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FILE – A newborn laying down in a hospital. (Getty Images)
More babies are suffering life-threatening bleeding because parents are opting out of this basic injection for their newborns.
A recent report published by ProPublica on May 6 found that there was a link between a recent uptick in infant bleeding deaths and vitamin K deficiency.
Dig deeper:
The report analyzed hundreds of medical and autopsy records of infants who died of spontaneous bleeding across the United States.
In almost every case, the babies’ deaths could have been prevented had they received the vitamin K shot at birth, ProPublica claimed.
What is the vitamin K shot?
The vitamin K shot is one of a few standard medical practices that help newborns stay healthy as soon as they’re out of the womb.
In addition to the hepatitis B vaccine and antibiotic ointment on their eyes, babies will also receive a vitamin K shot.
The shot helps newborns with blood clotting and prevents severe bleeding, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
By the numbers:
Without the shot, babies are 81 times more likely to develop severe bleeding, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What’s more, 1 in 5 babies that experience this type of bleeding will die, the CDC added.
Misinformation may have led to the uptick
Big picture view:
ProPublica links the alarming uptick in vitamin K deficiency-bleeding deaths in infants to well-meaning “but ill-informed” parents.
The report also cited a Jama Network study that observed the rate of infants who did not receive this shot roughly coincided with the wave of COVD-19-related misinformation and skepticism, but researchers were not able to pinpoint the correlation.
In 2024, more than 700 newborns died from spontaneous bleeding in their brains, according to ProPublica’s data.
The bleeding could have been caused by liver disease or prematurity, but doctors told the outlet that a “meaningful portion” of the deaths were likely caused by a vitamin K deficiency.
What they’re saying:
“A lot of the providers don’t have this on their radar,” Dr. Jaspreet Loyal, a pediatric hospitalist at Yale Medicine told ProPublica. “The lack of data is almost acting like a reassurance for families that this risk is worth taking.”
The other side:
When asked about the vitamin K deficiency-related deaths, a spokesperson with the Health and Human Services Department simply told ProPublica that the shots remained “the standard of care.”
The Source: Information for this article was taken from a ProPublica report, USA Today, the CDC website, a Jama Network study published on Dec. 8, 2025, the Cleveland Clinic website and the National Institutes of Health. This story was reported from San Jose.