Study Finds Rising U.S. Refusal of Newborn Vitamin K, Hepatitis B Shots and Eye Ointment

A new Journal of the American Medical Association study of more than 5 million U.S. births finds that parental refusal of newborn vitamin K injections nearly doubled from 2.9% in 2017 to 5.2% in 2024, alarming pediatricians who say social‑media misinformation and broader anti‑science trends are now eroding acceptance of basic preventive care beyond vaccines. Doctors report that parents who reject vitamin K are also far more likely to refuse the hepatitis B vaccine at birth and antibiotic eye ointment used to prevent potentially blinding infections, and clinicians in Idaho told their state AAP chapter they have seen eight infant deaths from vitamin K–deficiency bleeding in just 13 months. Researchers note that babies who skip the vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to suffer severe bleeding, including brain hemorrhages, compared with newborns who receive it. The article also highlights a federal advisory committee, appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that voted to end the long‑standing recommendation to immunize all babies against hepatitis B immediately after birth—a move that was temporarily frozen this week when a federal judge blocked all decisions by the reconfigured panel. Pediatricians warn that the combination of rising refusals and politicized federal guidance could reverse decades of progress in preventing infant deaths and disabilities from conditions that modern medicine can easily avert.