December 23, 2025 › Health Conditions › Science › News
‘Deeply Troubling’: Higher Mortality Rates Detected in Vaccinated 3-Month-Olds Compared With Unvaccinated Infants
Infants vaccinated in their second month of life were more likely to die in their third month than unvaccinated infants, according to an analysis of data obtained from the Louisiana Department of Health. Children’s Health Defense scientists Brian Hooker, Ph.D., and Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., who conducted the analysis, called on health authorities to make similar datasets available for independent analysis, arguing that transparency is essential for evaluating vaccine safety at the population level.
by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
Infants vaccinated in their second month of life were more likely to die in their third month than unvaccinated infants, according to an analysis of data obtained from the Louisiana Department of Health. Female and Black infants died at higher rates than male or white babies.
Children’s Health Defense scientists Brian Hooker, Ph.D., and Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., conducted the analysis, which was published Monday on Preprints.org.
Depending on which vaccines they received, vaccinated children were between 29%-74% more likely to die than unvaccinated children. Vaccinated Black infants were 28%-74% more likely to die, and vaccinated female infants had a 52%-98% greater risk of death.
Overall, children who received all six vaccines recommended for 2-month-olds were 68% more likely to die in their third month of life, the data showed.
Hooker and Jablonowski determined the death rates by analyzing immunization and mortality records from the Louisiana Department of Health for children who died before age 3 months between 2013 and 2024.
“This very important paper represents one of the first studies on the cumulative effect of vaccines given at 2 months of age following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommended schedule,” Hooker told The Defender.
He added:
“The highest infant mortality rates were seen when children received all six of the recommended vaccines in one visit. In addition to elevated mortality, the vaccination schedule also increased the likelihood that children were more likely to die of non-leading causes of death.
“This type of study is needed to guide the efforts of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and especially the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) as they revisit the recommended schedule.”
Hooker and Jablonowski compared infants vaccinated between 60 and 90 days of life — the window corresponding to the CDC’s recommended 2-month immunization visit — with children who were unvaccinated during that same period. Mortality was defined as death occurring between 90 and 120 days of life.
At the 2-month visit, during the period studied, a CDC-compliant infant would likely have received shots for respiratory syncytial virus or RSV; hepatitis B (Hep B); rotavirus; diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; Haemophilus influenzae type B; pneumococcal; and poliovirus.
“It is the largest single-day antigenic assault a person is ever likely to encounter in their lifetimes, and may be accompanied with 1.225 mg [milligrams] of aluminum adjuvant … even though the … maximum per-dose limit allowable by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is 0.85mg,” according to the authors.
The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is about 1 in 200. However, “in what amounts to one of the greatest health hazards in the entire country, and a national injustice,” according to the authors, the mortality rate for infants born to Black mothers is approximately 1 in 100 — almost double the national rate.
Major departure from the standard narrative
Public health authorities have long maintained that childhood vaccines are safe and effective and that vaccination prevents far more deaths than it could plausibly cause.
However, some doctors and scientists, including some who spoke at recent ACIP meetings, are beginning to acknowledge that these claims are based on limited evidence, that many vaccines were recommended without sufficient safety data and that the expansion of the childhood schedule coincided with a rise in chronic illness among U.S. children.
The authors said their study — although limited to a few thousand children — is, to date, one of the largest studies of its kind.
“By epidemiological standards, it is a really small dataset, yet it is among the largest and most detailed of its kind,” Jablonowski told The Defender. “By contrast, when Vanderbilt University and the CDC published ‘Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome after Immunization with the Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis Vaccine,’ they analyzed only a couple hundred infant deaths”
He added:
“I didn’t have expectations on what we would find, because there is no comparator. A study this large, with this level of detail, focused on the second month of life, to my knowledge has never been done before.
“If vaccine safety were as heavily researched as vaccine proponents would like us to believe, this would have been a well-trodden exercise and we would have found nothing, not even the whisper of a disturbing trend. But there is nothing subtle about the measured safety signals. The records of children who are no longer with us demonstrate the hazard of the 2-month recommended vaccines.”
