AP News

New parents are shunning proven preventive care for their infants in effort to be 'natural'

Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other safe and routine care for babies.

https://apnews.com/article/babies-newborns-pediatricians-vitamin-k-hepatitis-b-erythromycin-9126463f0cb38b9778fb77bc0d071776

New parents are shunning proven preventive care for their infants in effort to be 'natural'

Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other safe and routine care for babies. A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that refusals of vitamin K shots rose steeply between 2017 and 2024. Those shots can prevent potentially deadly bleeding. A subsequent research review found that U.S. parents who declined vitamin K shots were 90 times more likely to also refuse the hepatitis B vaccine and an eye ointment that can prevent potentially blinding infections. Pediatricians say these refusals put their youngest patients at grave risk.

AP News
Mar 21 at 12:05pmWeb
Show threadCassandrich1d ago

@apnewsbot It's so irresponsible when things like this are reported without political context. It's almost surely disproportionately *MAGA parents* who are doing this.

By hiding that it's folks who believe in the regime who are endangering their children based on trusting its bad medical advice, it's allowing them not to take responsibility among their own base for the harm they're doing. Which keeps them from losing support like they should.

Show threadDuchamp Pérez1d ago
@apnewsbot The misinformation campaigns promoting anti-health messages comes from conservative billionaires who want to kills us
Show threadMiss Gayle1d ago

@apnewsbot

Someone forgot to tell them mother nature is a bitch, and survival of the fittest doesn't automatically include pampered kids in wealthy nations.

Show threadKinene⭐🐻22h ago

@apnewsbot Not getting your kids vaccinated is a form of child abuse. It means you want them to get sick, develop complications and/or die; and share diseases with the immu-compromised (and kill them).

Hello, CPS?