Teen Warns of Anti-Vaccination Dangers Before Congress

Brut America

Ethan Lindenberger did the unthinkable — he defied his mother’s wishes and got vaccinated when he turned 18. Now, he’s warning against the dangers of misinformation and ideas that fuel the anti-vaccination movement.

Transcript

00:00My school viewed me as a health threat and so that for me also pushed me to look further

00:03into getting my vaccines despite my mother's beliefs because I saw the threat that's being imposed.

00:13When you convince parents that not information is incorrect but that their children are at risk

00:18that's a much more substantial way to cause people to change their minds. In one such instance where

00:22I approached my mother with information from the CDC that claimed vaccines do not cause autism,

00:27she responded with that's what they want you to think. My mother would turn to anti-vaccine groups

00:31online and on social media looking for her evidence and defense rather than health officials

00:36and through credible sources. This may seem to be in malice because of the dangers that not

00:41vaccinating imposes but this is not the case. My mother came in the sense of loving her children

00:47and being concerned. You see that with a lot of the anti-vaccine community that a large portion

01:01of the foundation that they build to communicate with parents is on a very anecdotal level

01:06sharing stories and experiences and that speaks volumes to people because at least for even my

01:12family my mom would reaffirm that her position was correct because she knows people and she's

01:16seen stories but correlation is equal causation and we don't know a lot of factors involved even

01:21though I could say that this doesn't resonate and so I've seen that a large portion of what

01:25we have missed and to address your question you know even more accurately just the stories of

01:30people suffering from preventable diseases the stories of preventable diseases ravaging

01:36countries and nations is extremely important and the side effects and complications that these

01:41diseases impose for young people especially moving into adulthood with their decisions

01:45on a medical level it's extremely important because once you become of age and at least for me

01:50most of my friends didn't even understand that they could get vaccinated despite their parents

01:53wishes and once you move into living on your own and starting your career still that that push of

01:58explaining to young people that vaccines are important is especially important.

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