Flu Vaccine Propaganda

I mentioned the anti-vaccine work of Dr. Sherri Tenpenny the other day after hearing it on Coast to Coast. One of the very interesting things she mentioned was a PowerPoint presentation put together by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to help inform health care professionals about generating interest in the flu vaccine.

Intrigued by this, I wrote to her asking for a link to this presentation, which she gladly provided. It’s called “Planning for the 2004-05 Influenza Vaccination Season: A Communication Situation Analysis.” It was prepared by Glen Nowak, Ph.D., the Associate Director for Communications at the National Immunization Program. You can access the PDF file at the above link right on the website of the American Medical Association - which is supposed to be a reputable organization. But then all these public health organizations are supposed to be reputable and they are most assuredly not.

In any event, also check out Dr. Tenpenny’s article on this presentation for a summary of the main points. The most interesting section of the presentation starts around page 24, “the Seven-Step Recipe for Generating Interest in, and Demand for, Flu (or any other) Vaccination.”

My favorite one is step 4B which says:

    “Framing of the flu season in terms that motivate behavior (e. g., as “very severe,” “more severe than last or past years,” “deadly”)”

They actually advocate that doctors run around using alarmist propaganda language like that. They also suggest ways for medical professionals to use the media as an outlet in order to get free coverage (advertising) about the vaccine, and that the media be bombarded continually throughout the season to wear people down who are resisting the idea.

Number 6 is also fucking amazing. It suggests providing:

    Visible/tangible examples of the seriousness of the illness (e. g., pictures of children, families of those affected coming forward) and people getting vaccinated (the first to motivate, the latter to reinforce)

It also lists one of the “Communications Challenges” as:

    Some component of success (i. e., higher demand for influenza vaccine) stems from media stories and information that create motivating (i. e., high) levels of concern and anxiety about influenza.

It then goes on to say that “inducing worry, raised anxiety, and concern” presents “dilemmas” for health care professionals, but that there is no other way.

Shit, if this wasn’t available publicly right on the AMA’s website, I totally wouldn’t believe this even existed. Wait, what am I saying? I’m not surprised by this shit at all.


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This entry was written by Tim Boucher, posted on March 24, 2005 at 1:09 am.

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