What is the death count under Donald Trump? We're not talking about loss of life in his war with Iran. We're not talking about natural deaths by aging or unpreventable diseases. We mean Americans who die because they refuse safe vaccines that Trump or his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., questions or discourages.

A recent occurrence of death and suffering comes from the refusal by many parents to let doctors give their newborns a vitamin K shot. Infants are naturally deficient in vitamin K, which helps prevent blood clots and internal bleeding, which can be horrific. K is a vitamin, not a vaccine. But ill-informed parents have developed suspicion of anything delivered with a needle.

Vitamin K shots were once routinely given, but now many parents refuse them. In 2024, an estimated 5.2% of American babies were not injected with vitamin K, up from 2.9% in 2017. At least 12 such babies have died, and far more have suffered permanent brain damage. Doctors believe the real numbers are far higher than reported.

Who's to blame — the parents for not studying the matter, or a health department that has cast aspersions on accepted science? Jessica Kirk, a pediatric specialist at a Florida hospital, recalls trying to comfort a grieving parent. "But what I could not bring myself to say to her was, 'There's nothing you could have done.'"

Falling vaccination rates are to blame for America's worst measles outbreak in more than 30 years. Parents are refusing the effective measles, mumps and rubella vaccine over the false claim that it causes autism. Trump is said to be hounding Bobby to look deeper for a link that 138 studies by real scientists could not find. Trump now insists that the shot be broken up into separate injections, based on zero science.

Several children infected with measles died last year, when there were far fewer cases. Many more had to be hospitalized with serious complications.

Trump makes us dizzy complaining that he doesn't get credit for speeding up development of a COVID-19 vaccine -- and then putting "Bobby," a vaccine skeptic with a bizarre past, in charge of Health and Human Services. He gushes about having "a Kennedy" from "the greatest political family" in his administration. What fun that must have been.

Trump never directly discouraged Americans from getting COVID shots. But he kept minimizing the severity of the disease. He said it would "go away" or that it was under control. Trump would not receive the vaccine before cameras. That gave Americans who suspected that vaccines posed dangers more reasons to avoid them.

An estimated 250,000 Americans died unnecessarily from COVID by refusing to be vaccinated after the shots became widely available. Who's to blame? The first Trump administration, or people who didn't seek out expert advice to get vaccinated?

Trump is allegedly unhappy with Bobby for not doing more to fan suspicion of vaccines. Really, RFK Jr. has done quite enough harm already putting Americans' health at risk.

Complicating matters for Trump are new findings from a friendly pollster that vaccine skepticism is highly unpopular with voters. In another survey, 80% of adults said they trusted their doctors most, while only 34% put their faith in Bobby.

Why is Trump pushing doubt in mainstream science when he and his family reportedly get all the shots? Could it be fumes circulating in his 80-year-old head? Could it be a pleasurable jolt of power from persuading people to, in effect, gamble with their lives? That possibility is too grim to contemplate.

Suffice it to say, though, the Trump administration is doing real harm, and some of it is costing American lives.

Froma Harrop is an award winning journalist who covers politics, economics and culture. She has worked on the Reuters business desk, edited economics reports for The New York Times News Service and served on the Providence Journal editorial board.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.