Two Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to begin tracking how often parents decline vitamin K injections for newborns, saying the absence of national data is hindering efforts to prevent a rare but potentially fatal bleeding disorder.
In a letter sent to CDC Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya, Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) urged the agency to establish surveillance for vitamin K shot refusals, cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) and related infant deaths.
The request follows a ProPublica investigation that raised concerns about increasing refusal rates and gaps in public health monitoring.
“The CDC has the tools to better understand the burden of vitamin K shot refusal, VKDB and VKDB-related deaths,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to use them, and to share that data with the public, so that we can prevent tragic illness and death in infants.”
Though a database would compile patient information, experts suggest that federal and state privacy laws prohibit the disclosure of any personal details.
Deven McGraw, chief regulatory and privacy officer at Citizen Health, said routine data collection is used to monitor tracking and deployment of recommended public health interventions.
“Typically data like this are reported in a de-identified way, or with identifiers removed, as the purpose is for surveillance and to inform policy and not for punishment,” McGraw told The Defender.
‘There is no such thing as zero risk’
Vitamin K injections have been recommended for newborns in the U.S. for decades to help prevent dangerous bleeding during the first months of life.
The shot is not a vaccine, but it has increasingly become caught up in broader debates surrounding childhood immunizations and medical misinformation, according to pediatricians and public health experts.
Physician and researcher Dr. Suzanne Humphries recently told CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD” that media coverage of the issue relies more heavily on fearmongering than empirical data.
Citing figures extrapolated from European populations, Humphries stated that if babies were not given the vitamin K shot, their death from brain bleeding would occur at a rate of approximately 0.26 to 0.9 per 100,000 births.
Hellbound and Down 