{"id":5328,"date":"2026-07-18T18:53:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T18:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usglobalnews.com\/2026\/07\/18\/idaho-mom-charged-with-murder-says-vaccines-killed-her-twins-doctors-say-its-not-possible\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T18:53:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T18:53:18","slug":"idaho-mom-charged-with-murder-says-vaccines-killed-her-twins-doctors-say-its-not-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/?p=5328","title":{"rendered":"Idaho mom charged with murder says vaccines killed her twins. Doctors say it\u2019s not possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-gu-name=\"media\" class=\"dcr-14sl0e4\">\n<div class=\"dcr-17l77cs\">\n<figure id=\"121d8143-6408-4535-8737-eb3bcf9c7302\" class=\"dcr-191xnya\">\n<div id=\"img-1\" class=\"dcr-1t7hdmw\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A woman in glasses and orange-and-white-striped prison garb appears on camera.\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/38c989e0d20646eb75fd4bb952fe1c11cf02ce84\/100_0_893_714\/master\/893.jpg?width=465&amp;dpr=1&amp;s=none&amp;crop=none\" width=\"465\" height=\"371.7917133258679\" loading=\"eager\" class=\"dcr-up96pv\"><span class=\"dcr-kogzpx\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-18mnkpm\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1294qmb\"><label for=\"the-checkbox\" class=\"dcr-4sl2vt\"><\/label> <\/p>\n<div id=\"the-caption\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1mfxiaj\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Andrea Shaw attends a court hearing remotely via video on 2 July 2026 at the Payette county district court in Payette, Idaho.<\/span> Photograph: KIVI-TV\/AP<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><a href=\"#img-1\" data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-zwabc0\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><button data-element-id=\"121d8143-6408-4535-8737-eb3bcf9c7302\" type=\"button\" class=\"open-lightbox dcr-1bitgpn\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><span class=\"dcr-1shbixy\">View image in fullscreen<\/span><\/button><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-qda0hp\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1e9iiy9\"><span class=\"dcr-13i4yc9\"><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1cipnsy\">Andrea Shaw attends a court hearing remotely via video on 2 July 2026 at the Payette county district court in Payette, Idaho.<\/span> Photograph: KIVI-TV\/AP<\/figcaption><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"headline\" class=\"dcr-ql9l8l\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6mja0y\">\n<h1 class=\"dcr-l0wuod\">Idaho mom charged with murder says vaccines killed her twins. Doctors say it\u2019s not possible<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"standfirst\" class=\"dcr-1xpojbf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-1kvrm3n\">\n<p>Children\u2019s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group once led by RFK Jr, still stands by Andrea Shaw after her indictment<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"body\" class=\"dcr-x1al2c\">\n<div class=\"dcr-11gq2tx\">\n<div id=\"maincontent\" class=\"dcr-1w2vkyc\">\n<div class=\"article-body-commercial-selector article-body-viewer-selector dcr-ogvvui\">\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\"><span style=\"color:var(--drop-cap);font-weight:500\" class=\"dcr-1iwzucl\">A<\/span>n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/idaho\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Idaho<\/a> mother charged with the first-degree murders of her 18-month-old twins has blamed their deaths on vaccines they received eight days before they died. But doctors who reviewed details about the case at the request of the Guardian say vaccines did not kill them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThis was not a close call,\u201d said Dr Jake Scott, a clinical <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/infectiousdiseases\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">infectious disease<\/a> physician at Stanford who specializes in vaccine science. \u201cI can say with confidence what didn\u2019t happen here. It was not the vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Andrea Shaw was indicted for murder last month in the deaths of Dallas and Tyson, who were found dead in their bed in Payette, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/idaho\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Idaho<\/a>, on 1 May 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Three days after the twins died, Shaw and her husband, Nathaniel, did a video interview with Children\u2019s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/robert-f-kennedy-jr\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a> ran for years before becoming the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. At the time, no autopsy results had been released and no cause of death was publicly known.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Despite that lack of information, CHD\u2019s Polly Tommey repeatedly blamed vaccines during the interview. Since then, CHD has cited the children\u2019s deaths to promote the idea that vaccines are dangerous. An article it published about the deaths was a top story on its website last year, according to its 2025 Impact Report, and it added Shaw as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit the group filed against the American Academy of Pediatrics.