The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday ended its “Wild to Mild” campaign that promoted flu vaccines, especially to pregnant women and children, NPR reported.
CDC officials announced the change during a staff meeting, according to NPR, which cited two anonymous CDC staff members as its source.
The decision originated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which “took a second look” at the campaign and decided to pull it.
HHS called on the CDC to instead develop “advertisements that promote the idea of ‘informed consent’ in vaccine decision-making,” STAT News reported.
The campaign, introduced in 2023, is no longer online.
The “Wild to Mild” campaign depicted wild animals such as lions alongside domestic animals like kittens, drawing an analogy between the purported risk the unvaccinated would face from a “wild” form of the flu, compared to the “mild” symptoms they could expect to experience if infected after getting vaccinated.
NPR reported that the campaign was primarily digital but later expanded to public transportation in major cities. In November 2024, the CDC reported that promotional messages connected to the “Wild to Mild” campaign generated 30 million digital impressions and reached more than 30 million riders by October 2024.
The campaign was slated to continue until at least the end of the current flu season, while its materials would have remained online, NPR reported.
‘Wild to Mild’ campaign contained no discussion of flu vaccine risks
According to STAT News, the “Wild to Mild” campaign featured messages like, “Flu can be wild. But a flu vaccine can shield both you and your cub from flu’s more serious symptoms,” and “Ask your health care provider about a flu shot during your pregnancy to protect your baby after birth, when they’re too young to be vaccinated.”
Pediatrician Dr. Michelle Perro called the campaign “theatrical and inaccurate.” She said patients “deserve transparent, scientifically accurate information about vaccines — informed consent — rather than slogans and misrepresentations.”
Sayer Ji, founder and director of GreenMedInfo.com, called the campaign’s messaging “simplistic and misleading, reducing a complex immunological process to a trivial analogy between wild animals and kittens.”
“This infantilization of the public is indicative of a broader issue — public health agencies often rely on emotionally charged narratives rather than robust scientific discourse to drive compliance,” Ji said. He called the campaign’s end an “internal admission of its failure.”
Some versions of the campaign targeted parents, adults with chronic conditions, people over age 65, and healthcare professionals, STAT News reported. The messages contained “no discussion about risks from flu shots.”
Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough said that this omission misled the public about the safety of flu vaccines and the risk of adverse events.
“The ‘Wild to Mild’ campaign represented government false advertising of a commercial product without giving fair and balanced safety information, including the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome listed in the package inserts.”
A study published October 2024 in the journal Scientific Reports found that 17 vaccines, including flu vaccines, were potentially associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition that attacks the peripheral nervous system.
Drug safety advocate Kim Witczak, a member of the FDA’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee, said the omission of vaccine risks violates the principle of informed consent. She said:
“The use of analogies like turning a ‘wild’ animal into a ‘mild’ kitten oversimplifies a complex health issue. It’s marketing spin rather than science.
“Public health shouldn’t be about coercion or manipulation — it’s about educating and empowering people to make choices that are right for them and their families. That means having access to clear, balanced information about the benefits and risks of any medical intervention.”
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Campaign reflected capture of public health agencies by Big Pharma
Some public health figures criticized the end of the campaign. Marla Dalton, CEO of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told NPR the campaign was “a creative and effective way of conveying an extremely important public health message about ‘partial protection’ vs. ‘complete prevention’ of disease.”
According to the CDC, the campaign aimed to “reset public expectations around what a flu vaccine can do in the event that it does not entirely prevent illness.”
The decision to stop the campaign came as flu diagnoses have surged throughout the U.S., with NPR reporting that the country is “in the midst of a brutal flu season.” According to the CDC, over 50,000 people were admitted to hospitals for the flu during the week ending Feb. 8, the highest level in 15 years.
While documented flu cases plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, NPR reported earlier this month that it is now COVID-19 that has taken “a back seat” to the flu this season.
Some experts pointed out that flu vaccines don’t prevent infection and the general population remains at a low risk of contracting an infection.
Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist at Children’s Health Defense, said the only studies that purport to show a decrease in the severity of flu infections after vaccination were “authored by CDC employees.”
“Influenza vaccines are licensed and indicated to reduce the risk of influenza,” McCullough said. “The average working-age adult has less than a 1% annual risk of getting the flu. None of the influenza vaccines are licensed to reduce the severity of influenza pneumonia.”
Witczak said people “are tired of being talked down to and bombarded with ‘the sky is falling’ messaging.” She said the end of the campaign is “a positive first step in shifting away from public health messaging that relies on fear, oversimplification, and emotional manipulation.”
Other experts said the “Wild to Mild” campaign reflected the capture of public health agencies by Big Pharma.
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“The CDC’s messaging has been captured by industry for years now,” said Jeffrey Tucker, president and founder of the Brownstone Institute. “This is one of the problems that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sought to change. They need to stop selling products in the guise of promoting health.”
McCullough said the campaign consisted of thinly veiled advertisements for the pharmaceutical industry’s products.
“The U.S. government should never advertise commercial pharmaceutical products let alone legally promote them in violation of advertising laws,” McCullough said. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should be regulating false claims that go beyond the indications in the package insert and any advertisements that do not impart balanced safety information.”
Referring to declining public trust in government health agencies, Witczak said, “Building back public trust starts with transparency, not gimmicks or PR spin. It’s about honesty, accountability and treating the public as intelligent stakeholders in their own health decisions.”
“The persistent culture at the CDC has presided over the greatest increase in chronic illness in human history,” Jablonowski said. “Kennedy and the other yet-to-be-confirmed directors will require extraordinary measures to change the course of the so-called public health agencies into actual public health agencies.”
Related articles in The Defender
- CDC’s New ‘Wild to Mild’ Ad Campaign Hypes Flu Vaccines for Kids, Pregnant Women
- Guillain-Barré Syndrome Associated With 17 Vaccines, Including COVID and Flu Shots
- Flu Vaccine Linked to Increased Risk of Miscarriage
- Can the Trump Administration Ban Big Pharma Advertising? Experts Weigh In
- ‘True Corruption’: Agency Capture Responsible for Chronic Disease Epidemic in U.S.
