Moneeze Bernardo
- An Ohio teen defies parents view on vaccines, gets inoculated
- Ethan Lindenberger reported on YouTube that he had been invited to speak before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
- Washington State is hoping to pass a bill to narrow the exemptions for vaccines amid the measles outbreak in the country
An Ohio teenager, who caught the attention of national media for receiving his first-ever vaccines despite his parents’ wishes, will testify on Tuesday in front of a Senate committee.
Ethan Lindenberger, 18, has questioned his parents’ anti-vaccine stance and eventually got himself inoculated. This dissenting act made headlines around the United States amid the measles outbreak that have affected more than 100 people in the country and parents opting out of vaccination for personal and philosophical reasons.
Lindenberger announced last Saturday on YouTube that he had been invited to speak before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that’s devoted to examining outbreaks of preventable diseases. “I’m looking forward to speaking in Washington, DC,” Lindenberger said in the video.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuqeACSnxn1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
According to the committee’s website, the teenager will appear together with experts such as John Wiesman, Washington State’s secretary of health, and Saad B. Omer, a professor at Emory University in Georgia.
Lindenberger also shared that he lived for years without being vaccinated because of his mother’s belief in vaccine conspiracies such as unsubstantiated accusations of links between vaccines and autism. This prompted for Lindenberger do his own homework, consulting scientific research, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
My parents are kind of stupid and don’t believe in vaccines. Now that I’m 18, where do I go to get vaccinated? Can I get vaccinated at my age?
byu/ethanlindenberger inNoStupidQuestions
In November of last year, he posted on Reddit, a discussion website, asking for advice about how to get vaccinated. A month later, Lindenberger went to the Ohio Department of Health in his hometown and received a battery of standard vaccinations that included hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, and HPV, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post.
Jill Wheeler, the mother of the celebrated teenager, told Undark, an online science magazine that first reported of her son’s story that the decision of her son was “like him spitting on me, saying ‘You don’t know anything, I don’t trust you with anything.'”
According to the young man’s Reddit post, his father was less resistant to the idea since he was of legal age.
Speaking to The Post in February, Lindenberger claimed, “I looked into it; it was clear there was way more evidence in defense of vaccines.” He has four younger siblings, including a 2-year-old sister, who he says will probably not be vaccinated.
“It breaks my heart that she could get measles and she’d be done,” he said.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BouJVuQl98f/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
In a previous interview, the teen told NPR News of his mother’s reaction to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention countering misinformation on vaccines. “Her response was simply ‘that’s what they want you to think.’ I was just blown away that you know, the largest health organization in the entire world would be written off with a kind of conspiracy theory-like statement like that.”
Ninety-eight countries reported more cases of measles in 2018 compared to 2017. The World Health Organization said cases worldwide climbed nearly 50 percent, killing around 136,000 people.
Washington State is hoping to pass a bill to narrow the exemptions for vaccines but is currently facing opposition from “anti-vaxxers,” especially as 17 states in the country allow parents to opt out of vaccines for philosophical or moral reasons.
