So I've passively been following this story in the news over the past few months. An Ohio teenager, at odds with his parents over routine childhood vaccinations, wanted to be immunized. His parents are "anti-vaxxers" or idiots (some call them). The kid decided to go and do his own research into the effectiveness of immunizations for childhood diseases, and found that the pros far outweigh the cons in terms of risk.
Ethan Lindenberger notably got vaccinated without his parents' permission once he was old enough, acting against his mother's incorrect belief that vaccines cause autism, brain damage and other ailments. Here is his statement before congress...
"My mother is an anti-vaxx advocate [who] believes that vaccines ... do not benefit the health and safety of society, despite the fact such opinions have been debunked numerous times by the scientific community," Lindenberger told a Senate committee on Tuesday. In case you missed the initial story, Ethan disagreed with his mother in terms of vaccinations, and turned to Reddit to help him find a way around his anti-vaxxer mother...
Only about %1 of parents withhold vaccinations from their children in the United States, according to the CDC. But the number of states with growing numbers of unvaccinated children is growing, giving way to the possibility of outbreaks and epidemics for diseases like measles, smallpox, tetanus, and polio. Let John Oliver give this message of doom and gloom a funny twist...