Medical experts say vaccines could not have killed Idaho twins

Prosecutor says suffocation killed twins, not vaccines

Three doctors who reviewed details about the case at the request of The Guardian said it was not possible the children died because of a reaction to the vaccines they received eight days before their deaths. The assessment directly contradicts the claim that Shaw and Children’s Health Defense, the organization that has publicly opposed routine childhood vaccines, have publicly promoted.

Dr. Jake Scott, a clinical infectious disease physician at Stanford University who specializes in vaccine science, said the evaluation was straightforward. “This was not a close call,” Scott said. “I can say with confidence what didn’t happen here. It was not the vaccines.”

The children each received three non-live vaccines — DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), hepatitis A and influenza — on April 23, 2025. Dr. Scott said the only established way these vaccines can cause death is a severe allergic reaction, which occurs within minutes or hours, not eight days later. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, agreed. “There’s no biological plausibility to a vaccine suffocating somebody,” Adalja said.

The day after the vaccinations, Shaw took the twins to an emergency room. In a lawsuit she later filed, Shaw described the twins’ symptoms as “severe symptoms including blue lips, lethargy, and sunken eyes.” But partial medical records from the visit obtained by The Guardian indicate the children were not severely ill. Dallas had a temperature of 99 degrees and decreased activity, while Tyson was described as “very active.” Both had good eye contact and were taking fluids orally, according to the records. They were sent home without further testing.

In a video interview with Children’s Health Defense on April 30, Shaw said the twins had recovered. “They were great. That was the only day since those shots that they were active,” she said. Dr. Scott said this timeline makes the vaccine explanation medically impossible. “There is no vaccine injury that improves and then kills a child overnight,” Scott said. “And certainly not two children in the same night.”

Prosecutor Michael Duke has argued that the evidence points to murder. A grand jury indicted Shaw on two counts of first-degree murder on June 29. During a court hearing this week, Duke said medical doctors consulted by prosecutors had ruled out vaccines, excessive heat, carbon monoxide and other forms of poisoning as causes of death. He said Shaw changed her story “radically” about the morning of the deaths. “The reality is this is not a vaccine case,” Duke said. “This is a case where a mother, unfortunately, has killed her two children.” The judge revoked Shaw’s $2 million bond, agreeing with prosecutors that she posed a threat to her newborn baby, who was born days before her arrest.

As MSI previously reported, Shaw, 23, of Payette, Idaho, was first charged after the children were found dead in a shared bed on May 1, 2025. She had publicly claimed that routine vaccines caused their deaths.

Children’s Health Defense, the organization once led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that has publicly opposed routine childhood vaccines, has continued to stand by Shaw despite the indictment. CEO Mary Holland said in an email that the twins’ deaths follow a “typical pattern of an adverse reaction to pediatric vaccines” and that the organization sees no reason to doubt Shaw’s innocence. Shaw is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit CHD filed against the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Scott criticized the organization’s approach, saying it built the story first and ignored the record that totally contradicted it.