Propaganda about Vaccines and SIDS from Paul Thomas
Anti-vaccine influencers showcase studies about VAERS and ignore better studies that show no association between vaccines and SIDS, well, except that they may reduce the risk of SIDS!
As more unvaccinated children die with measles, anti-vaccine influencers are having to think of other ways to scare parents.
That’s like why they are bringing back the idea that vaccines are associated with SIDS, which has long been an anti-vaccine talking point.
Propaganda about Vaccines and SIDS from Paul Thomas
According to Paul Thomas, there are six data sets that looked at SIDS, and in one of those data sets, 97% of SIDS cases were in the first 10 days after getting a vaccine.
The other data sets weren’t as straightforward in their results, but to Thomas, the conclusions are “real clear, you get a vaccine, your infant dies.”
Surprisingly, saying things like this isn’t why Thomas lost his medical license…
To be real clear, what Paul Thomas is saying isn’t true.
“There is no evidence that there is a causal relationship between immunizations and SIDS. Indeed, recent evidence suggests that vaccination may have a protective effect against SIDS.”
AAP Task Force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
But what about his datasets?
They are poorly done studies that looked at VAERS data.
“…when a number of well-controlled studies were conducted during the 1980s, the investigators found, nearly unanimously, that the number of SIDS deaths temporally associated with DTP vaccination was within the range expected to occur by chance. In other words, the SIDS deaths would have occurred even if no vaccinations had been given.”
WHO Vaccines and immunization: Myths and misconceptions
More sophisticated studies have repeatedly shown that vaccines are not associated with SIDS, except that they can reduce your child’s risk of dying with SIDS if they are vaccinated!
Do immunisations reduce the risk for SIDS? A meta-analysis - concluded that immunisations are associated with a halving of the risk of SIDS.
Sudden infant death syndrome: no increased risk after immunisation - this study provides further support that immunisations may reduce the risk of SIDS.
Reanalyses of case-control studies examining the temporal association between sudden infant death syndrome and vaccination - There is no increased or reduced risk of sudden infant death during the period after the vaccination.
Maybe that’s why the incidence of SIDS increased in Sweden when they stopped using the DPT vaccine…
But is there any reason that you might coincidentally see or hear about some cases of SIDS in the days or weeks right after an infant gets a vaccine?
If infants are getting vaccines at two months, four months, and six months, the peak ages for SIDS, there is a very high likelihood that just by chance, they might get a vaccine around the time that they died with SIDS.
What kind of chance?
If you consider that there are about 4 SIDS deaths each day in the United States and infants are getting vaccinated at least three separate times, then:
there are at least three days that an infant might die with SIDS on the same day they got a vaccine, which comes to 4 children * 3 days = 12 children
there are at least three weeks that an infant might die with SIDS during the same week they got a vaccine, which comes to 4 children * 21 days = 84 children
To be very, very clear.
These aren’t kids that died with SIDS because they were vaccinated!
These are kids who were vaccinated and, coincidentally, died with SIDS around the same time that they had a vaccine.
Kids, who if their parents listen to anti-vaccine influencers and they aren’t vaccinated, are ignoring advice to reduce their baby’s risk of SIDS!
References
Laura Sigman, Robert Turbow, Daniel Neuspiel, Julia M. Kim, Committee on Medical Liability and Risk Management, Council on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety; Disclosure of Adverse Events in Pediatrics: Policy Statement. Pediatrics April 2025; 155 (4): e2025070880. 10.1542/peds.2025-070880
WHO Vaccines and immunization: Myths and misconceptions https://web.archive.org/web/20220521105225/https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/vaccines-and-immunization-myths-and-misconceptions
SIDS Not Linked to Number and Variety of Childhood Vaccines. https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2003/03/sids-not-linked-to-number-and-variety-of-childhood-vaccines
“These are kids who were vaccinated and, coincidentally, died with SIDS around the same time that they had a vaccine.”
Post hoc ergo propter hoc thinking embodied