to \u201csabotage\u201d it, according to a court transcript. She had asked jurors to convict him and to \u201cfind that no one is above the law, not even a plastic surgeon.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore said he\u2019d signed up for the program in May 2021 to receive more than 2,000 free vaccine doses and accompanying proof-of-vaccination cards after some businesses, nursing homes and the military began requiring such proof for visitors and employees. He said his plan was always to give vaccine cards without providing the shots because he wanted to offer patients a choice to circumvent vaccine mandates.<\/p>\n Bondi explained her decision to dismiss the charges on X<\/a> later that morning, writing that \u201cDr. Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so. He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing. It ends today.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Bondi declined to comment beyond what the attorney general posted on social media. The Utah federal attorney\u2019s office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Moore was one of at least 12 health care professionals charged after giving or selling fraudulent COVID-19 vaccine cards since 2021, according to cases identified by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica through government news releases and media clips. Those charged include midwives, nurses, pharmacists and another surgeon. Eight were charged in federal court by the Biden administration; prosecutors from California, New York and New Jersey brought state charges against four others.<\/p>\n Other than Moore, only one of these health care workers went to trial:\u00a0a Chicago pharmacist whom a jury found guilty of selling on eBay blank vaccine cards that he had stolen from the Walgreens where he worked. The rest pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a mix of probation, home arrest and, in a few cases, prison. Many also were professionally disciplined with fines or suspension of their medical licenses.<\/p>\n Of those 11, the Chicago pharmacist appealed his conviction but the U.S. Supreme Court in November declined to hear his petition; his attorney told The Tribune and ProPublica that they are exploring a presidential pardon. One other health care worker said she, too, would like to be pardoned by Trump.<\/p>\n Some of these health care workers, along with those in other professions who were also convicted of vaccine card fraud, started a group called Covicted Patriot<\/a> following the dismissal of Moore\u2019s case.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are more of us than Dr. Moore,\u201d they declared in July through an X account that bills itself as representing \u201cJustified Felons & Persecuted Patriots who were victimized by a politically weaponized justice system for providing covid cards.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe celebrate his vindication as we pray for our own,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n Moore said he supports their efforts: \u201cI think anybody who took the same stance that I did, in large measures, should be pardoned.\u201d<\/p>\n Brian Dean Abramson, an immunization law expert in Virginia who serves on the board of directors for the National Vaccine Law Conference, said that medical workers falsifying vaccination cards is \u201cabsolutely horrifying\u201d from a public health perspective. Their actions, he said, fuel distrust of the medical profession and create blind spots in disease surveillance and response, increasing the likelihood and severity of outbreaks. (A simulation model published in JAMA<\/a> in April predicts a reemergence of diseases<\/a> that had been eliminated in the United States, such as measles<\/a>, and accompanying deaths as a result of declining childhood vaccination.)<\/p>\n \u201cThis undermines every layer of the system that protects us from infectious disease,\u201d Abramson said. \u201cVaccination policy relies on accurate records and honest medical participation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody Got What They Wanted\u201d<\/p>\n Moore met with The Tribune and ProPublica in his clinic in the Salt Lake City suburb of Midvale. A neat row of clogs, his preferred footwear, lined one wall of his cluttered office. The 60-year-old physician wore black scrubs and a \u201cTrump 2024\u201d rubber bracelet stacked atop a gold chain.<\/p>\n Moore, a licensed physician in Utah since 2005, doesn\u2019t deny the government\u2019s claims: that he gave falsified vaccine cards to patients, that his staff threw away doses, and that, in some cases, he gave children saline shots instead of the COVID-19 vaccine at their parents\u2019 request.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of that stuff is true,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In an interview that lasted nearly two hours, Moore said choosing whether to get vaccinated is deeply personal and the decision should be made between patients and their doctors \u2014 not mandated by government or businesses. The Trump administration has similarly framed vaccination as a personal choice in its dismissal of established public health guidance.<\/p>\n Moore referred to COVID-19 vaccines as \u201cbioweapons\u201d a dozen times and said he distrusts how quickly the government facilitated the vaccines\u2019 rapid development and distribution. He said he concluded the vaccines were unsafe after conducting his own online research that he said cast doubt on the medical technology used in their development and the amount of testing before the first doses became available under emergency use authorization<\/a> in December 2020.