Study included an analysis of multiple vaccines administered at once
The researchers identified approximately 5,800 infant deaths during the period studied. Of those, 1,775 children could be exactly matched to their immunization records.
The analysis focused on a subset of 1,225 children who survived beyond 90 days of life and whose vaccination status could be evaluated.
They found increased mortality odds ranging from 29%-74% depending on the specific vaccine analyzed. The largest individual association was reported for the rotavirus vaccine, with an odds ratio of 1.74 — a 74% greater mortality rate — which the authors note reached the level of statistical significance.
When vaccines were analyzed in combination — reflecting how immunizations are typically administered — children who received all five non-hepatitis B vaccines at the 2-month visit were reported to be 60% more likely to die in their third month than unvaccinated children.
Children who received all six recommended vaccines, including Hep B, were reported to be 68% more likely to die during that period.
Across all comparisons in the dataset, unvaccinated children had the lowest observed mortality rates during the 90- to 120-day window.
Race and sex-based differences were notable
For every vaccine analyzed, Black infants reportedly experienced higher relative increases in mortality compared to white infants when vaccinated during the second month of life. The finding was consistent across individual vaccines and vaccine combinations.
The strongest associations were reported among female infants. According to the analysis, vaccinated females experienced substantially higher increases in mortality risk than vaccinated males. In several comparisons, the reported increase in mortality odds for females exceeded 80% and, in some cases, exceeded 100%.
For females, they wrote, “The difference is so great, it is statistically significant almost everywhere it was measured.”
The authors suggest that sex-based differences in immune response may contribute to these findings, citing prior research that has shown stronger immune responses — and higher rates of adverse reactions — among females following vaccination.
There were also patterns in cause of death
The authors also analyzed reported causes of death, comparing distributions of those causes among vaccinated and unvaccinated female infants who died in their third month of life.
They found that vaccinated females were more likely to die from causes outside the leading categories of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), accidental suffocation and ill-defined causes.
Specifically, the analysis identified several deaths attributed to infectious diseases and nervous system conditions among vaccinated female infants, compared with none in the unvaccinated group during the same period.
This was significant, they wrote, because if vaccinations played no role in mortality, the distribution of causes of death would be expected to remain consistent between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.
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‘One of the most horrible experiences a parent can go through, multiplied by 1,225 times’
Jablonowski and Hooker described the analysis as a “proof-of-concept,” demonstrating that statistically significant associations between vaccination timing and infant mortality can be identified in real-world data.
They called on health authorities and researchers to make similar linked datasets available for independent analysis, arguing that transparency is essential for evaluating vaccine safety at the population level.
Jablonowski said the results weren’t just significant, they were deeply troubling. “I always knew it would be emotionally difficult to work for CHD. Our data is a record of one of the most horrible experiences a parent can go through, multiplied by 1,225 times.”
However, he said, “One study does not make consensus. It needs to be replicated many times over, in every state, province or nation willing to look. I am extremely grateful that CHD was able to pair with such courageous people in the state of Louisiana.”
Jablonowski and Hooker said that only broader access to comparable datasets — and independent replication — can determine whether the patterns observed in Louisiana reflect a localized anomaly or a more general phenomenon.
“To validate, generalize, and explore that harm further requires corroboration with additional sources of evidence. Every state, province, and country where an immunization registry may be matched with a death registry may provide that evidence,” they wrote.Related articles in The Defender
‘Runaway Train’: Media Outlets Race to Condemn Unconfirmed Report of Changes to Childhood Vaccine Schedule
CDC Vaccine Panel Votes to End Universal Hep B Vaccine for Newborns
Vaccine Injury Lawyer Delivers Scathing Rebuke of Childhood Vaccine Schedule — Offit, Hotez Decline Invitation to Debate
In Show of Support for RFK Jr., Trump Orders ‘Comprehensive Evaluation’ of Childhood Vaccine Schedule
Aluminum in Vaccines Far Exceeds ‘Safe’ Limits for Infants, Critics Say
Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
Brenda Baletti, Ph.D., is a senior reporter for The Defender. She wrote and taught about capitalism and politics for 10 years in the writing program at Duke University. She holds a Ph.D. in human geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's from the University of Texas at Austin.
