An Idaho mother charged with the first-degree murders of her 18-month-old twins has said vaccines caused their deaths. Medical experts who reviewed details of the case said the claim is not medically plausible, pointing to the children’s condition, the timing and the official determination of suffocation.
Andrea Shaw was indicted after Dallas and Tyson were found dead in their shared bed in Payette, Idaho, on 1 May 2025. Prosecutors say the case is not a vaccine-related death investigation, while Shaw’s attorney has argued that vaccines may have played a role.
Doctors Say the Timing Does Not Fit
The twins received DTaP, hepatitis A and influenza vaccines on 23 April 2025, eight days before they died. Three physicians who reviewed available information said the vaccines could not have caused the deaths.
| Vaccine | Date Given | Relevant Detail |
|---|---|---|
| DTaP | 23 April 2025 | Non-live vaccine |
| Hepatitis A | 23 April 2025 | Non-live vaccine |
| Influenza | 23 April 2025 | Non-live vaccine |
Dr Jake Scott, a Stanford clinical infectious disease physician who specializes in vaccine science, said severe allergic reactions are the established fatal risk for these vaccines. He said such reactions would emerge within minutes or hours, not more than a week later.
“This was not a close call,” Scott said. “I can say with confidence what didn’t happen here. It was not the vaccines.”
Dr Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said there is no biological mechanism by which a vaccine would cause suffocation. “There’s no biological plausibility to a vaccine suffocating somebody,” he said.
Emergency Records Described Mild Symptoms
Shaw took the children to an emergency room the day after their vaccinations, saying they had severe symptoms including blue lips, lethargy and sunken eyes. Partial emergency-room records reviewed by www.theguardian.com described a much less serious presentation, according to the doctors consulted.
Dallas had a temperature of 99 and decreased activity, while Tyson was described as “very active.” Both children had good eye contact and were taking fluids orally, and they were sent home without further testing.
Scott said feeling warm, being fussy, having lower energy or eating less for a day or two can be expected after childhood shots. Adalja called the records a “very benign presentation.”
Shaw later told Children’s Health Defense that the twins had improved by 30 April. In a video interview, she said they were eating, drinking, talking normally and were active that day before they were found dead the following morning.
Scott said that account further conflicts with the vaccine explanation. “There is no vaccine injury that improves and then kills a child overnight,” he said. “And certainly not two children in the same night.”
Prosecutors Cite Suffocation Finding
Prosecutors said three doctors they consulted ruled out vaccines, excessive heat, carbon monoxide poisoning and other forms of poisoning. The cause of death was determined to be suffocation, according to the case information described by prosecutors.
Prosecutor Michael Duke told a judge that Shaw had changed key parts of her account about the children’s final hours. He said investigators believe the twins died around the time Shaw initially said she saw one of them sit up after she returned home.
“The reality is this is not a vaccine case,” Duke told the judge. “This is a case where a mother, unfortunately, has killed her two children.”
A judge revoked Shaw’s $2m bond after prosecutors argued that she posed a threat to her newborn baby. Shaw’s lawyer, Joseph Filicetti, said he does not need to prove vaccines caused the deaths beyond a reasonable doubt, but believes they may be relevant to the defense.
Children’s Health Defense Maintains Its Support
Children’s Health Defense promoted the vaccine theory within days of the twins’ deaths, before autopsy results or a public cause of death had been released. The organization later added Shaw as the lead plaintiff in its lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics.
CHD chief executive Mary Holland said in an email that the deaths followed what she described as “a typical pattern of an adverse reaction to pediatric vaccines.” She said the organization saw no reason to reconsider its support because Shaw is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Scott criticized the group for advancing a vaccine narrative before the evidence was established. He said an organization concerned with the children would have waited to learn how they died.