Teenagers of anti-vax parents in the United States are turning to internet sites like Reddit for advice and information on if and how they can catch up on their childhood vaccines.
?I haven?t got vaccines since elementary school,? wrote one teenaged female in Florida last month. ?Dad fell down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, and my Mom agrees with him?The goal is to get all my vaccines updated without ruining my otherwise healthy relationship with my parents.?
According to Ian Gemmill, a doctor in Kingston, Ont. and former chair of Immunize Canada, the scenario exists in Canada, too.
?It?s not unheard of to have a child whose parents don?t believe in vaccination to get to a certain point in their lives, and have done their own thinking about it, to ask to be vaccinated,? he says. As evidenced by online discussions, however, it?s not always easy to get your vaccines as a minor in the United States, especially if you don?t want your parents to know about it. Which state you live in and your insurance coverage both come into play.
In Canada, teens will likely have an easier time­­?but an example in British Columbia in 2014 shows just how complex the situation can be. There, a 14-year-old girl gave her consent to a tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine from a public health nurse at school, but her parents, who had made the decision when she was younger not to vaccinate her, were outraged, saying their daughter felt too shy to question the nurse and was...