Idaho Mom Charged With Killing Her Twins Says Vaccines Were to Blame. Doctors Say That's Wrong.
Three medical experts say the science clearly rules out vaccines as the cause of the toddlers' deaths.
An Idaho mother named Andrea Shaw has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her 18-month-old twins, Dallas and Tyson. The two children were found dead on May 1, 2025, in Payette, Idaho. Shaw says vaccines the twins received eight days earlier were to blame for their deaths. Three doctors who reviewed details of the case say the vaccines had nothing to do with it.
Three days after the twins died, Shaw and her husband did a video interview with a group called Children's Health Defense, or CHD. CHD is an anti-vaccine organization that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used to run. During the interview, a CHD host repeatedly blamed the vaccines — even though no official cause of death had been announced. CHD later added Shaw to a lawsuit and kept supporting her even after her arrest.
The twins each received three vaccines on April 23, 2025. These shots protected against diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough; hepatitis A; and the flu. The next day, Shaw took the children to the emergency room. But medical records described only mild symptoms like a low fever and fussiness, which are common reactions after shots.
Dr. Jake Scott is a vaccine expert at Stanford University. He said none of the three vaccines the children received could cause death eight days after being given. 'The only established way that any of them causes a death is a severe allergic reaction,' he said. That kind of reaction would happen within minutes or hours, not more than a week later.
Shaw told CHD that the day before the twins were found dead, they were actually feeling better. She said they were eating, drinking, talking, and playing as usual. But the next morning, she found them dead in the bed they shared. Dr. Scott said this timeline makes it even clearer that vaccines were not the cause.
Prosecutors also worked with three doctors who ruled out vaccines as a cause of death. They also ruled out other possible causes like heat, carbon monoxide, and poisoning. The prosecutor told a judge that Shaw changed her story several times about what happened that night. The judge canceled her $2 million bail, saying she may pose a danger to her new baby.
Dr. Scott criticized CHD for using the twins' deaths to spread anti-vaccine messages before the facts were known. He said the organization 'built the story first and ignored the record that totally contradicted it.' He believes a group that truly cared about the children would have waited for the real cause of death before making any claims. 'This is what the movement does: it finds a tragedy, attaches a vaccine to it,' he said.
"There is no vaccine injury that improves and then kills a child overnight. And certainly not two children in the same night."
Comprehension quiz preview
1. Where were the twins, Dallas and Tyson, found dead?
2. How many days after the twins received their vaccines were they found dead?
3. What did prosecutors say their three doctors concluded about vaccines as a cause of death?