2026-03-21T08:12:00-0400 / CBS新闻
更新时间：2026年3月21日 / 美国东部时间上午8:12 / 美联社
在爱达荷州一家医院，有一天，汤姆·帕特森医生接诊的新生儿中，有一半没有接种维生素K注射剂——这种几十年来一直用于预防婴儿潜在致命性出血的干预措施。最近另一天，超过四分之一的新生儿也未接种该注射剂，原因是他们的父母不允许。
“当你看到一个无辜且脆弱的孩子——一种自1961年以来就一直实施的简单干预措施被拒绝——想到这个婴儿即将进入这个世界，我感到非常担忧，”拥有近30年儿科医生经验的帕特森表示。
全美医生对一种现象感到震惊：反科学情绪和医疗不信任感不断上升，这种怀疑已从疫苗扩展到其他针对婴儿的经证实的常规预防性护理措施。
《美国医学会杂志》近期一项研究分析了全国超过500万例分娩案例，发现2017年至2024年间，维生素K注射剂拒绝率几乎翻倍，从2.9%升至5.2%。其他研究表明，拒绝接受维生素K注射的父母更有可能拒绝给新生儿接种乙肝疫苗和预防潜在致盲感染的眼药水。近年来，出生时乙肝疫苗接种率有所下降，医生证实更多父母拒绝使用眼部药物。
“我确实认为这些家庭非常关心他们的婴儿，”费城新生儿科医生凯利·韦德博士表示，“但我听到很多家庭反映，现在做决定很困难，因为他们听到的信息相互矛盾。”
无数社交媒体帖子质疑医生对维生素K和眼药水等安全有效措施的建议。特朗普政府多次削弱既定科学结论。一个由卫生部长小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪（Robert F. Kennedy Jr.）任命的联邦咨询委员会——他在加入政府前是反疫苗运动的主要活跃分子——投票决定终止对所有新生儿进行乙肝免疫接种的长期建议。周一，一名联邦法官暂时阻止了该重组委员会做出的所有决定。
2026年3月6日，在诺顿妇女与儿童医院，一名护士正在给一名新生儿注射维生素K。杰米·罗兹（Jamie Rhodes）/诺顿医疗保健公司/美联社
西雅图儿科医生兼研究员大卫·希尔博士指出，反疫苗观点和对新生儿其他保护措施日益增长的抵触情绪，共同的根源是一个错误观念：“自然的总是优于人工的”。
“大自然会让五分之一的人类婴儿在出生后第一年夭折，”希尔说，“这就是为什么一代又一代的科学家和医生努力将这个数字大幅降低。”
维生素K及其他措施可预防严重问题
婴儿出生时维生素K水平较低，由于他们的肠道要到大约6个月开始食用固体食物后才能产生足够的维生素K，因此他们在此期间易受出血风险影响。
“维生素K对于帮助婴儿血液凝固和预防危险出血（如颅内出血）非常重要，”《美国医学会杂志》研究主要作者、费城儿童医院的克里斯汀·斯科特博士表示。
在注射成为常规之前，约每60名婴儿中就有1名出现维生素K缺乏性出血，这种情况还可能影响胃肠道。如今这种情况已较为罕见，但研究表明，未接种维生素K注射剂的新生儿发生严重出血的风险是接种者的81倍。
希尔见过这种情况的后果：“我曾照料过一个幼儿，他的父母选择承担这种风险。孩子在新生儿期就出现了中风，最终导致严重的发育迟缓和持续的癫痫发作。”
帕特森是爱达荷州美国儿科学会分会主席，他表示，在2月份的该分会会议上，医生们提到在过去13个月内，该州已有8起因维生素K缺乏性出血导致的死亡案例。
其他新生儿护理措施可预防的感染也可能带来严重后果。红霉素眼药水可预防分娩过程中感染的淋病，未经治疗可能导致失明；乙肝疫苗可预防可能导致肝衰竭、肝癌或肝硬化的疾病。
伊利诺伊州高地公园的儿科医生苏珊·西罗塔博士表示，即使孕妇接受了淋病和乙肝检测，检测也并非万无一失，她可能在检测后感染，无论如何，她都有将感染传给孩子的风险。
家长为何拒绝常规护理？
家长拒绝预防性措施的原因多种多样，包括担心可能产生副作用以及不想让新生儿感到疼痛。
“有些人会说他们希望采用更自然的分娩理念，”加州奥兰治县海洋儿科中心创始人史蒂文·阿贝洛维茨博士解释道，“然后有大量错误信息……还有外部影响，比如朋友、名人、非专业人士和政治议程。”
阿贝洛维茨所在地区的共和党人和民主党人比例大致相当。“保守派这边的不信任感更强，但自由派这边也有很多，”他说，“这是普遍存在的不信任。”
社交媒体为这种情绪提供了充足燃料，传播不实信息并推广医生警告称婴儿无法很好吸收的非处方维生素K滴剂。
多个州的医生表示，拒绝维生素K注射的家长往往也会拒绝其他措施。西罗塔在伊利诺伊州遇到过一个家庭，拒绝给有潜在低血糖风险的婴儿进行足跟采血监测血糖。
拒绝护理并非新现象。韦德在费城表示，她观察到这种情况已有20年，但直到最近才变得普遍。
如今居住在明尼苏达州的多劳拉·莫里森（Dana Morrison）是一名分娩助理，她回忆道，12年前，她拒绝给刚出生的儿子注射维生素K，而选择口服滴剂。“这是出于想保护与宝宝建立亲密时光的想法，”她说，“我想减少更多针刺带来的不适。”
几年后她女儿出生时情况复杂，导致婴儿腿部瘀伤，这次她为女儿接种了维生素K注射剂。现在回想起来，她表示“如果知道这些，我也会给儿子接种的”。
医生和家长都希望“为孩子做到最好”
医生们希望逐个说服家长改变观念，而这始于尊重。
“如果我带着评判心态走进房间，我们的对话将毫无意义，”希尔说，“我服务的每一位家长都希望为孩子做到最好。”
当家长质疑维生素K注射的必要性时，希瑟·费尔顿博士会努力解决他们的具体担忧，解释注射的原因和不注射的风险。费尔顿表示，大多数家庭最终会同意接种，且她并未发现拒绝率上升。
“花时间倾听并提供教育确实很有帮助，”肯塔基州路易斯维尔诺顿儿童医院的儿科医生费尔顿说。
在爱达荷州，帕特森有时会发现自己需要澄清一些误解，例如，当家长得知维生素K不是疫苗时，会同意为孩子接种。
