Lawrence Palevsky

Lawrence Bruce Palevsky graduated from the NYU School of Medicine in 1987 and completed a three-year pediatric residency at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in 1990, followed by a fellowship in ambulatory care at Bellevue Hospital from 1990 to 1991. He passed his pediatric board certification exams and re-certifications through 2011 and holds a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics designation. He has practiced in Northport, New York, at a practice affiliated with the Northport Wellness Center.

Despite his legitimate medical training, Palevsky built a parallel career as an anti-vaccine activist, serving on the advisory board of the National Vaccine Information Center, appearing as an expert witness in anti-vaccine propaganda films including The Greater Good (2011), and advising parents through the anti-vaccine movement's literature and conferences. His cultivation of a 'holistic pediatrics' brand — complete with additional certifications from integrative medicine boards — provided a veneer of alternative authority to his vaccine refusal advocacy.

Palevsky became particularly concerning during the 2018-2019 measles outbreaks in New York, the largest in the United States in decades. He actively spread anti-vaccine misinformation through pamphlets and community meetings in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Rockland County — the precise communities at the epicenter of the outbreaks. His targeting of close-knit religious communities with high social trust was identified by public health officials as a significant driver of under-vaccination.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Palevsky claimed in widely circulated videos that vaccinated people shed spike protein through breath, saliva, and sweat in ways that could sicken unvaccinated people nearby, affecting menstrual cycles and causing potential harm to reproductive health. Fact-checkers at Poynter and multiple medical experts confirmed the claim was biologically impossible. The misinformation had concrete real-world consequences: a Miami private school used Palevsky's claims to justify banning vaccinated teachers from its campus. Despite his demonstrable pattern of harmful misinformation, Palevsky has not faced formal medical board discipline.

“COVID-19 vaccinated people shed spike protein through breath, sweat, and saliva in ways that sicken unvaccinated people nearby, particularly affecting women's menstrual cycles”

mRNA vaccines produce spike protein within cells; they do not cause exhalation or excretion of transmissible materials. The CDC and mainstream immunologists confirmed it is biologically impossible for mRNA vaccine recipients to shed protein in quantities that could affect others. Palevsky's claims led one Miami private school to ban vaccinated teachers, a concrete harmful real-world consequence.

“Vaccines cause developmental damage and parents in Orthodox communities should not vaccinate their children”

Palevsky distributed and appeared in anti-vaccine pamphlets circulated in Brooklyn and Rockland County during the 2018-2019 measles outbreaks, which were the largest in the US in decades. The outbreaks were directly linked to under-vaccination in Orthodox Jewish communities that had been targeted by anti-vaccine messaging. No credible evidence links vaccines to the developmental harms Palevsky des

“COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility”

Palevsky suggested in videos that COVID-19 vaccines could contribute to infertility. Extensive post-market surveillance through VAERS, V-Safe, and international registries found no signal of vaccine-induced infertility. Multiple studies of vaccinated populations and pregnant women showed no adverse reproductive outcomes compared to unvaccinated controls.