Caught in the vaccination wars (Part 2)
As an introduction to this post, Dr Brian Martin, Vice President of Whistleblower's Australia and Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong, took an interest in the attacks against the AVN about 18 months ago. His interest did not stem from any personal belief system regarding vaccination. Rather, as someone who is a strong believer in public debate and freedom of communication, he saw these attacks as an attempt to stifle the AVN's right as a community group to participate in a debate that has been running for well over 200 years. His interest led him to write an article, Debating Vaccination, which describes the history of the efforts to force the AVN to close and the attacks on me personally to try to get me to step down from the organisation.
As a result of this article, Dr Martin came under attack by the same group of people. They actually contacted his boss at the University and tried to get him fired! Luckily, the University values free speech and the rights of citizens in democratic nations more than this group apparently does.
Dr Martin wrote an opinion piece in the Illawarra Mercury entitled, Shouting Down Our Freedom to Choose about these attacks and also about his correspondence with these people. I think this article shows very clearly the way in which some of our opponents think.
I once again want to say how much I appreciate Dr Martin's taking up this cause - especially since he does not hold a strong opinion on vaccination per se - but simply because he values freedom as we all should.
Caught in the Vaccination Wars (Part 2)
On 26 June 2011, the Illawarra Mercury published my article "Shouting down our freedom to choose". It summarises some of the points in my article "Debating vaccination", which deals with the vaccination debate, the rationale for stopping the AVN and tactics used in the struggle between the AVN and its opponents.
The newspaper slightly edited my submitted text, including changing the title. The online version of the article allowed reader comments. There were 43 comments over the next 36 hours before the discussion was closed.
I appreciate the efforts of those who made comments on my article - including one sent to me directly. Here, I address a few of the points raised.
Click the link in the title to read more...
Click here to read the first part of this article, Caught in the Vaccination Wars (Part 1)