Oh how savvy those drug companies are. Thank you Lori, for sending this to me:
“Kelly, did you see this? It's a popular PBS kids show promoting the flu vax. I saw this while my son was watching TV. I wouldn't be surprised if the pharmaceutical companies paid for this program. It's called ‘Sid the Science Kid'…”
Flu Propaganda for Children
I'd love to hear your thoughts, or rants, about this!
- My posts about vaccines all in one spot, including the decisions we made for our children.
Lilie says
I hate that show. It’s really annoying. I haven’t watched it enough to see anything controversial and my kids are too young anyway right now, thankfully. But this is a good heads up not to let them watch this show. I limit tv exposure to the minimum and right now it’s caulliou and super y, and done times Zou.
Anonymous says
We don’t watch Sid. I saw a couple episodes and was shocked. The “pink” boy is always the ignorant one who needs help from or to be more informed by the other kids who always seem smarter, more tolerant and have darker skin colors or/and girls. This particular program is another example of this scenario. Of course, the other kids already know the shot is “perfectly safe” and won’t hurt if you just sing a song about it. Questioning/uncertainty is taken in this episode as an ignorance that needs to be overcome with happy feelings. It promotes very bad “science”, racism and sexism. Thanks for posting this. As a parent who does not believe in vaccinations, this just confirms exactly what my first instincts told me about this show. Pink males are all stupid, sexist, and racist that need to be corrected by more tolerant, almost always female darker skinned adult, role-model characters. I wonder what the world would think if all the pink skinned males were the experts and the dark skinned kid was always singled out as the stupid one on the show. I suppose they believe they are reversing old, harmful stereotypes. I don’t think they realize the new harmful stereotypes and bigotry which is already too prevalent that they are promoting.
KitchenKop says
I never put it together like that but you’re exactly right!!!!
Kelly
Annette says
My 4yr old likes Sid the science kid and I actually saw this one the other day with her. I couldn’t believe it. I just explained how nice it was that we had a choice to get one or not and that we choose not to. Then I explained why we choose not too but that it’s ok if people choose to get one.
Jenny says
Outrageous! I have seen other propaganda on this show too. This makes me so angry.
Susan says
Kelly-
My 16-year-old daughter has started to check out your blogs. She came across this video and it ticked her off so mo much she was still ranting about it at dinner last nite. She pondered out loud this question: “What’s next? Hannah Montana pushing Gardisil for teens?”
She is such a wise cookie! It must be all that saturated fat and cod liver oil feeding her brain! 🙂
KitchenKop says
Susan, tell your daughter I think she ROCKS! How blessed are you to have a teen who ‘gets it’, wow! Now she can begin to enlighten *her* generation, maybe by sharing things like this on her FB page?? 🙂
Kel
Magda says
Sick… no pun intended. Or maybe yes?? I couldn’t finish watching this. I have already had a discussion with my 7 year old that I may teach him certain things and he will hear differently at school or on TV (case in point: nutrition… what does a school know about nutrition when they serve c**p for lunch???!!!) So now he may see something on TV or hear it in school, then come to me and we talk about it. Neither one of my boys is vaccinated (the younger one will be 2 in January) and they have never had the flu (neither has DH or myself). We maybe get one cold each a year and go through it pretty fast. I have never regretted my decision not to vax and I get more and more confident with each passing year (and each additional vaccine added to the schedule). I hate seeing all these ‘Get your flu shot here..’ signs… they’re everywhere!!!
Joanne says
I need to do some research on the Hep A vaccine. This is a new one that was added to the roster when my oldest started pre-k 2 years ago and it’s mandated by the school. I’ve had all my kids vaccinated thus far (ages 2-5) and I’m not really educated on this subject, but I’m definitely getting apprehensive as they add more vaccines. I’m going to have to be the weirdo who gets whatever documenation is necessary to exempt my kids from the hep a vaccine so they can continue to go to school.
Kelly the Kitchen Kop says
Well, you’ll be in good company here then because there are a lot of us ‘weirdos’ around these parts. 🙂
Amy says
This is horrible. It’s the flu, not typhoid. I’m so sick of the flu shot hype. It’s so much worse the last 2 years with drug stores offering the shot. It’s incredibly hyped in the NYC pharmacies. It makes you feel like there’s something wrong with you or you’re being neglectful if you don’t get one. Luckily I know better, but so many people don’t.
Joanne says
I think what creeps me out even more than drug stores offering the shot is Wal-Mart setting up an 8′ table in front of women’s clothing and giving shots in front of God and everyone as people are just passing by – it seems like something that really should be private. Hell, you get a cubicle to get your taxes done at Wal-Mart, but for a flu shot you get an 8′ table?!
Alice C says
Here were recent statistics on how “effective” they are.
https://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2011/10/28/how-the-media-manipulates-facts-to-deceive-you-regarding-flu-vaccine.aspx
I think they are criminal! So many people are damaged by them in so many
ways.
