by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., Childrens Health Defense:
The New Jersey Department of Health’s “Protect Me With 3+” contest encourages kids and teens to create posters and videos — using health department talking points — to promote vaccines. Critics called out the contest for using kids to “propagandize other children.”
New Jersey schoolchildren can enter a contest to win cash prizes by creating posters and videos that promote vaccines.
The “Protect Me With 3+” campaign for “educating New Jersey communities” about the “benefits” of vaccines is sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) and the Partnership for Maternal & Child Health of Northern New Jersey.
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The campaign, open to children and teens in grades 5-12, requires students to create a poster or 30-second video to “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,” according to the contest’s guidelines.
“By getting vaccinated, you are protecting yourself and your family and friends,” the contest materials state. “Not vaccinating a child on time can make someone else sick, like a friend, baby, adult, grandparent, or someone unable to be vaccinated.”
Contest participants can win a $50-$175 gift card. Three teachers whose classes submit the most entries will be awarded $75 each.
An accompanying contest by the NJDOH targeting university students asks them to create content promoting vaccines with the phrase “Step Up! Vax Up!” and offers a top prize of $5,000 to the winning entry.
Some medical and legal experts said they had ethical concerns about having children participate in a contest to promote pharmaceutical products.
“This type of insidious manipulation of children for Pharma profit is cruel and inhumane,” said Brian Hooker, Ph.D., P.E., Children’s Health Defense (CHD) senior director of science and research.
“It is typical of state departments of health to lie about the safety profile of vaccines, but NJDOH takes it one step further, where these unsuspecting children will be used as minions in their dangerous campaign,” Hooker said.
New Jersey-based attorney Julio Gomez told The Defender that NJDOH has strayed from its mission — and from science. He said:
“According to its website, the primary goal of the NJDOH is to improve the well-being and quality of life for all New Jerseyans. Its work purports to include health promotion and education, and health data collection and analysis.
“In light of the vast amount of scientific evidence available today about the risks and ineffectiveness of the entire childhood vaccine program, in particular the number of children who have been injured by vaccines and compensated by the government for their proven injuries under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, it appears clear to me from the NJDOH’s poster campaign that NJDOH has completely abandoned its mission.”
‘Recruiting children to propagandize other children’
Ann Rosen, a member of CHD’s New Jersey chapter, told The Defender that NJDOH organizes this poster contest annually. Citing the winning entries from the 2023 contest, she said, “The good intentions, talent and creativity are evident. Critical science and risk-benefit profiles are absent. And this appears to be by design.”
Rosen said the Protect Me With 3+ contest originally promoted three vaccines, but the number has since been “just growing” — resulting in “3+” being added to its name.
She said the contest is misleading and misinforming children.
“The idea of recruiting young children is really concerning, because they’re recruiting children to propagandize other children with these sorts of incentives, and they’re working off the assumption that all these things are good,” Rosen said. “They’re misinforming children about vaccines as they’re encouraging them to encourage other kids to get vaccinated.”
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