<\/p>\n The COVID-19 vaccine was developed in record time during Trump\u2019s first term, less than a year after federal authorities declared a public health emergency \u2014 a feat Trump touted at the time as a \u201cmonumental national achievement<\/a>.\u201d This was made possible by a federal effort known as Operation Warp Speed<\/a> that reduced bureaucracy and invested in clinical trials and manufacturing, according to a 2021 report<\/a> by the Government Accountability Office \u2014 not due to any shortcuts<\/a> in testing. The technological backbone of the vaccines, known as mRNA, has been in development for decades by scientists who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n Moore said that the vaccines \u201cfailed in every animal test.\u201d \u201cAll the animals died, and now all of a sudden, we\u2019re going to use the human population as our guinea pigs,\u201d he said. The Food and Drug Administration has previously told reporters that such claims, widely promoted among vaccine skeptics during the pandemic, are false<\/a>.<\/p>\n The plastic surgeon said that he believes all vaccines are \u201cpoison\u201d and that they have not been adequately tested \u2014 a view he says he has held for more than two decades.<\/p>\n Vaccines approved by the FDA and recommended by the CDC have been proven to protect public health<\/a> by preventing disease, serious illness or death. Major health authorities like the World Health Organization have affirmed the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines, which researchers estimate prevented more than 14 million deaths<\/a> worldwide in their first year.<\/p>\n Prior to signing up for the CDC\u2019s vaccine distribution program, Moore did not provide vaccines in his business, the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah. The \u201cbread and butter\u201d of his practice, he said, is a method of \u201crapid recovery\u201d breast augmentations that he says he developed, which allows patients to return to their routines with little downtime.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were looking for anybody and everybody to get these bioweapons out,\u201d he said about joining the government program, which was open to all health care providers who agreed to comply with the CDC processes, such as storing the vaccines at a certain temperature and recording who had been vaccinated. \u201cAnd so, it was a pretty simple process.\u201d<\/p>\n In December 2021, a husband-and-wife couple who Moore had met through a mutual acquaintance came to his home for dinner, according to a prosecution trial brief<\/a>. \u201cWhile they were there, Dr. Moore personally handed them both pre-completed CDC COVID-19 vaccination record cards with their names and birth dates on them, falsely purporting to show that the couple had received COVID-19 vaccines from the Plastic Surgery Institute,\u201d the brief said. \u201cDr. Moore did so knowing that neither of them had been vaccinated for COVID-19, and without administering a COVID-19 vaccine to either of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Within weeks, prosecutors said, Moore had started handing out fake vaccine cards in his medical office to anyone who was referred to his business by people who had already received a falsified card.<\/p>\n As word spread, Moore\u2019s employees suggested patients who wanted a card could donate $50 via Venmo to a local health freedom advocacy group called the Health Independence Alliance, according to Moore. The husband of the couple to whom Moore first gave the fake vaccine cards testified at the Utah Legislature in January on behalf of the Health Independence Alliance on a vaccine-related bill. Moore says that he supports the group but does not run it; the Health Independence Alliance declined to comment in response to a request sent to the email listed on its website. The couple, who were not charged, declined to comment.<\/p>\n When sending their donation, patients were told to include an emoji of an orange in the Venmo subject line, according to federal prosecutors, and they were also instructed to bring an orange with them to the waiting room of the clinic. \u201cAt one point, there was a large basket full of oranges\u201d at Moore\u2019s clinic, prosecutors said in their trial brief.<\/p>\n Moore confirmed this system in his interview with The Tribune and ProPublica, saying the piece of fruit was a quiet signal to his busy staff that the patient was there for a falsified vaccine card.<\/p>\n He said during this time he maintained his plastic surgery practice while distributing fake vaccine cards and treating COVID-19 patients with ivermectin and other methods. Ivermectin<\/a> has not been authorized by the FDA or recommended by the CDC to treat COVID-19.<\/p>\n An undercover state licensor called Moore\u2019s office in March 2022 and asked to make a vaccine appointment during the criminal investigation after someone complained to the state health department, according to the prosecutors. At his clinic, the licensor, posing as a patient, received a vaccine card attesting to her vaccination without ever being offered a shot, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors alleged in their trial brief that a portion of the donations for the advocacy group paid a part-time worker at the plastic surgery clinic $18 an hour to give out falsified vaccine cards and administer saline shots to children. The worker, who could not be reached for comment, testified against Moore as part of an agreement with prosecutors to dismiss her charges after the trial, according to prosecutors\u2019 trial brief.