Ann Marie @ CHEESESLAVE says
I hate Sid the Science Kid. We’ve watched the show before and it’s full of bad information and bad science. Like cavities are caused by germs.
kara says
Propaganda is absolutely the correct word for this!!
Orrie says
I can get so incredibly upset by all the lies that are being told as if they were gospel truth. Instead, as I and my counterparts used to say (I’m dating me here)
“GAG me with a maggot!”
Susan says
OMG!!
The thing that irritates me the most is that here in America we criticize communist countries for brain-washing their people through propoganda.
How sad that it turns out that we’re not much different from them after all.
Stanley Fishman says
Susan, you are absolutely right. A few years ago, we met a couple that had left Russia, hoping to find real freedom in the US. They were reported to CPS by their nice, friendly pediatrician, because they refused to give a vaccination to one of their children. They said their experience with CPS was much worse than anything they experienced under Soviet communism. This was true even though California law at the time allowed parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children.
Though they managed to keep CPS from kidnapping their children, they ended up going back to Russia. For the freedom.
Melissa @ Dyno-mom says
We also don’t have TV service. It is Netflix and Hulu for us. Firstly , there is not a parent in sight. Is the idea that the children are able to make informed consent? Second, they can’t even imagine anyone being opposed, it is just unfathomable to them and want kids to pressure their parents in the same way that they push for toys and candy that are advertised. Lastly, even mainstream medical recognizes that some people are at a higher risk, like those allergic to eggs. There is no mention of any risk, not even the well recognized ones. No parents, no discussion of risk, just a “song to make getting a shot easier”. How deeply flawed is this and how many kids have seen it without the parents knowing?
Beth says
My first thought was, “Wow….” My next thought was that they are misguided well-meaning people and that shows for kids dealing with shots have been around for decades. My next thought was, “Wow…” again as I realized how it wasn’t about just the child dealing with a shot, nor about just keeping the child healthy – it’s about a guilt-ridden “do this for your community” slant. That probably bothered me the most. That, and the fact that it’s about the flu – not tetanus or any life-threatening disease (I know the flu can be life threatening to certain people, but you know what I mean). We got the swine flu that summer it was rampant and I am NOT healthy. We beat it without a doctor visit. The annual flu shot ads that prey on children and especially the elderly get me. My mom gets the shot every year and she is constantly getting sick and taking antibiotics and prescription drugs like Allegra and Seldane. She is otherwise healthy, thankfully.
Jill says
My daughter is getting over the flu right now (and during finals week too, poor dear!). Yesterday she and I agreed that although having the flu is a bummer, it’s a lot better than having a multitude of toxic chemicals injected directly into your blood stream! Now her immune system is stronger and she probably has less of a toxic load than she did at the beginning of the flu (our bodies do a lot of housecleaning during a fever), rather than loaded down with more toxins from the vaccine itself.
As far as small children go, here is a link to a Cochrane Database review of 51 studies, which revealed that the flu shot is no more effective than a placebo in children under 2: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16437500
and another more recent one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18425905
Here is an excerpt of the author’s conclusions on another Cochrane Database review carried out last year: “Influenza vaccines have a modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost. There is no evidence that they affect complications, such as pneumonia, or transmission.WARNING: This review includes 15 out of 36 trials funded by industry (four had no funding declaration). An earlier systematic review of 274 influenza vaccine studies published up to 2007 found industry funded studies were published in more prestigious journals and cited more than other studies independently from methodological quality and size. Studies funded from public sources were significantly less likely to report conclusions favorable to the vaccines. The review showed that reliable evidence on influenza vaccines is thin but there is evidence of widespread manipulation of conclusions and spurious notoriety of the studies.” (link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20614424).
And here is the summary of that review, which revealed that 100 people must be vaccinated to prevent one case of the flu: https://summaries.cochrane.org/CD001269/vaccines-to-prevent-influenza-in-healthy-adults.
Here’s a recent article in Green Med Info on this lack of evidence that flu vaccines work, which includes a link to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on the far greater effectiveness of increasing vitamin D levels in children for preventing flu: https://summaries.cochrane.org/CD001269/vaccines-to-prevent-influenza-in-healthy-adults
Can you tell this has been a recent issue in my house? My husband is about to deal with a new mandated flu vaccine policy at work, so we are trying to prepare evidence to provide to his employer that backs up his decision to not get vaccinated.
Jill says
Oops, wrong link on that Greenmed info link. Here’s the correct one: https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/shocking-lack-evidence-supporting-flu-vaccines
Amy says
Jill, is your husband a healthcare worker? It will be even worse if “regular” corporations begin this policy in an attempt to lower sick day usage.
