Health Debate Goes to the Next Level-Doctors Unite to Smash the Anti-Vaccine Group

The latest in a string of attacks against the AVN

Below is an article that appeared in today's Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) newspaper regarding a push by medical lobbyists to force the Australian Vaccination Network to change its name. This article appears on page 15 of the paper but does not seem to be online yet. The centre of the page has an article (pasted at the bottom of this message) about a baby who contracted whooping cough at 1 week of age and a large central picture of that child's family (hmmmm - what message are they trying to send here?) The parents of this baby are blaming unvaccinated children for their baby's illness, but if the child got whooping cough at 1 week of age, it is obvious that it would have been exposed in hospital - not from some invisible child.

Dr Ken Harvey, the complainant against the AVN, appears to be a serial complainer - apparently working almost full-time to stop anyone who questions mainstream medicine or practices natural or complementary health therapies - especially chiropractic care and homeopathy. Have a look at the Complaints Resolution Panel's list of complaints that have been 'resolved' - http://www.tgacrp.com.au/index.cfm?pageID=13. Out of a total of 31 complaints on this website - five were filed by Ken Harvey - the rest are anonymous! One has to wonder how he finds the time to run a practice when he is constantly complaining about the AVN and natural therapies?

Doctors are desperate!

Of course, the fact that doctors are now asking the government to force the AVN to change its name is a sign that they are running out of options. The medical community, the pharmaceutical industry and government departments have been trying for over 3 years now to try and force us to close our doors. They would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to date trying to "Smash" our small, volunteer-run organisation and even though we are chronically-underfunded, they have been unsuccessful. We are David to their Goliath and because we stand for truth, freedom and democracy, we will always prevail, no matter how dirty their tactics become - and wanting us to change our name is pretty dirty indeed!

They want the AVN gone

These attempts to shut down the AVN have included investigations and warnings issued by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) which we had to fight long and hard to finally defeat. We accomplished this in the Supreme Court which determined that the HCCC acted illegally when conducting their investigation and issuing a warning against us..

They tried to close us down by using the Department of Fair Trading - several times. They tried with ASIC when we weren't even registered with ASIC. Through the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing (which had to assign one of their employees a full-time job of just dealing with these complaints - at huge cost to the taxpayer!) who revoked our charity authority but was later made to reinstate it because we ARE a charity and we ARE entitled to be one.

Immediately upon that reinstatement, the same people and organisations started lobbying the Minister for Fair Trading to ask him to once again revoke our charitable status because they disagree with us on vaccination. What part of 'democracy' don't these people understand?

I have seen evidence that there was even an attempt to have me deported from Australia via complaints to the Dept of Immigration but unfortunately for the people pushing for this, I am an Australian citizen.

The idea that a group of doctors can unite to SMASH an organisation that questions a medical procedure sounds more like economic protectionism than true concern to me. Who stands to gain if the AVN is forced to close? Not the parents of Australia who will have nowhere else to go for help, information and support. The doctors will gain though because without a vocal and active group supporting conscientious objectors to vaccination, compulsory vaccination will become a reality as we found back in the late 1990s when the government tried to sneak in legislation taking away financial entitlements from parents who did not vaccinate. It was only because the AVN lobbied for the introduction of a Conscientious Objector clause that today, we have the right to claim all government benefits whether we choose to vaccinate fully, selectively or not at all.

Truth in the media - an oxymoron

All along, the media has gleefully reported whatever was said by these groups as though it were news; as though it were the truth.

Now this article in today's Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) is a prime example of the sort of reporting we have come to expect from commercial media - especially the Telegraph which is a NewsCorp paper with strong links to pharmaceutical companies - including GlaxoSmithKline - a large vaccine maker. So why would anyone expect fair reporting on this issue from that sort of paper?

But our national broadcaster, the ABC - now there is a taxpayer-funded media outlet with a charter of fairness and transparency - or so we've been led to believe.

