Rising Newborn Vitamin K Shot Refusals Linked to Higher Bleeding Risk

By Jonathan Wosen and Theresa Gaffney · Nov. 6, 2026

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Today’s health news spans newborn care, the gaps in women’s medical records, contested ballot measures, and a cannabis discovery in an ancient Siberian burial. The numbers on vitamin K are the sharpest warning in the mix: a routine newborn shot is being declined more often, and the consequences can be severe.

Vitamin K refusals carry real risks

Infants who missed the vitamin K shot faced a 143% higher risk of brain bleeding in their first six months than babies who received it. Vitamin K helps blood clot, and newborns naturally have low levels. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended a one-time injection soon after birth for more than 60 years.

Yet the proportion of newborns not given the shot climbed from 3.1% in 2017 to 6.8% in 2025, amid growing medical mistrust. A study published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined records for more than 5 million infants born from 2017 through 2025. Babies who did not receive vitamin K had a 47% greater risk of bleeding in their first six months and a 169% greater risk of dying while bleeding shortly after birth. The data make the stakes of refusal difficult to wave away.

Kratom’s popularity is outpacing clarity

Kratom and related synthetic products have spread across smoke shops and gas station shelves. Supporters praise their potential to relieve pain; public health specialists worry about possible harms and limited regulation. The public debate is complicated by a basic knowledge gap: two-thirds of Americans say they have never heard of kratom.

STAT’s Theresa Gaffney lays out the basics in this explainer. The plant has been chewed and brewed in Southeast Asia for centuries for its stimulant-like effects. In the U.S., some people say it helps with chronic pain or gives them a way to stop using opioids.

The synthetic and semi-synthetic products 7-OH and MGPI raise separate concerns. Some experts fear they may be especially addictive, and clinicians at addiction treatment centers report more patients seeking help to quit 7-OH. How often these products contribute to overdose or death remains unclear; the available data are murky.

Medical records can leave out the experience of illness

A medical chart may look like a neutral account, but it can miss the most consequential parts of a patient’s care. Epidemiologist Annemarie Hirsch and sociologist Jennifer Silva explored that gap in a study that paired electronic records with interviews of 87 women about pain, illness, and health care.

Women described misdiagnoses and encounters that undermined their trust in clinicians, yet those experiences rarely made it into their records. One woman endured debilitating pelvic pain for more than a decade. Doctors first attributed it to her weight; after she lost weight, they shifted their explanation toward mental health. Her husband’s presence at an appointment marked a turning point, and she was eventually diagnosed with endometriosis. The chart tracked the diagnostic path, but not the frustration and disillusionment of having her pain repeatedly discounted.

That gap matters as health systems look to AI tools. Hirsch and Silva put the concern plainly: “These tools are only as good as the data in the medical record. If a woman’s symptoms are filtered through assumptions about her weight or mental health, and the true story of her pain is omitted, AI may learn and reproduce how the woman is framed in the record.”

Health ballot results show a divided electorate

Democrats were celebrating gains that gave the party control of both the House and Senate, but that momentum did not carry every health-related ballot measure. As of late Thursday, voters in Arizona, Colorado, and Washington had approved or appeared poised to approve restrictions on transgender students joining school sports teams that match their gender identity.

Voters in four states with abortion measures largely kept existing policy in place: Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia chose to maintain abortion rights, while Idaho preserved its current ban. In California, Proposition 38 appeared headed for approval. It would authorize $8.4 billion in bonds for immunology research, though the proposal has drawn controversy because its chief backer co-founded an institute expected to receive half the funding.

South Dakota voters rejected a proposal tying Medicaid expansion to continued federal financial support. Massachusetts voters, meanwhile, defeated a measure to repeal the state’s recreational marijuana law. More results from Jonathan Wosen and Theresa Gaffney are here. One more cannabis story is worth a look.

Traces of ritual cannabis use in an ancient tomb

Evidence that prehistoric people used cannabis is hard to pin down. Plants decay, and archaeological traces can be difficult to interpret. Historians have also drawn on accounts by the ancient Greek writer Herodotus, whose work on the Greco-Persian wars includes lines such as, “of all possessions a friend is the most precious.” A new paper in Science adds physical evidence from a 2,800-year-old Siberian tomb.

The burial mound contained a log cabin-like structure, a coffin, several human remains, and sacrificed horses. Archaeologists recovered hundreds of cannabis seeds; a small sample was dated to the first decade of the eighth century BCE. More unusual still, two long human-hair braids contained substantial amounts of cannabinol, a psychoactive cannabis compound.

The researchers acknowledge that intent can’t be proven in a prehistoric setting, but say the evidence favors deliberate use for the plant’s psychoactive effects. That conclusion is more significant than it may first seem: drug use has a long history, even if the evidence for particular practices is often hard to establish. — Theresa Gaffney

In other news

• A child died of measles in Wisconsin, the state’s first such death since 1990: Associated Press.
• Are you a hugger? Your answer may say something about you: New York Times.
• What it’s like to live with cognitively unimpaired Alzheimer’s disease: STAT.
• Some migrant children in shelters for months are giving up on hopes of staying in the U.S.: KFF Health News.

Tags: health care, politics, reproductive health, states.

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Jonathan Wosen is STAT’s West Coast biotech & life sciences reporter. You can reach him on Signal at jwosen.27. Find him on X and LinkedIn. Email: Jonathan Wosen.

Theresa Gaffney covers substance use and addiction and co-writes the Morning Rounds newsletter. You can reach her on Signal at theresagaff.97. Find her on X and LinkedIn. Email: Theresa Gaffney.