<\/p>\n Moore said during an interview that he didn\u2019t make any money himself and never directly charged patients for these cards. He added that every adult patient who got a fake card had wanted one.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody in my practice was ever tricked. Nobody came to me expecting a vaccine and didn\u2019t get it,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody got what they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n But some children who received saline shots at their parents\u2019 request falsely believed they were being vaccinated against COVID-19, according to court filings and Moore. This was a breach of medical ethics because doctors have a duty to build trust between their community and the health care system, said Wendy Parmet, director of Northeastern University\u2019s Center for Health Policy and Law.<\/p>\n Moore said he gave kids the saline shots so they wouldn\u2019t be bullied if their peers found out they got a vaccine card without getting a shot. \u201cI did have some parents that didn\u2019t want their kid to know that they were getting something fake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t question the parents\u2019 deception, Moore said, because he didn\u2019t want to \u201cintervene in their family dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to stand up for what you feel is right,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the reason why I did what I did. I had no intention of defrauding the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n Emboldening a Movement<\/p>\n On the first day of Moore\u2019s trial in July, about 60 supporters \u2014 including state lawmakers like House Speaker Mike Schultz \u2014 gathered on the stairs<\/a> outside the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City. They waved American flags and held signs protesting Moore\u2019s charges at a busy intersection. The doctor tearfully thanked the crowd before walking into the courthouse where a jury would soon be selected.<\/p>\n The rally increased public and social media attention on Moore\u2019s case, eventually reaching Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She sent a letter to Bondi, urging the U.S. attorney general to drop Moore\u2019s charges.<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Michael Kirk Moore deserves to be celebrated, not prosecuted, for his bravery in standing up to a system that prioritized control over public health,\u201d Greene wrote in her July 12 letter<\/a>. Her office did not respond to requests for comment. (Greene, an early supporter of Trump\u2019s, recently announced her resignation<\/a> from Congress after falling out of the president\u2019s favor.)<\/p>\n That same day, Bondi ordered the charges be dropped and thanked Greene and Utah Sen. Mike Lee in posts on X for bringing the case to her attention. Lee\u2019s office did not respond to questions about his role in the dismissal of Moore\u2019s case.<\/p>\n Utah prosecutors then dismissed the charges against Moore, his business and a neighbor who prosecutors alleged had organized the donations to the health freedom advocacy group. Prosecutors also dropped charges against his office manager \u2014 who had pleaded guilty \u2014 and the part-time worker. Both of these employees testified against Moore and his neighbor the day before Bondi\u2019s announcement. Neither the neighbor nor the office manager responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Less than a week after his charges were dropped, Moore and his fianc\u00e9e flew to Washington, D.C., at Bondi\u2019s invitation to meet with her and Greene; Moore said he asked if Lee could join them. Moore said the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank founded by former Trump administration officials, paid for his travel. (The group did not respond to a request for comment.)<\/p>\n Moore described the meeting as low-key and genuine: \u201cIt was a handshake and a hug to both M.T.G. and Attorney General Bondi.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore estimates that he lost about two-thirds of his plastic surgery business after his 2023 indictment because he had used his marketing budget to cover his legal expenses. As he\u2019s tried rebuilding his practice in recent months, he rebranded as Freedom Surgical & Aesthetics. He said he started thinking about a new name during the 22 days he spent in jail in November 2024 after a judge determined he had violated pretrial rules by communicating with other co-defendants.<\/p>\n The new name \u201cstands for freedom and for people\u2019s ability to choose,\u201d he said. Images of the American flag and bald eagles appear on his clinic\u2019s new website among photos of svelte women.<\/p>\n Moore\u2019s medical license is in good standing. A state licensing division spokesperson would not say whether the agency is considering taking action against his license.<\/p>\n The lack of consequences for medical workers who falsify records could encourage others to undermine public health guidance, said Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at the University of Pennsylvania and Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit, who served on the CDC\u2019s vaccine advisory panel from 1998 to 2003 and has clashed with Kennedy over vaccine policy, was kicked off a vaccine advisory committee<\/a> for the FDA in August.