As the number of reported measles cases in the U.S. continues to rise, one Pennsylvania teen knows how fortunate she is to have been vaccinated as a child. And in a video that’s now going viral, she gave her mom an ice cream cake thanking her for her vaccinations.
“I am happy that I’m vaccinated because I have seen that some old-time diseases are coming back,” 17-year-old Alyssa Jackson told BuzzFeed News. “I’m glad my mom hasn’t contributed to that.”
In the video, which has nearly 74,000 likes on video-sharing app TikTok so far, Alyssa and her sister buy an ice cream cake and decorated it with black icing which reads “Thx 4 vaccinating us, Mom.”
The girls, who also show their immunization records in the short clip, then surprise their mom with the cake. And while Alyssa said their mom was confused at first (her initial response was “You can’t smash that in my face”), she was clearly amused once she realized what it was.
And Alyssa isn’t the first teen to take a stand against anti-vaxxers. Last week, Ethan Lindenberger, the 18-year-old from Ohio who went viral on Reddit when he got vaccinated behind his parents’ backs, testified in front of Congress about the importance of vaccinations.
“I was allowed to attend a public high school despite placing my classmates in danger of contracting multiple preventable diseases,” Ethan said during his testimony, adding that “misinformation should be the primary concern of the American people.”
Alyssa shared a similar message in her interview with BuzzFeed News. “Vaccinations are important because it’s not only your kid,” she said. “They will go to school and other kids can get sick from your child. Your child should not have to worry about different diseases.”
