It's not just vaccines — parents are refusing other routine preventive care for newborns

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.