A recent peer-reviewed study published in the medical journal Cureus provided evidence for a positive correlation between the number of vaccine doses given to babies and infant mortality rates. The study confirmed a 2011 study conducted by the same researchers, which found a positive correlation between the greater number of vaccines given to infants in the most highly developed nations and a higher infant mortality rate.1 2
The initial study published in 2011 in Human and Experimental Toxicology evaluated 2009 data from developed and under-developed nations around the world and found that the greatest number of infant deaths occurred in developed nations where infants were given the highest number of vaccine doses, totaling between 21 to 26 doses. The United States gives infants under the age of one year 26 doses of vaccines—the highest number of vaccine doses of all nations.3 4
Critics of the initial study claimed that the researchers did not use “the full dataset” available for all 185 nations in reaching their conclusion. In the recent study, the authors of both studies, Gary Goldman, PhD and Neil Miller, conducted several investigations to test the reliability of their earlier findings in light of the claims made by critics. They reviewed the methodology, analysis, reported results and conclusion made by their critics, as well as provided odds ratio, sensitivity and replication analysis.
Both Studies Confirm That More Vaccination is Associated With Higher Infant Mortality
The study authors also replicated their earlier study using both the original data set from 2009, along with updated data from 2019. All methods of analysis confirmed the findings of the authors’ original 2011 study.5
The study investigating the reported relationship between vaccination and infant death included data about infant vaccination schedules provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and various national governments.6 The 2023 published study evaluated data from 185 countries, while the original 2011 study included data from only 30 countries. However, even using data from all 185 countries, the authors were able to replicate their original finding showing that the greater the number of vaccine doses given to infants, the higher the country’s infant mortality rate.7
Miller said about the different datasets in the studies:
We both used linear regression to analyze a potential correlation between the number of vaccine doses and IMRs. However, we analyzed the 30 most highly developed nations with high vaccination rates (consistently above 90%) and uniformity of socioeconomic factors. In contrast, our critics analyzed 185 nations with variable vaccination rates (ranging from less than 40% to greater than 90%) and heterogeneous socioeconomic factors. By mixing highly developed and Third World nations in their analysis, our critics inadvertently introduced numerous confounders. For example, malnutrition, poverty, and substandard healthcare all contribute to infant mortality, confounding the data and rendering the results unreliable.
Analysis of VAERS Reports Suggests Causal Relationship Between Vaccines and SIDS
A 2021 study (also conducted by Miller) looked at the potential relationship between vaccination and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Reviewing cases of infant deaths reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) from 1990 though 2019, he “found that a substantial proportion of infant deaths and SIDS cases occurred in temporal proximity to vaccine administration.”8 About 58 percent of the 2,605 reports to VAERS of infant deaths post vaccination from 1990 through 2019 occurred within three days (72 hours) of vaccination and 78.3 percent occurred within seven days of vaccination.9
The study concluded that, while it does not prove that vaccines cause SIDS, it demonstrates safety signals that highly suggest a causal relationship between vaccination and sudden infant death.10
Barbara Loe Fisher, cofounder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), made the connection between vaccination and SIDS when she and medical historical Harris Coulter, PhD, investigated adverse reactions to the diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT) vaccine for their 1985 book, DPT: A Shot in the Dark. She stated in 2011:
From the first human vaccines developed two centuries ago, smallpox and rabies vaccines, death has always been a complication of vaccination… The death certificates of many babies, who die shortly after vaccination, list Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS as the cause of death, which means that no specific symptoms or other reason for death could be found… Most doctors continue to deny that vaccination is a risk factor for SIDS and say that SIDS has declined since pediatricians launched a national campaign in the 1990s to put babies on their backs to sleep, but others point out that the only reason SIDS death statistics have gone down is because, today, fewer infant deaths are labeled “SIDS” by doctors and coroners. The inconvenient truth remains that the numbers of pre-term births continues to increase in America and there are more full-term babies dying before their first birthday than in most developed nations of the world.11
In their 2023 study, Goldman and Miller concluded:
Vaccine-related morbidity and mortality are more extensive than publicly acknowledged. In Third World nations, numerous studies indicate that DTP and inactivated polio (IPV) vaccines have an inverse safety profile, especially when administered out of sequence. Multiple vaccines administered concurrently have also been shown to increase mortality. In all nations, a causal relationship between vaccines and sudden infant deaths is rarely acknowledged. Yet, physiological studies have provided biological plausibility by showing that infant vaccines can produce fever and inhibit the activity of 5-HT neurons in the medulla, causing prolonged apneas and interfering with auto-resuscitation. Vaccines are not always safe and effective. This outcome may be partially due to the US granting pharmaceutical companies immunity from litigation arising from adverse vaccine reactions.”12