AI6YR Ben17h ago

AP:It’s not just vaccines — parents are refusing other routine preventive care for newborns

"Medical mistrust is spreading beyond vaccines: Refusals of vitamin K shots for newborns have nearly doubled since 2017, alarming doctors nationwide.
Newborns without the shot are 81 times more likely to suffer potentially deadly bleeding, a preventable complication that once affected 1 in 60 babies."

(Better, non paywall link! Thanks Denise!)
https://apnews.com/article/babies-newborns-pediatricians-vitamin-k-hepatitis-b-erythromycin-9126463f0cb38b9778fb77bc0d071776

#healthcare #health #antivaxxers

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
Show threadFreddyB Aviation Photography16h ago

@ai6yr Yeah sadly I can directly attest to this. My wife also an RN works in a NICU and this is becoming more and more common.

The Vitamin K is critical to prevent bleeding and strokes
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/protective-vitamin-shots-newborns-decline

And the eye ointment? TO prevent pink eye or anything else (at that age it can result in blindness) they picked up while being born.

https://www.aao.org/education/clinical-statement/use-of-erythromycin-in-prevention-of-neonatal-opht

These parents should have to put money in escrow to cover these avoidable problems.

Why? If a kid has a stroke, the odds are long if they can ever go home. We can send INCREDIBLY medically complex home and our incredible parents can do amazing things (I am talking ventilators, feeding tubes et al.) but some cannot and these go to nursing homes. We become very close to the families because we are their ride home for every procedure, every admission and the like. The sad reality is this level of care will costs 10's of millions over the course of this kiddo's life Maybe these imbeciles should put their money where there ignorance is

Protective vitamin shots for newborns on decline

Scientists identified an ongoing drop in newborns receiving a vitamin shot that helps to prevent dangerous bleeding.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Show threadMsMerope16h ago

@cvvhrn @ai6yr

yeah, but until it actually happens to THEM - it won't happen....

Show threadMsMerope16h ago
@cvvhrn @ai6yr
this one hit hard
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VK9GgrPwp2s
Doctor calmly tries to explain risks to anti-vaccine parents | The Pitt | BINGE

YouTube
Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShell15h ago

@MsMerope @cvvhrn @ai6yr

I keep thinking of that quote from Larry Niven in one of his essays in “all the myriad ways”

Think of it as evolution in action.

It’s not pretty and it’s not nice but it’s hard to avoid the truth of it

Show threadAI6YR Ben15h ago
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @MsMerope @cvvhrn LOL well, they're about to do a true Darwin on themselves (ie if you're killing off your kids, or killing yourself before you have kids, that is true Darwin effect).
Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShell15h ago

@ai6yr @MsMerope @cvvhrn

There’s been a packed field for Darwin awards for some years now

Show threadFrank Heijkamp15h ago
@GhostOnTheHalfShell
I pity the jury of the Darwin Awards now there are so many more candidates to shift through. I mean seriously, how do you reduce all of this to a somewhat manageable short list?
@ai6yr @MsMerope @cvvhrn
Show threadFreddyB Aviation Photography15h ago
@alterelefant @GhostOnTheHalfShell @ai6yr @MsMerope You just gotta let Darwin Darwin #Innaturalselectionwetrust
Show threadMarianne5h ago
@cvvhrn @alterelefant @GhostOnTheHalfShell @ai6yr @MsMerope nope, again, stop with this, I am begging everyone.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2013/may/09/evolutionary-theory-gone-wrong-darwin
Evolutionary theory gone wrong

Sylvia McLain: Survival of the fittest? Darwin wasn't the first to say that

The Guardian
Show threadFrank Heijkamp5h ago

@noodlemaz
The absolute sadness of anti-vaccer parents is that they are hurting their children beyond repair. The measles, polio and the like are not something people should joke about. Without the protection of a vaccine these infections diseases can change young people's lives in a very bad way.

What we do allow ourselves to do is ridicule these parents for their outrageous stupidity. See it as our way to mentally process those people's choices.
@cvvhrn @GhostOnTheHalfShell @ai6yr @MsMerope

Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShell

@alterelefant @noodlemaz @cvvhrn @ai6yr @MsMerope

The effects go beyond their children, though, because herd immunity. Their choice also affects other people’s children.

3:34pmWeb
Show threadFrank Heijkamp4h ago
@GhostOnTheHalfShell
That is indeed correct. Their bad choices affect society as a whole, putting everyone at risk. However it is foremost their own children who suffer from the consequences. Although reduced herd immunity for society is definitely a thing to worry about, it is the fate of those children that scares me personally the most.
@noodlemaz @cvvhrn @ai6yr @MsMerope
Show threadGhostOnTheHalfShell4h ago

@alterelefant @noodlemaz @cvvhrn @ai6yr @MsMerope

Parents doing something antithetical to the idea of parenthood. Any child that dies from what somebody else has inflicted on them is cruel and inexplicable