Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth

“Babies who don’t get the vitamin K shot, research shows, are 81 times more likely than those who do to develop late vitamin K deficiency bleeding.”

Refusals are up 77 percent since 2017. One in five babies who develop the bleeding dies. This is not a vaccine and it has been standard care since the 1960s, which shows how far the distrust has spread past its original target. Federal agencies do not track refusal rates or the deaths, so the only national numbers come from a news organization doing the government’s job.