"According to new research published today in JAMA, the rate of vitamin K shot refusals has risen nearly 80 percent in the U.S. between 2017 and 2024. The study, which examined medical records from more than five million births during that time period, found that the proportion of newborns who did not receive the injection climbed from 2.92 percent to 5.18 percent."
"The trend comes at a time of growing vaccine hesitancy and science denial. Wellness influencers have fueled skepticism by characterizing the vitamin K shot as unnecessary and questioning its lab-made ingredients, even though they are found in many routine injections. But newborns are born with naturally low levels of vitamin K, a nutrient essential for blood clotting, says Kristan Scott, a neonatologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and lead author of the new study."
Refusal rates for the newborn vitamin K injection climbed from 2.92 percent to 5.18 percent in the U.S. between 2017 and 2024, an increase of nearly 80 percent. Analysis of medical records from more than five million births covers that period. Wellness influencers and growing vaccine hesitancy have driven skepticism about the injection and its ingredients. Newborns have naturally low vitamin K levels, which are essential for blood clotting. Without the injection, about one in 60 babies face vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can cause permanent brain damage or death. Vitamin K injections have prevented deadly infant brain bleeds for more than six decades.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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