Idaho mother who blamed vaccines accused of killing twins

An American mother was kept in pretrial detention on Tuesday on charges that she suffocated her 18-month-old twins and then tried to blame their deaths on vaccines, US media reported.

Andrea Shaw, 23, claimed that her children suffocated eight days after receiving several childhood vaccines, including vaccines for flu, hepatitis A and tetanus.

Shaw was a plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization founded and led by Robert Kennedy Jr. before he joined the Trump administration as health secretary. Her testimony is central to the lawsuit, which accuses the American Academy of Pediatrics, the largest pediatric society in the United States, of lying about the safety of vaccines recommended for children.

The Payette police department in Idaho said Shaw was arrested and charged after a lengthy and thorough investigation.

In court on Tuesday, Shaw's lawyer, Joseph Filicetti, described her as "a caring, loving mother" and said she was not what the state was making her out to be, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Shaw, who faces the possibility of the death penalty, asked for her $2 million bond to be reduced so she could be with the infant girl she gave birth to days before her arrest. Judge Kiley Stuchlik expressed concerns and instead revoked Shaw's bond, placing her in pretrial detention, according to the Idaho Statesman.

After the twins died in May 2025, Shaw appeared on a Children's Health Defense program and said she had found them lifeless in their beds.

Health experts have reiterated in recent days that childhood vaccines do not increase the risk of asphyxiation. They also questioned whether Shaw's twins, who were not genetically identical, could have died from immune reactions at the same time.

Kennedy, who has linked vaccination and autism without evidence, has not commented on the case. Children's Health Defense did not respond to a request for comment.