A Popular Doctor Had Long Warned That Vitamin K Shots Are Risky for Newborns. Now He’s Changed His Tune.

ProPublica reports that Dr. Joseph Mercola, a prominent vaccine skeptic with 1.7 million Facebook followers, has publicly reversed his decade-long position opposing vitamin K shots for newborns after the outlet contacted him about babies dying from vitamin K deficiency bleeding. Mercola now states "the data is clear: vitamin K saves lives" and supports universal newborn vitamin K prophylaxis, acknowledging that his 2010 article opposing the shots may have spread misinformation despite the science being settled since the 1940s. The investigation details how Mercola's earlier warnings were factually incorrect—he overstated injection doses, mischaracterized preservative risks, and misunderstood black box warnings—and documents how his opposition coincided with documented rises in shot refusals and preventable infant brain and gastrointestinal bleeding, including citations by anti-vaccine figures like Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Children's Health Defense. The article includes strong sourcing: named officials (Rep. Kim Schrier, CDC representatives), specific statistics (81 times higher bleeding risk, 1.7 million followers), direct quotes from Mercola's prior and current positions, and documented cases of harm, reflecting rigorous investigative journalism. Watch for whether Mercola's reversal meaningfully shifts online misinformation or whether entrenched social media narratives—including religious arguments that God didn't make a mistake—continue to drive vitamin K shot refusals and preventable infant deaths.