Four-year-old Kali Cook from Galveston, Texas, died suddenly and unexpectedly in her sleep on September 7. Just one day before, her mother Karra Harwood had tested positive for SARS-Cov-2, but no one else in the family was showing any symptoms.

Little Kali was perfectly fine until she woke up at 2 a.m. in the morning with a fever: Kali was given Tylenol and went back to sleep. But when her mother went to check on her that morning, she was unexpectedly lifeless.

The medical examiner tested little Kali for the virus SARS-CoV-2 which she then tested positive for. Initially it was ruled a COVID death, even though there is no explanation of how the virus caused the death of this little girl, so quickly, so suddenly, and during a sleep. Her only symptom prior to death was a fever.

Quickly, the media ran with her story, finding and exploiting her mother through her GoFundme, blaming her for her daughter’s death, calling her awful names–anti-vaxxer being one of them. But there’s one missing piece of the story: Karra isn’t anti-vaccine. She may have not gotten the COVID-19 vaccine like 37% of the US population, but the mother is not anti-vaccine.

It turns out that little Kali had received routine vaccinations a week before she died suddenly and unexpectedly during a sleep period, which fits more accurately with a diagnosis of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood.

While the medical examiner tested Kali’s little body and found the virus, they have not stated or explained how the little girl died of COVID. Like so many people, she died with SARS-CoV-2 the virus, but did not die from a COVID infection–in my opinion.

Knowing this–doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t bring Kali back. But I believe this is what happened: Kali died as a result of her routine vaccines one week prior to her sudden death.

What is SUDC?

Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood, or SUDC is similar to SIDS, but for children over the age of 1 and under 18 that remains unexplained after a thorough investigation, including an autopsy. It isn’t one specific cause. 

Viruses are recovered from SIDS and SUDC all the time, but there is not sufficient explanation for how the virus caused death, such as clear and obvious signs of infection, thus the death remains unexplained. Infants and children do have viral infections all the time, and presence of mild infection, or presence of virus, does not sufficiently explain death.

According to the CDC, in 2018, 392 children between the ages of 1-18 years died suddenly without a clear cause of death determined. Most of these children were toddlers, aged 1-4 years; an incidence of 1.4 deaths per 100,000 toddler aged children. 

• The only symptom Kali had prior to her death was fever: half or 50% of SUDC have fevers within 48 hours of their death.
• Kali died during her sleep: 96% of SUDC die during sleep.
• Kali tested positive for a virus: 36% of SUDC test positive for microorganisms.
• Kali had her 4 year shots one week prior to her death: 13% or 1 in 7 children who die of SUDC were vaccinated less than 2 weeks prior to their death.

Source: Full Text Crandall

Supplementary SUDCsupplementary

Vaccines are one cause of SUDC

Given that diagnoses of SUDC span the ages from 1 year to 17 years, one would expect sudden death to not have an association with vaccination, especially given the presumption that vaccines reduce the risk of SIDS, a similar unexplained pathology in infants.

However, the finding that 13% of SUDC had a vaccine within 2 weeks of their death suggests a possible association to vaccination. Additionally, the high rate of fever and seizure both are further associated with vaccinations.

Research into adverse reactions is an extremely stigmatized area of study, but this paralysis hinders true discovery into the causes of some of our most elusive and destructive causes of infant and child morbidity and mortality.

To learn more about SIDS, please see the SIDS and Vaccines page and read how SIDS doesn’t make sense.