Ethan
Lindenberger, frustrated by years of arguments about his mother's
anti-vaccination stance, staged a quiet defection on Reddit.
The Norwalk,
Ohio, teenager needed advice, he said, on how to inoculate himself against both
infectious disease and his family's dogma. At 18, he was old enough,
Lindenberger explained. He wanted to get vaccinated. But he didn't know how.
"My
parents think vaccines are some kind of government scheme," Lindenberger
wrote days before Thanksgiving. "But, because of their beliefs I've never
been vaccinated for anything, god knows how I'm still alive."
As
anti-vaccination movements metastasize amid outbreaks of dangerous diseases,
Internet-savvy teenagers are fact-checking their parents' decisions in a
digital health reawakening - and seeking their own treatments in bouts of
family defiance.
At least
three self-described teenagers from different states told Reddit they have a
common problem: Their parents are staunchly opposed to vaccination, and they
fear for their health if they do not take action.
Different
state laws affect how old minors need to be to make their own medical decisions.
Lindenberger's
post drew more than 1,000 comments, including one from someone who identified
as a nurse and provided detailed information on navigating the health-care
system
For
Lindenberger, the tension over vaccines started years ago after he began to
notice his mother posting anti-vaccination videos on social media, he told The
Washington Post on Sunday. His friends were getting vaccinated. So what was
happening in his house?
Lindenberger
read scientific papers and journals. He pulled up Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention studies on his phone at the dinner table, hoping his mother
would relent and get him and his four younger siblings - now ages 16, 14, 5 and
2 - vaccinated.
"I
looked into it, it was clear there was way more evidence in defense of
vaccines," he said.
His mother,
Jill Wheeler, resisted; she claimed there were autism risks from vaccines, a
common argument used by anti-vaccination groups that has been widely debunked.
Wheeler was
angered by his pursuit, she told Undark, an online science magazine.
"It was
like him spitting on me, saying 'You don't know anything, I don't trust you
with anything. You don't know what you're talking about. You did make a bad
decision and I'm gonna go fix it," she told the site.
Wheeler did
not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
In Ohio and
16 other states, parents can opt out of required vaccines for philosophical
reasons. All but three states allow the exemption on religious grounds. (All 50
allow opt-out for medical reasons.)
Late last
year, Lindenberger, now a high school senior, confided in a pastor, who
suggested he was legally free to make decisions.
On December
17, he walked into an Ohio Department of Heath office in Norwalk and received a
cocktail of vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza and HPV, according
to a shot record viewed by The Post.
He has shots
listed for tetanus and hepatitis B, administered when he was 2 years old, but
Wheeler told Undark he received the tetanus shot after he accidentally cut
himself. The other must be a paperwork mistake, she said.
Lindenberger
said he has seen a growing discussion online about teenagers emboldened to make
their own health decisions and pursue vaccinations.
In
Washington, a self-described underage teen wrote in January that their mother
would not allow vaccines.
"I, as
well as my siblings, hold the ideology that vaccines are a public health issue,
and a personal responsibility to the benefit of the population, not a right you
can revoke from your children," the teenager wrote.
Washington
has become a battleground between anti-vaccine groups pushing for relaxed
regulations and concerned parents watching a measles outbreak strike the
Pacific Northwest, a well-documented anti-vaccination refuge.
At least 56
people in Washington and Oregon have contracted measles - a potentially deadly
disease for children - in an outbreak centered on Clark Country, Washington,
just north of Portland, Oregon.
A health
emergency in has been declared in Clark County.
"Measles
is exquisitely contagious. If you have an under-vaccinated population, and you
introduce a measles case into that population, it will take off like a
wildfire," Clark County Public Health Director Alan Melnick said.
Another
teenager, who in September identified himself as a 15-year-old from Minnesota,
asked on Reddit for help parsing state laws in an effort to get himself
immunizated. Minnesota is a state where guardians can opt out of required
vaccinations if they philosophically object to them.
Lindenberger
suggested that to empower teenagers and get more people immunized, states
should lower the age of consent required for vaccinations instead of pushing
for stricter immunization laws and dropping exemptions.
The tension
has complicated his home life. He says he regrets insulting the intelligence of
his parents in the original Reddit post and urges other teenagers to be
transparent and positive with parents when seeking permission to immunize.
The stakes
are high for his four younger siblings. His mother has already indicated she
will not allow his 16-year-old brother to be immunized, although he wants to
be, Lindenberger said.
He also has
a 2-year-old sister, whose age exposes her to numerous infectious health risks.
"It
breaks my heart that she could get measles and she'd be done,"
Lindenberger said.
2019 © The
Washington Post
This article
was originally published by The Washington Post.
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