An 18 year-old testified before Congress on Tuesday about his decision to get vaccinated against his mother’s wishes, and the amount of shade thrown is incredible.
Ethan Lindenberger appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and explained that he took it upon himself to research vaccines, which he called a “medical miracle” that stop “the spread of numerous diseases and therefore saving countless lives.”
According to Lindenberger, his mother has been vocal about her opposition to vaccines for most of his life, and acquired most of her knowledge on the issue from Facebook.
After joining the debate club in school, he learned about the importance of researching facts in order to find “truth in a world of misleading facts and false views.”
As a result, he turned to “accredited sources” like the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation to learn about vaccines, as well as various scientific journals.
Sen. Isakson: Does your mother get most of her info online?
Ethan Lindenberger, the 18-year-old who got vaccinated against his mom's wishes: "Mainly Facebook."
Isakson: Where do you get your info?
Lindenberger: "Not Facebook. CDC, the World Health Org. … accredited sources." pic.twitter.com/ndviEpGPbM
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 6, 2019
He even confronted his mother with the information he’d found, telling her that “there is no link between vaccines and autism”, only for her to fire back with “that’s what they want you to think.”
Lindenberger previously made headlines for asking Reddit for advice on how to go about getting vaccinated, and he started catching up on the vaccines he missed in December of last year.
His mother told Undark that his decision to get vaccinated was “like him spitting on me, saying, ‘You don’t know anything, I don’t trust you with anything.’”
The reality is that as an 18 year-old, Lindenberger doesn’t need to trust his mother to make decisions about his health for him anymore – he’s perfectly capable of making his own, as he has demonstrated by choosing to get vaccinated.
His decision to ignore his mother’s dodgy Facebook-based ‘evidence’ and come to his own conclusion based on science is a commendable one, and with anti-vax sentiment on the rise, it’s one we’ll probably see a lot of children make in the years to come.