这些沟通往往需要时间，因为医生在医院遇到的家长通常不是他们日常诊疗的患者。
但医生们愿意投入时间，如果这能挽救婴儿生命的话。
“每次和家长讨论结束时，我都会这样说：‘请理解，归根结底，我之所以如此投入，是因为我心中始终牵挂着孩子的最大利益，’”帕特森表示，“我知道这是个敏感话题，我不想冒犯任何人。但同时，我非常痛心，我们正在无理由地失去孩子。”
Parents are refusing routine preventative care for newborns at rising rates, study finds
2026-03-21T08:12:00-0400 / CBS News
Updated on: March 21, 2026 / 8:12 AM EDT / AP
One day at an Idaho hospital, half the newborns Dr. Tom Patterson saw didn’t get the vitamin K shots that have been given to babies for decades to prevent potentially deadly bleeding. On another recent day, more than a quarter didn’t get the shot. Their parents wouldn’t allow it.
“When you look at a child who’s innocent and vulnerable — and a simple intervention that’s been done since 1961 is refused — knowing that baby’s going out into the world is super worrisome to me,” said Patterson, who’s been a pediatrician for nearly three decades.
Doctors across the nation are alarmed that skepticism fueled by rising anti-science sentiment and medical mistrust is increasingly reaching beyond vaccines to other proven, routine, preventive care for babies.
A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which analyzed more than 5 million births nationwide, found that refusals of vitamin K shots nearly doubled between 2017 and 2024, from 2.9% to 5.2%. Other research suggests that parents who decline vitamin K shots are much more likely to refuse getting their newborns the hepatitis B vaccine and an eye ointment to prevent potentially blinding infections. Rates for that vaccination at birth dropped in recent years, and doctors confirm that more parents are refusing the eye medication.
“I do think these families care deeply about their infants,” said Dr. Kelly Wade, a Philadelphia neonatologist. “But I hear from families that it’s hard to make decisions right now because they’re hearing conflicting information.”
Innumerable social media posts question doctors’ advice on safe and effective measures like vitamin K and eye ointment. And the Trump administration has repeatedly undermined established science. A federal advisory committee whose members were appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a leading anti-vaccine activist before joining the administration — voted to end the longstanding recommendation to immunize all babies against hepatitis B right after birth. On Monday a federal judge temporarily blocked all decisions made by the reconfigured committee.
