Teenagers fight anti-vaccine movement by arranging their own jabs

The anti-vaccination movement has grown in recent years
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Megan White12 February 2019

Teenagers whose parents are anti-vaxxers are fighting back against the movement by organising their own jabs.

Young people who grew up without vaccines have taken to Reddit looking for advice as more than 100 cases of measles were confirmed in the US.

The disease had almost been eradicated in the country by 2000 but the dangerous anti-vaccine movement has allowed outbreaks in ten states.

The movement has also caused an "alarming drop" in the number of children in London having the MMR jab, with just 81.2 per cent of children receiving the first immunisation by age two.

Experts told the Standard that anti-vaccination propaganda was adding to problems caused by the capital’s higher mobility rates, which can lead to notifications from GPs being missed.

One 18-year-old, who posted on Reddit using the name AmazingMazi, said she had recently started working at a doctors’ office and was keen to be vaccinated.

She said: “My mom is and has always been an antivaxxer, so going through middle and high school I never had a single one.

“I recently started working at a doctors’ office and cut myself with a rusty piece of metal, so I got a single dose TDAP.

"I’m starting my medical BS degree soon in lab science, so I know I need to get a bunch, but i know there’s plenty of vaccines that are given at intervals staring at birth so I’m pretty much starting from scratch.

Struck off: Andrew Wakefield's 1998 article wrongly linked the MMR vaccine with autism
Jeremy Selwyn

“I have a doctor I can go to to get them but I don’t know where to start.

“Which ones are the most important and which ones do I need multiple doses of? I just don’t want to be blank when I make an appointment and the doctor asks “which ones do you need?”

““All of them” probably isn’t the best answer.”

Many parents in the movement fear that vaccinations can cause autism, despite Andrew Wakefield's paper linking the two having been discredited.

Health professionals called on Facebook to halt the rise of groups promoting the movement after the World Health Organisation listed “vaccine hesitancy” as one of 2019’s top global health threats.

Mazi later added: “I have never been and will never be against vaccines, but as a child I had no choice.

“Now that I am an adult I am making my own decisions to get vaccinated to protect myself as well as any patients I treat or people I come into contact with.

“My entire family has always been antivax as well as against doctors and are heavily religious, so I’ve never had a chance to voice my opinion or make my own informed decisions until now.

“Everyone may have their own opinions about the antivax movement, but this is just what I chose to do for myself and others safety, as well as any kids I might have.”

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