A 15-year-old boy has asked Reddit users for advice on how to get vaccinated without the consent of his anti-vaxx mother.
The boy – known only as Danny691261 – has been unsuccessfully trying to convince his mother that ‘vaccines are safe’ for the past four years.
In his native Minnesota, ‘minors’ are reportedly only able to give consent for the hepatitis B jab, with their parents having to sign off all other vaccines.
After questioning whether he could forge his mother’s signature, Reddit users were quick to warn the teen this is a crime – punished by up to a $5,000 fine (around £3,810) or even three years behind bars.
Feeling he had exhausted his options, Danny signed off saying it looks like he is going to have to wait until he turns 18.
A 15-year-old boy from Minnesota has asked Reddit users for advice on how to get vaccinated without the consent of his mother, who is against them (stock)
‘Danny’ said: ‘I am writing because I am the 15 year old son of an anti-vaccine parent.
‘I have spent the last 4 years trying to convince my mother that vaccines are safe. I haven’t succeeded.
‘So instead I am trying to research how to be vaccinated without my mother’s consent.’
After reading various pages online, Danny came to the understanding he could not receive any vaccine other than hepatitis B.
He quoted: “Minors may not receive health care services without their parents’ or guardians’ consent, unless specified otherwise in statute,” from Minnesota House Research Department, Minnesota Legislature.
‘I cannot conclude what kind of consent, if any, do I have to get from my parents to receive further vaccinations. Is it a signature? Is it verbal?
‘What legal consequences can I face if I fake my parent’s signature giving me consent to vaccinations besides the hepatitis vaccine?’
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the law does not stipulate how to obtain consent, but ‘many clinics ask for the patient’s/parent’s signature’.
The post received 51 responses as people discussed the trouble Danny could find himself in if he forged his mother’s signature.
Although he admitted his mother would be ‘livid’, he added there would be nothing she could to reverse the effects of the vaccine.
The boy, known as Danny691261, asked Reddit users for advice and received 51 responses
Danny wondered how much trouble he would get in if he faked consent, claiming his mother would be ‘livid’ but unable to reverse the positive effects of the vaccine
One user was quick to remind Danny he would be committing a crime if he forged his parents signatures. He urged the teen to wait until he turns 18, and then go out and get the jabs
One user even found evidence the teen could be charged or face time in jail for the crime
Another user questioned if a judge would really send a teenager to jail for such a crime. They added, however, ‘payment may be an issue’ with the teen being unable to claim for vaccines on insurance without his mother finding out. ‘Vaccines are expensive’, the Reddit user added
A few responses shared experiences of school nurses who fought ‘tooth and nail’ with anti-vaxxers in a bid to sway their opinions. But a teacher added the mother could claim her views are due to religious reasons, which would exempt her children from having the jabs
Apart from the possibility of his mother finding out through the insurance claim, another warned ‘forging a parents’ signature is exactly that, a forgery’.
This led to users questioning whether a judge would actually prosecute.
‘Judge won’t be harsh on the kid, but he’ll rip any medical professional a new one if they were to administer vaccines without proper consent,’ one user said.
Another asked: ‘How is the medical professional to determine if the consent was proper?
‘What hoops must the professional jump through to cover their a**?’
A number of Reddit users discussed how school nurses often have to ‘fight tooth and nail’ with anti-vaxxers in the hope of swaying their opinions.
It is unclear why Danny’s mother is against vaccines other than believing they are unsafe.
In his last comment – four months ago -the teen said: ‘Guess I’m going to have to wait.’
Minnesota children are still at risk of contagious and rapidly-spread diseases such as measles, whooping cough and chickenpox.
Health officials urge parents to understand the implications of not vaccinating their children, but many continue to rebel.
A variety of factors have contributed to the anti-vaxx movement across the world – including religious beliefs and believing the discredited ‘research’ jabs cause autism.
Scepticism over the MMR jab for measles originated in 1995 when the London-based gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a paper linking the vaccine to autism.
Wakefield was later discredited and struck off, but the damage was already done.
The internet worsens fears regarding vaccine safety, with many sites and social-media accounts posting alarming information about the ‘risks’.
In the UK – where vaccination rates are also dwindling – a study found that half of parents with children under two reported being exposed to negative messages about immunisations on social media.
And in the US one of the states with the highest rates of unvaccinated children is Washington – where a public health emergency was declared last Friday.
A measles outbreak has sickened at least 25 children, with experts predicting the number to grow, largely due to the anti-vaxx movement.
IS ANDREW WAKEFIELD’S DISCREDITED AUTISM RESEARCH TO BLAME FOR LOW MEASLES VACCINATION RATES?
Andrew Wakefield’s discredited autism research has long been blamed for a drop in measles vaccination rates
In 1995, gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a study in The Lancet showing children who had been vaccinated against MMR were more likely to have bowel disease and autism.
He speculated that being injected with a ‘dead’ form of the measles virus via vaccination causes disruption to intestinal tissue, leading to both of the disorders.
After a 1998 paper further confirmed this finding, Wakefield said: ‘The risk of this particular syndrome [what Wakefield termed ‘autistic enterocolitis’] developing is related to the combined vaccine, the MMR, rather than the single vaccines.’
At the time, Wakefield had a patent for single measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, and was therefore accused of having a conflict of interest.
Nonetheless, MMR vaccination rates in the US and the UK plummeted, until, in 2004 the then-editor of The Lancet Dr Richard Horton described Wakefield’s research as ‘fundamentally flawed’, adding he was paid by attorneys seeking lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.
The Lancet formally retracted Wakefield’s research paper in 2010.
Three months later, the General Medical Council banned Wakefield from practicing medicine in Britain, stating his research had shown a ‘callous disregard’ for children’s health.
On January 6 2011, The British Medical Journal published a report showing that of the 12 children included in Wakefield’s 1995 study, at most two had autistic symptoms post vaccination, rather than the eight he claimed.
At least two of the children also had developmental delays before they were vaccinated, yet Wakefield’s paper claimed they were all ‘previously normal’.
Further findings revealed none of the children had autism, non-specific colitis or symptoms within days of receiving the MMR vaccine, yet the study claimed six of the participants suffered all three.