Change.org does the government's bidding-blames pertussis death on the unvaccinated

Many of you will probably remember that the website, www.getup.org.au, deleted our petition idea about asking the government to stop financially penalising parents who chose not to vaccinate a couple of months ago whilst leaving the petition idea asking for continued penalties submitted by Stop the AVN. At that time, the AVN chose to place our petition on the website www.change.org and we have gotten almost 2,300 signatures there to date.

The reason we chose change.org to host our petition as opposed to the many other petition sites on the internet is because they seemed to be one of the few places that support freedom of speech, freedom of choice and democracy.

How wrong we were!

Yesterday, change.org sent out an email to their subscribers - probably tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Australians - asking them to support a petition put together by a woman who is a very active member of Stop the AVN, Sue Ieraci. Sue has been a ministerial appointee to the NSW  Medical Board since the year 2000 and yet, it seems to me that she has time all day and virtually all night to write posts on the SAVN Facebook page, to comment on numerous blogs and news sites and now, to write a petition in opposition to the AVN that change.org has distributed on hers and SAVN's behalf.

This petition blames the death of Dana McCaffery - a baby too young to have received the whooping cough vaccine and whose doctors misdiagnosed her several times before finally saying she had whooping cough - on the unvaccinated. It says that she lived in an area with a low vaccination rate when in fact, Ballina Shire where Dana's family resides, has a far higher rate then the neighbouring Byron Shire. It was stated in the newspaper at the time of her death that her doctors said that due her age, it was most likely that she came into contact with pertussis bacteria in hospital. Despite all of this, despite the massive increase in pertussis vaccination and the large number of vaccinated children and adults getting this disease, the petition claims that the unvaccinated in general and the AVN in particular are to blame!

That email is reprinted below (I have highlighted some of the more offensive sections):

Petition name: Anti-immunisation scare tactics are causing a public health risk. Tell the government to act now

Dear XXXXX,

"It's just pure torture. You see your precious, beautiful little baby, every portion of their body is in pain when they cough like that...they're just pleading with you to make it stop." [1]

When 4-week-old Dana McCaffery caught whooping cough, her tiny body didn't stand a chance. But her death wasn't just blind misfortune. Her parents didn't know it then, but they were living in the stronghold of an anti-immunisation group called the Australian Vaccination Network.

AVN discourages parents from immunising their children with information that was found to be both "misleading" and a "threat to public health" [2]. They're most active in Northern NSW, an area which -- thanks to their "misleading" information -- now has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country [3]. This is the same area where baby Dana caught and died from whooping cough.

Dr Sue Ieraci is an emergency physician at a public hospital, and she couldn't believe the government would let the AVN's dangerous information campaign go unanswered. She's started a Change.org petition calling on Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek to urgently inform the public that the group's message is not only scientifically wrong, but dangerous.

Click here to join Sue and tell the minister to make a strong statement now.

Vaccination works because of herd immunity -- once a certain proportion of the population has been immunised, isolated cases can't explode into epidemics [4]. Babies like Dana McCaffery, too young to be immunised, rely on this group shield. But in some areas where the AVN is active and eroding group immunity, cases of whooping cough rose by almost 400% in 2011 [5]. (ed note: The rate of pertussis has increased by over 10,000% Australia-wide in the last 20 years whilst the rate of pertussis vaccination has increased by 24%. The ACT which has the highest rate of pertussis vaccination in Australia also has the highest incidence of the disease - more than 7 times that of Tasmania and double that of most other Australian States and Territories).

Paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall says the group's work is "negative, destructive and has no scientific basis" [6]. But as the tide of voices in the community grows and media attention is focused on the issue, Tanya Plibersek has a real window of opportunity.

The recent surge of whooping cough cases across the country means the media is paying close attention [7]. If Minister Plibersek takes action right now, she has a chance to discredit them once and for all.

Click here to join her and tell Tanya Plibersek act now -- and stop the AVN creating a fatal health crisis.

Mass immunisation is the most important public health strategy ever launched in Australia. Many don't remember the days when polio epidemics killed over 1,000 people and left tens of thousands more paralysed [8]. That's because thanks to vaccination, it's been all but eradicated -- along with smallpox, diptheria, measles and whooping cough. Now, Sue is calling on the government to take action, before the AVN's campaign leads to further public health risks.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Suzanne and the Change.org team

We are urgently asking you to send a letter to change.org asking them why they are supporting a hate group like Stop the AVN. This goes against everything they supposedly stand for and flies in the face of all their claims to be for freedom of speech and rights.

Please write to mail@change.org send a copy of your letter to Tanya Plibersek - Tanya.Plibersek.MP@aph.gov.au as well because you know she is getting plenty of rabid emails from SAVN and the Australian Skeptics.

