An Idaho mother charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of her 18-month-old twins has blamed the vaccines they received eight days before they died. However, three doctors who reviewed the case at the request of the Guardian say vaccines could not have been the cause.
Andrea Shaw was indicted last month for the murders of Dallas and Tyson, who were found dead in their bed in Payette, Idaho, on 1 May 2025. Three days after the twins' deaths, Shaw and her husband Nathaniel gave a video interview to Children's Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine group formerly led by Robert F Kennedy Jr, now secretary of Health and Human Services. At that time, no autopsy results were available and the cause of death was not publicly known.
Medical experts rule out vaccines
Dr Jake Scott, a clinical infectious disease physician at Stanford who specializes in vaccine science, stated: 'This was not a close call. 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, added: 'There's no biological plausibility to a vaccine suffocating somebody.'
The children each received three vaccines on 23 April 2025: DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis), hepatitis A and influenza. Scott explained that all three are non-live vaccines, and the only established way they can cause death is a severe allergic reaction, which would occur within minutes or hours, not eight days later. 'I've spent a lot of time reviewing vaccine safety data, and I'm quite certain about this,' he said.
Timeline and emergency room visit
The day after vaccination, Shaw took the twins to the emergency room, reporting severe symptoms including blue lips, lethargy and sunken eyes. However, partial records from those visits, shared with the Guardian by CHD, described mild symptoms. Dallas had a temperature of 99 and decreased activity, while Tyson was described as 'very active'. Both had good eye contact and were taking fluids orally. Adalja called it a 'very benign presentation'. The children were sent home without further tests.
Shaw told CHD that on 30 April, one week after the ER visit, the twins improved significantly. 'They were great. That was the only day since those shots that they were active,' she said. The next morning, she found them dead in their shared bed. Scott noted: 'There is no vaccine injury that improves and then kills a child overnight. And certainly not two children in the same night.'
Prosecution's case
Prosecutor Michael Duke stated that three doctors consulted by the prosecution ruled out other possible causes, including excessive heat, carbon monoxide poisoning and other poisons. 'The Defendant described them as having a great day the day prior to their murders. Detectives, with the benefit of three medical doctors, were able to rule out vaccines as a cause of death,' Duke wrote. He also said Shaw changed her story 'radically', initially claiming she fed the children breakfast and followed their routine, then later acknowledging that was not true. The judge revoked Shaw's $2m bond, agreeing she posed a threat to her newborn baby.
Children's Health Defense's stance
Despite the charges and medical opinions, CHD continues to support Shaw. CEO Mary Holland said in an email: 'Everyone in this country is presumed innocent until it is proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they are guilty. We see no reason to believe otherwise about Ms Shaw.' Scott criticized the group: 'This is what the movement does: it finds a tragedy, attaches a vaccine to it and uses the grief to garner support. An organization that cared about these children I think would have waited to find out how they died.'
