An Ohio teenager helped school Congress on fighting anti-vax misinformation
Ethan Lindenberger, an 18-year-old from Ohio who defied his parents’ anti-vaccination beliefs by getting inoculated, appeared today before Congress to promote vaccine education and outreach campaigns. Lindenberger was one of five people who testified in a Senate committee hearing titled “Vaccines Save Lives: What Is Driving Preventable Disease Outbreaks?” According to experts, the answer is complex — but it’s often centered on a communications gap between medical institutions and parents concerned by vivid conspiracy theories on social media.
Lindenberger opened his testimony with a story that’s gotten wide media coverage: after growing up without inoculation against diseases like measles and polio, he questioned his mother’s claims that...