Jill says
He is a healthcare worker, but I would not be surprised if the policy began expanding beyond the medical field. Completely ridiculous, and proven ineffective for anything more than giving more money to the vaccine companies. Makes me crazy. He was told that this year he can opt out, but that next year he will need a doctor’s note or a clergyman’s note in order to opt out, OR he will have to wear a mask to work every day! I think the mask must be the hospital’s version of a dunce cap! My husband asked how a clergyman or a doctor is more qualified than he is to make healthcare decisions for him and didn’t get a straight answer. He refuses to play along, so next year could be interesting!
Amy says
So disturbing. I wonder what the employer’s liability is if there is a negative side effect. They should be held 100% liable if they are forcing vaccinations, especially if the employee is resistant.
Jill says
Good point, and I totally agree!
Joanne says
Jill – I am in the same boat as your husband, this year we can opt out, next year we will be mandated to wear a mask if we choose not to get the vaccine. I have not had a flu shot at least in 12 years and I never got the flu as a young adult until after I had my first child. Since then our family has only been afflicted bi-annually (and none of us gets the shot).
One of my old co-workers got the shot religiously and the year before she passed, she got the flu not once, but twice. Once over Thanksgiving break and again over Christmas break.
I’m fortunate not to be in direct contact w/ patients, so I may get away w/ not having to wear a mask, but it’s still ludicrous. I think the whole mask thing only serves to scare people unnecessarily. I haven’t done much research, but the whole thing just seems to be blown way out of proportion.
Jill says
And you know, if every healthcare worker who did not want the flu shot simply refused, the whole issue would HAVE to be dropped. It would be totally unprofessional to have over half the workers going around with masks unnecessarily, and no hospital can afford to fire over half their staff. When the issue rolls around next year my husband will hand in a stack of printed reports of studies proving the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine, along with a detailed list of the ingredients in the flu shot (and an explanation for what each ingredient is). That will at least help explain his reasons for refusing. He has only had one flu shot many years ago and from the shot itself, he got the worst flu he’s ever had in his life. The same thing happened to a friend of mine here recently–after the flu shot she had a fever and flu symptoms for a week.
JennB says
I saw this last year as well with my kids. It was a great time to teach my children about propaganda. We choose not to vaccinate. We’ve done too much research to vaccinate with clear conscience! PBS should get an ear full from parents!
Fiftytolife Sally says
We stopped our TV service a year ago. When we want to watch TV shows, we watch Hulu with a few commercials or Netflix.
There are only five or six corporations who own all the stations and you better believe those corporations determine the content in all the shows, including news and right down to the cartoons.
Cartoons are geared to making children consumers: cereal, sugar, instant mac & cheese, toys, flu vaccines (argh — thank goodness my children are grown), not to mention the propaganda about who are their friends. And who they should be snitching on, even that it’s ok to snitch on parents — it will help them in the long run. Shouldn’t be too long before we see “See Something, Say Something” ads for little kids.
For adults, all the top shows are either about friendly, helpful, well-meaning lawyers and cops, or dumbed-down “entertainment” shows. The cop shows are particularly unnerving: many of these cops operate outside the law to catch criminals. If a cop breaks the law to catch a criminal, trampling some hapless person’s rights in the process, well, that’s ok. Right?
And the crimes these criminals commit are often so heinous to be unbelievable. Plus, all TV show drug dealers are intent on selling to children or using drugged out young women to sell for them… Such propaganda, it’s sickening.
Colette says
I saw that about a year ago and was irate. My children then tell me how we should get the flu vaccine because we are healthy. I am constantly harping about being and eating healthy and now Sid is telling them it’s the way to be healthy. Not to mention also the commercials about vaccinating your kids.
And then there’s the one about protecting your baby. My daughter cried because she thought her baby brother would die without this vaccination. It is sad that they exploit the children to get to the adults. We try so hard, to do what is right for our children and family, but unless we live on a mountain alone somewhere, we have to deal with it. Sometimes I feel we have such a malicious world, and it is sad and sickening. It’s really sad that the one station I trust for the most part (PBS) now had to be monitored closely too.
I know we can’t completely shelter our children, but I am just so tired if monitoring everything. I guess the positive spin is then the kids and I get to have a conversation about vaccinations, big pharmacy and media. Fun stuff to talk about with my 10 and under crowd. LOL 🙂
Laura N. says
Here is something potentially worse:
https://www.naturalnews.com/034365_Hallmark_vaccines_newborns.html
Definitely worth reading to the end. Makes me so angry!
Stanley Fishman says
Absolutely sickening. Literally. Sometimes I think that we are like a herd of sheep, sheared of our health by the medical industry for profit. In fact, the main purpose of the flu vaccine seems to be to spread the flu.Most of the people I know who get flu shots, get the flu, and spread it to others. I never get a flu shot, and I never get the flu. But the people who get the flu from the vaccine spend lots of money on doctors, and buy all sorts of medications.
They did not used to give flu shots to children. But now, they want to exploit even the children in their sickening greed. This kind of brainwashing to convince children to want these toxic vaccinations, which contain mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde,and many other poisons, is a national disgrace.