Below is an email exchange with an ABC radio journalist from Tasmania regarding this issue. She wrote in response to the press release I put out the other day on the issue of the AVN being forced to change our name. (If you click on the images below, you will be able to view each email in full size) Please keep in mind that the journalist in question has been a speaker at an Australian Skeptics national conference and therefore, would be far from unbiased when it comes to this issue. Yet she wrote to me using her ABC email address as though it were an official ABC communication. It is apparent that her opinion of the AVN has been formed by listening to what should be registered as a hate group - the Australian Skeptics - and their splinter organistion - Stop the AVN. She neither knows what the AVN does by speaking with us nor, it appears, does she care to know.

And here is my response to this journalist (I have not heard back from her, by the way). You can click on the image to link through to the blog post if you wish.

So, after all of this, please read the articles from today's newspaper and, I would personally appreciate it if you could take the time to write a quick letter to the editor about this issue. Letters can be emailed to letters@sundaytelegraph.com.au and if you could please cc me at meryl@avn.org.au that would be great!

Doctors unite to smash the anti-vaccine group

THE state’s top doctors have launched an attack on an antivaccination group, accusing it of misleading parents.

Their new campaign aims to make the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) change its name, which one wellknown specialist branded a ‘‘ complete misnomer’’.

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner and Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts have been urged to force the change on the Nsw-registered group in a letter signed by Associate Professor of La Trobe University Dr Ken Harvey.

His call is backed by experts from the Australian Medical Association and the University of Sydney.

AVN is an activist group that campaigns against vaccination, warning it can have risky side effects.

While it claims to be ‘‘ prochoice’’ the group has been criticised for putting out misleading information ‘‘ based on conspiracy theories’’.

‘‘ I think the name is deceptive and misleading,’’ said Dr Brian Owler, Australian Medical Association NSW president. ‘‘ People think they are getting information that is objective on vaccination when it is against vaccination. It is very disingenuous.

‘‘ We are very supportive of the approach to have the government step in.’’

Since the introduction of childhood immunisation in the 1930s vaccine-preventable diseases have declined by more than 99 per cent.

But doctors fear a reemergence of polio and mumps if vaccination rates were to drop.

‘‘ We have the first-world luxury of not seeing so many diseases now but it’s only because in Australia we have had such high levels of immunisation,’’ said Dr Kerryn Phelps, GP and Adjunct Public Health Professor at the University of Sydney.

Writing to government, Dr Harvey said the association is registered with the Office of Fair trading and therefore the government has the power to order a name change. ‘‘ The deceptive name of the organisation has potentially deadly consequences,’’ he said.

But the head of AVN, Meryl Dorey, said she would not be considering a name change for the association.

‘‘ It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life,’’ Ms Dorey said.

‘‘ What is the problem with our name? We are Australian, we are about vaccination and we are a network.

‘‘ We are not antivaccination — we are about choice,’’ she added.

22 Jul 2012

The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney)

ROSIE SQUIRES HEALTH REPORTER

Immunise so you don’t put babies at risk

RACHEL Allen’s daughter Issabella almost died after she contracted whooping cough when one week old.

Picture: Rohan Kelly Windsor couple Stephen Adams and Rachael Allen nearly lost baby Issabella to whooping cough

Still shaken by the ordeal, the 20-year-old mother said parents who refuse to immunise their children were helping to spread potentially lethal diseases.

Issabella, who was too young to be vaccinated, had to be rushed to hospital when she was hit by a severe bout of whooping cough.

‘‘She had the sniffles and I thought it was a cold but it got worse and then she had a coughing fit and stopped breathing, ’’ Ms Allen, from Windsor, said.

‘‘My father-in-law had to resuscitate her while we were in the car driving to the hospital. It was horrible.’’

Ms Allen and partner Stephen Adams told The

Sunday Telegraph the terrifying episode had strengthened their support of immunisation. ‘‘When parents don’t immunise their children they’re keeping the spread of the disease alive,’’ she said.

‘‘It makes me upset my daughter almost died because she caught an illness she was too young to be vaccinated against.’’