Healthline: Teens Fighting Back Against Anti-Vaccination Views of Their Parents

By Christopher Curley 

Can a teenager get a vaccine without their parents’ consent? The legalities of it vary from state to state, but some teens are trying nonetheless.

Such is the case of Ethan Lindenberger, an unvaccinated 18-year-old who kicked off a Reddit thread asking for advice on obtaining vaccines.

Call it an act of teenage rebellion, but one with health-conscious consequences.

The anti-vaccination movement has been back in the news as more than 100 measles cases, including more than 50 in Washington state, have been reported in the United States.

So why do parents opt out of vaccinating their kids in the first place?

The modern anti-vaccination movement was largely sparked from a discredited study published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield linking the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine to autism. It was later discovered Wakefield falsified his data, and he was stripped of his medical license.

Beyond that study, there are a trove of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories online, and the ease of access and exposure to these theories may increase parents’ likelihood to not vaccinate, a 2014 study in the journal PLoS ONE concluded.

Read the full story via Healthline

Learn more about the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Mercy