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"c1f74226-6e3a-4837-827e-63183c0a73dd\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-1oq85qr\">\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-5 | 5\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-name=\"placeholder\" class=\"dcr-1rx5ky9\">\n<div data-format-theme=\"5\" data-format-design=\"0\" data-format-display=\"0\" class=\"dcr-uyoh2p\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/15\/erica-schwartz-cdc-senate-hearing\" class=\"dcr-f35c0u\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-vvxpdt\">\n<div class=\"dcr-6z6e7\">\n<div class=\"dcr-zh9rih\">CDC nominee Erica Schwartz pressed on whether she will resist RFK Jr\u2019s vaccine agenda<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-oj13vq\">\n<div class=\"dcr-ef9nua\">Read more<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">CHD has continued to stand by Shaw since her 30 June arrest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Three doctors who reviewed information about the case said it wasn\u2019t possible the children died because of a reaction to any of the three vaccines they received. They based their conclusions on several factors, including the kinds of vaccines they received, the timing of the children\u2019s deaths and descriptions of their condition in partial emergency room visit reports obtained by the Guardian. They also took into account Shaw\u2019s description of her children\u2019s symptoms and the cause of death being determined to be suffocation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThere\u2019s no biological plausibility to a vaccine suffocating somebody,\u201d said Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Scott said if the children were having a deadly reaction to any of the three vaccines they received, it would have been apparent within minutes or hours, not eight days later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThese three vaccines are all non-live vaccines. The only established way that any of them causes a death is a severe allergic reaction,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time reviewing vaccine safety data, and I\u2019m quite certain about this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">He said such a reaction would \u201cabsolutely never\u201d kill someone eight days later.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-timeline\" class=\"dcr-8418j6\">The timeline<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The children each received three vaccines on 23 April 2025: DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), hepatitis A and influenza. Shaw\u2019s mother-in-law was with Shaw and the children at the appointment and said <a href=\"https:\/\/coi.isc.idaho.gov\/docs\/CR38-26-1685\/2026\/071326+Affidavit+of+Wendy+Marie+Shaw+in+Support+of+First+Amended+Motion+for+Bond+Reduction.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">in a court filing<\/a> that she told the nurse she and her son had adverse reactions to the flu shot, but the nurse assured them it should not be a concern. Shaw agreed to the children being vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The following day, Shaw took the twins to the emergency room because she said they had \u201csevere symptoms including blue lips, lethargy, and sunken eyes\u201d, according to her lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics. But partial records from those visits shared with the Guardian by CHD do not indicate the children were severely ill, Scott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The records of both note a possible vaccine reaction, but describe mild symptoms, not something serious, Scott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cFeeling warm, being fussy, having less energy or less appetite for a day or two after shots \u2013 it\u2019s one of the most common and expected reactions there is, especially at this age,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Dallas had a temperature of 99, and the records said she had a decreased activity level, while Tyson was described as \u201cvery active\u201d. Both had good eye contact and were taking fluids orally, according to the records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Adalja said the records described a \u201cvery benign presentation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The children were sent home without further tests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Shaw has said the twins continued to do poorly, but on 30 April, one week after the trip to the ER, she told CHD the twins had improved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThey were great. That was the only day since those shots that they were active,\u201d Shaw said in her video interview last year. \u201cThey were eating fine. They were drinking out of their sippy cups fine. They were talking normally finally. And they didn\u2019t want to sleep all day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The following morning, she said, she found the twins dead in the bed they shared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Scott said that from a purely scientific perspective, the explanation that vaccines were to blame doesn\u2019t hold up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThere is no vaccine injury that improves and then kills a child overnight,\u201d Scott said. \u201cAnd certainly not two children in the same night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Much anti-vaccine messaging focuses on mercury and the preservative thimerosal, but thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines in the US more than two decades ago, though it is still in some multi-dose flu vaccines. A chart that detailed Dallas Shaw\u2019s visit to get the vaccines, and which appeared on a CHD video last year, shows that the influenza vaccine she received was the single-dose, preservative-free formulation, Scott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">And while most flu vaccines are grown in hen\u2019s eggs, prompting concerns for some people with egg allergies, the vaccine that was recorded in the chart was not made that way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt contains no egg protein at all,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-case-against-shaw\" class=\"dcr-8418j6\">The case against Shaw<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Shaw\u2019s lawyer, Joseph Filicetti, said he doesn\u2019t have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the vaccines were the cause of the twins\u2019 deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cI\u2019m focused on a criminal case with my client. And it appears to me that vaccines\u201d played \u201ca role in this,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s enough complications going on and it looks pretty obvious to me that vaccines