A nurse administers a Vitamin K shot to a newborn baby at Norton Women’s and Children’s Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2026. Jamie Rhodes / Norton Healthcare / AP
One common thread that ties together anti-vaccine views and growing sentiments against other protective measures for newborns is the fallacy that natural is always better than artificial, said Dr. David Hill, a Seattle pediatrician and researcher.
“Nature will allow 1 in 5 human infants to die in the first year of life,” Hill said, “which is why generations of scientists and doctors have worked to bring that number way, way down.”
Vitamin K and other measures prevent serious problems
Babies are born with low levels of vitamin K, leaving them vulnerable because their intestines can’t produce enough until they start eating solid foods at around 6 months old.
“Vitamin K is important for helping the blood clot and preventing dangerous bleeding in babies, like bleeding into the brain,” said Dr. Kristan Scott of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, lead author of the JAMA study.
Before injections became routine, up to about 1 in 60 babies suffered vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can also affect the gastrointestinal tract. Today the condition is rare, but research shows that newborns who don’t get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to develop severe bleeding than those who do.
Hill has seen what can happen.
“I cared for a toddler whose parents had chosen that risk,” the Seattle doctor said. The child essentially had a stroke as a newborn and wound up with severe developmental delays and ongoing seizures.
At a February meeting of the Idaho chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, doctors said they knew of eight deaths from vitamin K deficiency bleeding in the state over the preceding 13 months, said Patterson, who is president of the chapter.
Infections prevented by other newborn measures can also have grave consequences. Erythromycin eye ointment protects against gonorrhea that can be contracted during birth and potentially cause blindness if untreated. The hepatitis B vaccine prevents a disease that can lead to liver failure, liver cancer or cirrhosis.
Even if a pregnant woman is tested for gonorrhea and hepatitis B, no test is perfect, and she may get infected after testing, said Dr. Susan Sirota, a pediatrician in Highland Park, Illinois. Either way, she risks passing the infection to her child.
Why are parents refusing routine care?
Parents give many reasons for turning down preventive measures, like fearing they might cause problems and not wanting newborns to feel pain.
“Some will just say they want more of a natural birth philosophy,” said Dr. Steven Abelowitz, founder of Ocean Pediatrics in Orange County, California. “Then there’s a ton of misinformation. … There are outside influences, friends, celebrities, nonprofessionals and political agendas.”
Abelowitz practices in an area with about an equal mix of Republicans and Democrats.
“There’s more mistrust from the conservative side, but there’s plenty on the more liberal side as well,” he said, “It’s across-the-board mistrust.”
Social media provides ample fuel, spreading myths and pushing unregulated vitamin K drops that doctors warn babies can’t absorb well.
Doctors in numerous states say parents refusing vitamin K shots often also decline other measures. Sirota, in Illinois, encountered a family that refused a heel stick to monitor glucose for a baby at high risk for having potentially life-threatening low blood sugar.
Care refusals aren’t a new phenomenon. Wade, in Philadelphia, said she’s seen them for 20 years. But until recently, they were rare.
Twelve years ago, Dana Morrison, now a Minnesota doula, declined the vitamin K shot for her newborn son, giving him oral drops instead.
“It came from a space of really wanting to protect the bonding time with my baby,” she said. “I was trying to eliminate more pokes.”
Her daughter’s birth a couple of years later was less straightforward, leaving the infant with a bruised leg. Morrison got the vitamin K shot for her.
Knowing what she does now, she said, she would have gotten it for her son, too.
Doctors and parents want “the best for their children”
Doctors hope to change minds, one parent at a time. And that begins with respect.
“If I walk into the room with judgment, we are going to have a really useless conversation,” Hill said. “Every parent I serve wants the best for their children.”
When parents question the need for the vitamin K shot, Dr. Heather Felton tries to address their specific concerns. She explains why it’s given and the risks of not getting it. Most families decide to get it, said Felton, who has seen no uptick in refusals.
“It really helps that you can take that time and really listen and be able to provide some education,” said Felton, a pediatrician at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky.
In Idaho, Patterson sometimes finds himself clearing up misconceptions. Some parents will agree to a vitamin K shot when they find out it’s not a vaccine, for example.
These conversations can take time, especially since the parents doctors see in hospitals usually aren’t people they know through their practices.
But doctors are happy to invest that time if it might save babies.
“I end every discussion with parents with this: ‘Please understand at the end of the day, I’m passionate about this because I have the best interest of children in my mind and heart,’” Patterson said. “I understand this is a hot topic, and I don’t want to disrespect anybody. But at the same time, I’m desperately saddened that we’re losing babies for no reason.”
