He's right. They are kind of stupid.

18-Year-Old Testifies About Getting Vaccinated Despite Mother's Anti-Vaccine Beliefs

It's another story about the spread of disinformation in social media.

Eighteen-year-old Ethan Lindenberger appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Tuesday to talk about how he decided to get vaccinated against the wishes of his mother, who is anti-vaccine.

Lindenberger is a senior at Norwalk High School in Norwalk, Ohio. 

He gained attention in November by asking about how to get vaccinated despite the opposition of his "kind of stupid parents" in a discussion on Reddit.

Anti-vaccine proponents espouse a widely discredited view that vaccines can cause autism or brain damage.

Lindenberger grew up without common vaccinations such as those for measles and chicken pox before finally getting immunizations starting in December. 

He described being pulled out of class each year and told he needed to get his shots, only to be opted out each time by his mother.

. . . .

Lindenberger's mother got most of her misinformation about vaccines on Facebook, he told the committee. 

Meanwhile, he got information about vaccines from the CDC, the World Health Organization and scientific journals, he said.

. . . .

Lindenberger told the committee that as he "approached high school and began to critically think for myself, I saw that the information in defense of vaccines outweighed the concerns heavily."

He said his mother was victim of "deeply rooted misinformation" online. 

He said parents who question vaccines are not acting out of malice but actual concern for their children. 

But at the same time, Lindenberger said organized groups that spread disinformation "instill fear into the public for their own gain, selfishly" and "should be the primary concern of the American people."

Lindenberger's mother, Jill Wheeler, told the Associated Press that she "didn't agree with anything he said" but was proud of his appearance before the committee. 

"They've made him the poster child for the pharmaceutical industry," she told the AP.