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first two years of the pandemic turbocharged the medical freedom movement, which is a euphemism for basically saying that I don\u2019t need experts. I will do my own Google searches and decide what\u2019s right and what\u2019s not,\u201d Offit said. \u201cEven if it goes against what is standard medical practice or medical wisdom, I\u2019m going to decide for myself \u2014 and my neighbor be damned, in the case of vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n As Moore vows to \u201cdo everything I can to get COVID shots off the market,\u201d others who faced similar legal battles say his turn of fortune has inspired them to fight their convictions.<\/p>\n Julie DeVuono, a former nurse in Long Island who also distributed fake vaccine cards to her patients, said she and two others created the CovictedPatriot X account after others who gave out fake cards reached out to her in response to her social media post celebrating Moore\u2019s vindication.<\/p>\n New York state prosecutors had charged DeVuono with forgery and money laundering for using the proceeds from the fake vaccine cards to pay her mortgage. She pleaded guilty in 2023 and was sentenced to community service and probation. Her home was also seized as part of a $1.2 million forfeiture, and she lost her nursing license.<\/p>\n \u201cIs there any chance for us to get some kind of restored justice?\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n DeVuono, 53, said she feels she and others who were convicted of similar crimes were treated unfairly, but she can\u2019t ask for a presidential pardon because her charges were filed in state court. Instead, she\u2019s advocating on behalf of others who can beseech Trump, such as Kathleen Breault, a recently retired midwife and nurse in New York.<\/p>\n Breault faced a possible five-year prison sentence after she and a co-defendant were indicted in federal court in 2023 for destroying thousands of vaccines and issuing falsified vaccine cards.<\/p>\n \u201cI was terrified,\u201d Breault, 68, told The Tribune and ProPublica. \u201cBut I also felt defiant, because I felt like what I did was right.\u201d<\/p>\n She said if she had gone to trial, her defense would have been civil disobedience. But Breault has health issues and cares for her grandchildren. She said her children urged her to do whatever she needed to in order to avoid a prison sentence.<\/p>\n So she pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States \u2014 a felony \u2014 and was sentenced last December to three years probation. (Her co-defendant, who died in March, had also pleaded guilty.)<\/p>\n Breault said she was buoyed by news over the summer that similar charges against Moore were dropped at the behest of the Trump administration. The outcome of Moore\u2019s case has motivated her to begin the process of asking for a presidential pardon.<\/p>\n A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about whether Trump has received any pardon requests from health care workers indicted in connection with the pandemic or if he would pardon them. He has not pardoned anyone in that situation, according to a review of the clemency grants in his second term listed on the Department of Justice\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Breault said she\u2019d like to have her conviction erased so she\u2019s not limited by her felon status. She\u2019d like to own a gun again, but those with felony convictions are prohibited from possessing firearms in New York. She\u2019d also like more freedom, including not having to report to her probation officer when she travels or how much is in her bank account.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter seeing what happened with Kirk,\u201d she said about Moore, \u201cmaybe if I didn\u2019t take the plea, I wouldn\u2019t have a felony conviction now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reporting Highlights Motivated by \u201cMedical Freedom\u201d: Dr. Kirk Moore says he faked COVID vaccine cards and gave saline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-354452","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/PK3BMZL5QREXREN57NMOJFE55U_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_qualit.jpeg\")
Moore repeatedly referred to COVID-19 vaccines as \u201cbioweapons\u201d in an interview in his clinic in Midvale, a Salt Lake City suburb. Francisco Kjolseth\/The Salt Lake Tribune<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-10-at-12.24.59-PM_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_t.jpeg\")
In a trial brief, prosecutors included text messages showing the instructions patients were given to get a falsified vaccine card. Obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/YC2Y6OHLVNEH5BUR22YEXVBFPM-1_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_qual.jpeg\")
Moore passed through a group of supporters on the steps of the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City during his trial in July. Rick Egan\/The Salt Lake Tribune<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/image0-2_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile_true_quality_95.jpg\")
Moore, second from right, met with Utah Sen. Mike Lee, left, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, center, and Attorney General Pam Bondi in Washington, D.C., after Bondi directed Utah prosecutors to drop federal charges against Moore. Courtesy of Kirk Moore<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20251022-Warren-Propublica-Kathie58042_preview_maxWidth_3000_maxHeight_3000_ppi_72_embedColorProfile.jpeg\")
Kathleen Breault in her home in Cambridge, New York. The recently retired nurse says she expects to lose her professional licenses after issuing fake vaccine cards and is considering asking Trump for a pardon. Kate Warren for ProPublica<\/p>\n