are in play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">He questioned whether the doctors the Guardian consulted would be able to make their determinations about vaccines without having full access to the Shaw twins\u2019 medical records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cI don\u2019t know how a doctor could give an opinion without seeing the entire medical record,\u201d Filicetti said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The conclusions by doctors interviewed by the Guardian align with those of three doctors consulted by prosecutors, who <a href=\"https:\/\/coi.isc.idaho.gov\/docs\/CR38-26-1685\/2026\/071326+Objection+to+Motion+for+Bond+Reduction.pdf\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">said in a filing this week<\/a> that they ruled out other possible causes of death including excessive heat, carbon monoxide poisoning and other kinds of poisoning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe Defendant described them as having a great day the day prior to their murders. Detectives, with the benefit of three medical doctors, were able to rule out vaccines as a cause of death,\u201d prosecutor Michael Duke wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Duke <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/JXrfN8hJuQU?t=1231\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">told a judge<\/a> during a bond hearing this week that Shaw changed her story \u201cradically\u201d, initially saying she fed the children breakfast and went through their routine, before backtracking and acknowledging that wasn\u2019t true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Duke said Shaw told investigators she saw one of the children sit up between 1am and 2am when she checked on them upon returning home from going out with a friend. Then, he said, she \u201cchanged her story again to say that she didn\u2019t actually see the kid sit up after being emphatic that he had\u201d. He said the children are thought to have died around that time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe reality is this is not a vaccine case,\u201d Duke told the judge, adding: \u201cThis is a case where a mother, unfortunately, has killed her two children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The judge on Tuesday revoked Shaw\u2019s $2m bond, agreeing with the prosecutor\u2019s argument that she posed a threat to her new baby, who was born last month, just days before her arrest.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-role-of-childrens-health-defense\" class=\"dcr-8418j6\">The role of Children\u2019s Health Defense<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Scott was highly critical of CHD and its use of the case to further its anti-vaccine cause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">CHD didn\u2019t wait for the evidence but \u201cbuilt the story first and ignored the record that totally contradicted it\u201d, Scott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Asked why CHD jumped to the conclusion that vaccines were to blame before a cause of death was determined, the organization\u2019s CEO, Mary Holland, said in an email that the twins\u2019 deaths follow \u201ca typical pattern of an adverse reaction to pediatric vaccines\u201d. Though Shaw has been charged with two counts of murder and medical experts consulted by prosecutors ruled out vaccines, Holland said CHD is not re-examining its support of Shaw.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cEveryone 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,\u201d Holland wrote in an email.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Scott said he didn\u2019t know how the twins died, but he does know it wasn\u2019t the vaccines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThis is what the movement does: it finds a tragedy, attaches a vaccine to it\u201d and uses the grief to garner support, he said. \u201cAn organization that cared about these children I think would have waited to find out how they died.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-print-layout=\"hide\" class=\"dcr-swayiu\"><span class=\"dcr-1xhbmzr\">Explore more on these topics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-2c03t5\">\n<ul class=\"dcr-p7nd18\">\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/idaho\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Idaho<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/society\/vaccines\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Vaccines and immunisation<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/society\/childrens-health\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Children&#8217;s health<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/robert-f-kennedy-jr\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/us-news\/us-crime\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">US crime<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"dcr-r721ee\"><a href=\"\/tone\/features\" class=\"dcr-856iwi\">features<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dcr-313bdz\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Idaho%20mom%20charged%20with%20murder%20says%20vaccines%20killed%20her%20twins.%20Doctors%20say%20it%E2%80%99s%20not%20possible&amp;body=https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jul\/18\/idaho-mother-twins-death-vaccines?CMP=share_btn_url\" class=\"dcr-ncybeu\">Share<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"dcr-19bkree\"><a data-link-name=\"meta-syndication-article\" href=\"https:\/\/syndication.theguardian.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fus-news%2F2026%2Fjul%2F18%2Fidaho-mother-twins-death-vaccines&amp;type=article&amp;internalpagecode=us-news\/2026\/jul\/18\/idaho-mother-twins-death-vaccines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" title=\"Reuse this content\" class=\"dcr-1c41onw\">Reuse this content<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-gu-name=\"right-column\" class=\"dcr-1kq7f60\"><span class=\"dcr-1ryr20k\"><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrea Shaw attends a court hearing remotely via video on 2 July 2026 at the Payette county district<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}