Thank you for your help with this matter. If you can send copies of your letters to me at meryl@avn.org.au and forward this request to your friends and family as well, I would really appreciate that.

Below is the letter I sent to change.org as well as a couple of letters which have already been sent by our supporters. Feel free to copy this information in your own messages.

Meryl

To whom it may concern:

I set up a petition on change.org approximately 2 months ago because I thought that you were a site that allowed members of the public to express their views on a variety of subjects. I thought that change.org was all about democracy and freedom of speech; support for human rights and open communication about information.

It appears that I was wrong!

Today, I received the following email, sent by change.org, about the organisation I started almost 18 years ago, the Australian Vaccination Network. It is obvious that whoever wrote this email has no idea what the AVN does or even how diseases are spread. I would have thought that before making outlandish statements such as "AVN discourages parents from immunising their children..." and stating that our work is "negative, destructive and has no scientific basis", you might have first checked with us to get our side of this story. Because every story has two sides. Every perspective looks different from another person's viewpoint.

Your email blames the AVN for the death of Dana McCaffery - a baby too young to have been vaccinated. Dana was brought to hospital several times and misdiagnosed by doctors each time and sent home. Perhaps if they had treated her promptly, she might still be here today. Yet they are not blamed for her death. In addition, her doctors said that because of the very young age at which she caught whooping cough, she most likely came into contact with it while she was in hospital immediately after her birth. None of this relates to the AVN. Yet change.org blames us for the death of a baby simply because she lived in the same shire as the AVN - a shire, by the way, which has a far higher level of vaccination then the neighbouring Byron Shire.

I am truly disappointed by this email and am not sure how this can be remedied, but remedied it should be!

It is incorrect and libelous to say these things about the AVN and if you are relying on Sue Ierici from Stop the AVN for your information about our organisation (look a the name of her group again - do you think she might have a particular viewpoint on this subject that would make her a less than unbiased source of information?) then you have been gravely misinformed.

Perhaps I can direct you to the following article by Dr Brian Martin of Whistleblowers' Australia. Dr Martin has been working in the area of attacks against community organisations for over 35 years, and states that the attacks against the AVN and myself are the worst he has ever come across. This article, Debating Vaccination (http://avn.org.au/pdfs/LW8_debating_vaccination.pdf), discusses these issues and the serious threats, cyberbullying and lies told by the organisation Ms Ierici belongs to.

Yes, there are two sides to every story but you did not try to get the other side before allowing yourselves to be used by this hate group, Stop the AVN. I am disappointed and our members will be disappointed too when they hear about it.

I would very much like to hear back from you on this issue. You can either email me at meryl@avn.org.au or call on 612 6687 1699.

Please allow free speech back onto your page. Please let both sides of this issue be heard.

For democracy, freedom and the right to choose.

Meryl Dorey, President The Australian Vaccination Network, Inc. PO Box 177 BANGALOW NSW 2479 Investigate before you vaccinate.

Dear Ms Plibersek

I have received an email from Change.Org, an organisation to which I used to subscribe.

They are mounting a campaign against the AVN blaming the AVN for the death of a baby from whooping cough. They are claiming the AVN was the reason this baby acquired whooping cough in the first place! They are presenting an emotive campaign to discredit the AVN.

I have been a member of the AVN for many years. At no time has this organisation told people NOT to vaccinate. The AVN gives balanced scientific argument on both sides. The AVN helps parents to make an informed choice by providing information not readily available about vaccination. Why is it wrong for me to read information about vaccination? Why am I not allowed (according to Change.org) to read information about side effects of vaccination?

Parents have the right to both pro and con information about vaccination, surely?

Change.org is asking you curtail the work of the AVN. Change.org is basically asking you to treat Australian parents as non-thinkers who must be spoon fed only what Change.org thinks is suitable fodder.

I am a proud parent of 4 children. They are all very healthy adults. They have had some vaccines - some I did not let them have e.g. chicken pox, rubella (they had the disease when very young), HPV.

This was an informed choice by my husband and I - we researched our decisions thoroughly. Change.org would have it that our source of information, the AVN, should be cut off at the knees.

Please do not allow Change.org, and its affiliates the Australian Skeptics, and the SAVN (Stop the AVN) to succeed in muting the AVN voice.

The AVN did not cause this poor baby's death. And yet that is what they are having people believe in their statement. (see below for an excerpt from their email). Please allow us to have the free speech, we Australians are proud to have. Please do not censor or censure the AVN.

Thank you

DT

Dear Change.Org, I'm ashamed to see you perpetuating SUCH biased, ignorant and defamatory information. Shame on you.  I'd like to start a petition against change.org Who's funding you???   My opinion of you has turned a 180 direction. Regards, SW