Vaccinations have known to have saved millions of lives. Hence some people are still not willing to let their children to be vaccinated. Everyone at WHO and Roald Dahl, whose daughter died from measles, as she was not vaccinated properly, urge you to get vaccinated for their own health and for everyone around you.
In most parts of US, for a minor to be get vaccinated, he or she has to have prior approval from their parents or their guardian first. So what steps will you take if your parents are not allowing to get vaccinated, for your own health?
These children who have not been vaccinated are looking for options and posted on Reddit for advice on how to protect themselves from these deadly diseases while going against their parent’s will.
There’s a whole genre of Reddit posts where teens ask how to get vaccinated without their parents consenting.
Just. Just so you know, that’s a thing.
— Andrea Phillips (@andrhia) January 25, 2019
My mum told me that she “vaccinated” me against whooping cough with homeopathy.
I was *horrified* and asked my dad and he said he took me (and siblings) to get vaccinated without telling her.
— Limertilly (@limertilly) January 25, 2019
I was one of these people once upon a time!! I am so grateful to the particular reddit community that helped me get caught up in a discreet way. 🙂
— Ruby (@RubyCatOfficial) January 25, 2019
A boy wrote on a subreddit “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,” asking for legal advice. And “So instead I am trying to research how to be vaccinated without my mother’s consent.”
But it is not just only an exceptional post. There are more children who are willing to act as per the above boy.
These children are so unfortunate because they cannot take any action against this or search for an answer to this question inside US territory about this situation. Normally after the age of 16, you will be able to get your own decisions when getting a doctor’s appointment without your parent’s approval or presence. However, in most states in US, you will have to be more than 18 years old to take a decision similar to this. There are few ways to get these vaccinations done without obtaining approvals from your parents or taking any legal action against them.
However, there are exceptions, as Vaxopedia.org point out. It is possible to give your own consent to vaccinations in the following 15 states in the US.
· Alabama
· Alaska
· Arkansas
· Delaware
· Idaho
· Illinois
· Kansas
· Louisiana
· Maine
· Massachusetts
· Montana
· Nevada
· Oregon
· Pennsylvania
· South Carolina
· Tennessee
· Washington
· West Virginia
If you are not from any of these states getting vaccination done on your own consent will be difficult. A boy outside of these states was so desperate to get his vaccination done so he asked whether he can forge one of his parent’s signature (which is a violation and the answer was a no, and he was informed that for forging a document you will have to pay $ 5000 or up to 3 years in jail).
One way is to get your parents’ approval to get vaccinated and get some elder person to help you to convince your parents.
“I would recommend talking with a school nurse,” one Redditor writes.
“They will be the most effective person to take up this fight against your mother, especially if there are immunizations you have yet to receive that are required for public school. A colleague of mine is a school nurse; believe me when I say that the good ones will fight tooth and nail with the anti-vaxxers.”
“Agreed,” another writes.
“My mom is a school nurse and has been dealing with a slew of anti-vaxxer parents over the last few years. She does a pretty good job of scaring or guilting the bejeezus out of parents to get their kids vaccinated.”
Vaxopedia have introduced a good list of resources showing how you can able to convince your parents to get their approval.
Lastly, if that also does not work you can get the vaccination after you are 18 years old. Reddit has so many posts from adults who went through so much trouble to get their vaccination as minors and was only able to get their vaccination as adults.
If you wait until you are old enough to get vaccinated it is just a simple as going to your doctor and tell that you are unvaccinated. They will instruct you what vaccines you are needed and will make an appointment date.
What would you think? Can’t you make your own decision as a child against your health? Please share your opinions in the below comments section.
I am a Business Management graduate from the University Of Staffordshire (UK) and a qualified personnel officer who completed the National Diploma of Training and Human Resource development at Institute of Personnel Management (Sri-Lanka).
Apart from my professional career in the field of HRM, I am also a freelance writer of web and business contents.
