January 16, 2024
NJDOH Recruits Kids to Promote Vaccine Confidence
The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) and the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey are inviting NJ 5th-12th graders to promote vaccines they likely know very little about for a chance to win gift cards. The 2024 Protect Me With 3+ poster and video contest propagandizes children as it recruits them to propagandize others about vaccines.
Is this the best use of public health funding and your tax dollars?
From the contest website:
“Designed for youth in middle and high schools, the contest aims to raise awareness about the importance of adolescent immunizations among preteens, teenagers and parents, and increase vaccination rates for several important vaccines…Your poster or video must raise awareness of the importance of vaccination against one of the following vaccine-preventable diseases: Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (Tdap), Meningococcal ACWY (MenACWY), Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Flu, or COVID-19.
You can review some of the winning content from 2023 here.
The good intentions, talent and creativity are evident. Critical science and risk/benefit profiles are absent. And this appears to be by design.
As with all public health campaigns, the “importance of vaccines” is assumed. Children are taught that vaccines are “safe and effective” and “save lives.” In Protect Me with 3+ promotional material, our children are told that their artwork “could promote a healthier New Jersey.” They are also offered an opportunity to win a $50-175 gift card. Teachers are also incentivized. Three teachers whose classes submit the most submissions will win $75 each.
Children who wish to participate are NOT encouraged to learn more about the 5 vaccinations they are asked to promote. In fact,
the contest requires that kids a) only use “facts” from its own website and b) encourage others to “Get Vaccinated.”
https://protectmewith3.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Poster-Guidelines-and-Checklist-combined.pdf
On its website, Protect Me with 3+ (3+ because they keep adding vaccines) provides talking points like this:
“By getting vaccinated, you are protecting yourself and your family and friends. Not vaccinating a child on time can make someone else sick, like a friend, baby, adult, grandparent, or someone unable to be vaccinated.“
Statements like this are profoundly misleading and potentially dangerous.
Mis(sing)Information
Here are a few of the things your child will NOT learn from Protect Me with 3+:
TDAP
The Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Pertussis (Tdap) vaccine only prevents symptoms and does not stop infection, colonization and transmission. Since it eliminates symptoms without preventing infection, Tdap can create “silent carriers” who can inadvertently perpetuate the spread of pertussis. Furthermore, breakthrough infections are common. A 2019 study reported that 82% of pediatric pertussis cases identified by Kaiser Permanente California were in children who had been fully vaccinated.
Last week at the Westfield Regional Board of Health meeting, Health Officer Megan Avallone acknowledged that all of the reported cases of pertussis in New Jersey were in fully vaccinated people. Fortunately, pertussis is readily treatable with common antibiotics.
HPV
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines were designed to prevent a handful of the (over 200) HPV strains that cause genital warts, which, left untreated, can lead to cervical cancer in a small percentage of people. But some studies show that, due to shifts in strain dominance, the HPV vaccination program may be increasing the prevalence and distribution of HPV virus strains not targeted by the vaccine, including some strains that are linked to cancer. You can learn more about this here.
Furthermore, a growing number of studies identify plausible associations between HPV vaccination and autoimmune conditions, including premature ovarian insufficiency or premature ovarian failure, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome and chronic regional pain syndrome. You can read more about that here.
MENACWY
Most people fail to understand that meningococcal meningitis is very rare and represents just a fraction of meningitis cases. Meningitis is a disease of invasion. Meningococcal bacteria will only cause meningitis if the bacteria gains access to the central nervous system and cause inflammation of the meninges, which is the lining around the brain and spinal cord. Healthy respiratory and immune systems can readily prevent meningococcal bacteria from becoming invasive. Therefore, the risks are low and can be reduced with healthy lifestyle changes (i.e. quitting smoking). This is important because young people who have received meningococcal vaccines have reported a variety of serious adverse adverse events, including new onset autoimmune conditions and death.
Meningitis also has many other causes. It can be caused by other bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, injuries, cancer and drugs. The MenACWY vaccine only includes 4 strains of one type of bacteria that can (rarely) cause meningitis.
COVID
A growing body of research suggests that COVID-19 vaccines subject children to significantly more harm that the virus itself. Healthy children are not at significant risk for serious illness from COVID and none of the available shots stop infection or transmission. Covid vaccines are associated with blood clots, myocarditis, neurological issues, turbo cancers and weakened immunity and children are at increased risk from myocarditis from these shots. You can visit OpenVaers.com to review adverse event reports subsequent to COVID shots. Learn more about why you may not want these shots for children here.
FLU
Flu shots are notorious for their unreliable efficacy. Data from the CDC’s Influenza VE Network suggest a 65% vaccine failure rate between 2014 and 2018. A 3-year CDC-funded study found a 65% increased risk of non-flu acute respiratory illness within 14 days of receiving the flu vaccine, including rhinovirus, enterovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and coronaviruses. Furthermore, flu shots are linked to many serious adverse events, including Guillain Barré. As of February 13, 2023, over 5,500 Americans have been paid compensation for injury or death associated with influenza vaccines.
Let’s please not let health departments and special interest groups use our children to promote vaccines that have not earned our trust.