An Idaho mother charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her 18-month-old twins has blamed vaccines they received eight days prior. Medical experts consulted by the Guardian, however, stated unequivocally that vaccines did not cause the deaths.
Medical Experts Reject Vaccine Link
Dr Jake Scott, a clinical infectious disease physician at Stanford specializing in vaccine science, said: “This was not a close call. I can say with confidence what didn’t happen here. It was not the vaccines.” Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, added: “There’s no biological plausibility to a vaccine suffocating somebody.”
Andrea Shaw was indicted for murder last month in the deaths of Dallas and Tyson, found dead in their bed in Payette, Idaho, on 1 May 2025. Three days later, Shaw and her husband Nathaniel gave a video interview to Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group formerly led by Robert F Kennedy Jr, before autopsy results were released.
Timeline of Events
The twins each received three vaccines on 23 April 2025: DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis), hepatitis A, and influenza. The following day, Shaw took them to the emergency room, reporting “severe symptoms including blue lips, lethargy, and sunken eyes.” However, partial ER records shared with the Guardian by CHD described mild symptoms. Dallas had a temperature of 99°F and decreased activity; Tyson was “very active.” Both had good eye contact and were taking fluids orally. They were sent home without further tests.
Shaw told CHD that on 30 April, the twins improved: “They were great. That was the only day since those shots that they were active.” The next morning, she found them dead in their shared bed.
Scientific Analysis
Dr Scott explained that deadly vaccine reactions occur within minutes or hours, not eight days later. “These three vaccines are all non-live vaccines. The only established way that any of them causes a death is a severe allergic reaction,” he said. “There is no vaccine injury that improves and then kills a child overnight. And certainly not two children in the same night.” He also noted that thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines in the US over two decades ago, and the influenza vaccine the twins received was a single-dose, preservative-free formulation containing no egg protein.
Prosecutor’s Case
Prosecutor Michael Duke wrote that three doctors consulted by prosecutors ruled out vaccines as a cause of death, along with other possibilities like excessive heat or poisoning. “The reality is this is not a vaccine case,” Duke told the judge. “This is a case where a mother, unfortunately, has killed her two children.” Duke said Shaw changed her story multiple times, initially claiming she fed the children breakfast and later acknowledging that wasn’t true. She also initially said she saw one child sit up between 1am and 2am but later recanted. The children are believed to have died around that time.
The judge revoked Shaw’s $2 million bond, agreeing she posed a threat to her newborn baby, born last month just days before her arrest.
Children’s Health Defense Response
CHD has continued to support Shaw despite the charges. CEO Mary Holland said the twins’ deaths follow “a typical pattern of an adverse reaction to pediatric vaccines.” Asked why CHD jumped to conclusions before a cause of death was determined, Holland stated: “Everyone in this country is presumed innocent until it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they are guilty. We see no reason to believe otherwise about Ms Shaw.”
Dr Scott criticized CHD’s actions: “This is what the movement does: it finds a tragedy, attaches a vaccine to it and uses the grief to garner support. An organization that cared about these children I think would have waited to find out how they died.”
