Swine Flu Vaccine Propaganda In NY Times’ Lessons For 6th Graders

Nine “myths” about H1N1 vaccine are not myths at all

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Friday, Oct 16, 2009

The New York Times has produced a detailed lesson plan for students in grades 6-12 that pushes the H1N1 flu vaccine and sets about debunking what the editors describe as “myths” surrounding the swine flu shot.

The material originates from the Times’ Learning Network feature, an educational resource for teachers and parents that works the Times’ coverage of current events into daily lesson plans for young students.

The writers of the material are New York Times employees that have backgrounds in education. The material itself is recommended for use in schools and is required to meet with McREL standards.

As an introduction to the piece, a video presents a Times reporter walking the streets of new york in a full bio suit, gloves, goggles and mask asking people their opinions on swine flu. The video seems mostly pointless other than to make the reporter’s activity seem like a complete overreaction. It briefly introduces the vaccine in a positive light, and later on in the lesson plan, teachers are asked to remind students of this.

The lesson plan then states:

Have students return to their journals to add their thoughts on her final words. Invite students to share their journal writings, and then move the discussion to the vaccine. Ask: Do you plan to get the newly released H1N1 vaccine? Why or why not? What have you heard about it? Are you confused about it at all? What fears and questions, if any, do you have about the vaccine?

The plan then introduces a handout entitled H1N1 Vaccine: Facts or Myths? (PDF Link) and instructs the teacher or parent to conceal from the students the fact that all nine points on the list are “myths”.

As we will discover, none of the points are “myths” at all, and the New York Times is engaging in debunking entirely legitimate information.

The students are then asked to label which points they think are true and which are false statements.

This method of initially tricking the students into thinking that some of the statements are true is an insidious one, not only because they are actually true(!), but it also amplifies the proposed notion that all of the statements are false. It is a common method used by psychoanalysts to assess the mindset of patients.

The students are then instructed to read a New York Times op ed piece written by Paul A. Offit entitled “Nothing to Fear but the Flu Itself”. With no supporting evidence, the piece suggests that fears over the H1N1 vaccine are unfounded and suggests that the vaccines are entirely safe.

Students are then asked the following questions:

• Have you seen or read any of these myths on TV talk shows or Web sites? What, if any, were your previous concerns about them?
• Has the article assuaged your fears?
• In your opinion, which myth will cause the most people to avoid being vaccinated and why?
• What could be done to encourage participation in the vaccination program?

The students are then told that all the points on the handout are “myths” and are split into groups to further debunk each statement with the help of a resource sheet (PDF Link) containing links to more Times articles, as well as material from the CDC and the WHO.

The final activity on the lesson plan involves asking students to conduct role plays in which one of them will play a “skeptic” of the vaccine and one will play an “expert”:

When students are ready, each pair “gets into character” and moves to the front or middle of the room to do their role-play for the whole class, with the “skeptic” explaining his/her worries and concerns, and the “expert” addressing them.

The skeptic pretends to be a mother concerned about mercury in the vaccines, for example, and the expert allays her fears with what they have read in the supporting NY Times material.

Essentially, the children are being taught to reject and then debunk valid concerns over the H1N1 vaccine.

The final part of the lesson plan states:

Finally, invite students to share any of their own lingering doubts about the data – does anyone in the room still subscribe to any of the erroneous statements on the original handout?

It then suggests that outside of the classroom the students should educate others in their school or in their community by creating posters or short videos “based on the myths they researched”

The whole piece reads like a instruction manual in how to brainwash children to love the flu vaccine and to get others to love it.

Full story HERE