Parents who don't vaccinate ARE terribly smart!
Yesterday, several supporters of informed health choices took the time to write to Mr Barry Haase, the Federal Member for Durack who wrote an opinion piece on the Kimberley Page about his impression of those who don't vaccinate - including his statement that these parents are not terribly smart. You can read my response to his uneducated opinions on yesterday's blog post by clicking here.
I put out the call for letters to be sent to Mr Haase urging him to meet with me in Geraldton on Friday as well as to learn more about why his constituents and other Australians have chosen not to vaccinate, to vaccinate selectively and to stop vaccinating once they had started. As usual, the letters have started to flow in and they demonstrate so very clearly why parents must ALWAYS have the right to make this choice freely and also why that right and those parents must be treated with respect. If you have not yet written to Mr Haase (and you do not need to be a resident of WA or even an Australian citizen to let him know what you think), please take a moment to send him a quick note (you don't need to write as much as these correspondents have - unless you want to, of course) and remember to send me a copy of your letter to meryl@avn.org.au.
The contact details for Mr Haase are at the bottom of this blog post.
To Mr Barry Haase,
I am a pharmacist of 15 years experience, and I was concerned enough by a report about your closed and somewhat bigoted attitude towards people who choose not to vaccinate themselves or their families, that I wanted to write and express that concern to you personally. I fear you have formed your opinions based on only one side of the story. I seek out information outside of what drug companies and government organisations tell me - it seems a reasonable and responsible way to do my job. My responsibility lies in remaining open-minded, providing access to all sides of a particular healthcare issue, and empowering and encouraging people to make their own choices, which I see as the minimum of respect and courtesy we all deserve. Sir, you are elected by the people and the responsibility of your job within a democracy lies in giving attention to both sides of any social debate. Doing so may not change your personal view and that is certainly your respected prerogative, but please at least give audience to those who have a differing or more informed view. I think you will find that most people who ask questions about vaccination and the issues surrounding it are actually well educated, intelligent, logical and a long way from radical people, who choose simply to take the time to do their own research on what is right for them, and not rely solely what they are told. It is a right for every human being to have the freedom to do our own research, to think for ourselves, and to question the authority of, the authenticity of and motivations behind the things we are told, or the things that are demanded we blindly or fearfully accept. Many of the people who do so are neither staunchly nor blindly 'anti-vaccination' (as is my case), but justifiably make decisions based on the efficacy and safety of individual vaccines, the potential dangers of the infectious agents they claim to protect against and the health considerations of each person in relation to these and other factors. It is a complicated issue and as with any generalisation, the promotion of mass vaccination fails to address so many of the complexities of individualised and wholistic health care.
I have included a link below to an interesting article written by Dr Russel Blaylock.
"Dr. Blaylock is a board-certified neurosurgeon, author and lecturer. He attended the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana and completed his internship and neurosurgical residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. For the past 24 years he has practiced neurosurgery in addition to having a nutritional practice for 2 years. ...he has written and illustrated three chapters in medical textbooks, written a booklet on nutritional protection against biological terrorism, ... , written and illustrated a booklet on multiple sclerosis, and written over 30 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals."
http://www.thenhf.com/article.php?id=1975
And there are many, many more well-credentialed medical and health professionals who advocate for choice and transparency of information with regard to vaccination, and their information would be revealed by even a small amount of research on your behalf.
Yours sincerely,
CG Healthcare professional and Australian citizen
Mr Barry Hasse,
I recently read your article written on 31.10.11 Opinion: Barry Haase on childrens immunisation on Kimberleypage.com.au and I have to say that I am deeply offended!
Someone in your position should know better than to use the careless and offensive accusations that you did.
For someone who is calling parents who choose not to vaccinate unintelligent, you should first look up the difference between the words vaccination and immunisation which you frequently have misused in your article. Vaccination is NOT true immunisation. Just because you are vaccinated does not mean you have achieved immunity.
I can not believe you named the town Denmark and labelled the residents as tree huggers and hippies, that is extremely offensive and highly unprofessional!!
You may like to urge parents to blindly ‘vaccinate’ their children, how about you provide them with a full list of package inserts for each vaccine, a full list of the toxic ingredients vaccines contain, make them aware of the very real possibility of vaccine injury – who can forget the Button family, make them aware that if their child is damaged by vaccines YOU will NOT be there to support them in any way and nor will the vaccine manufacturers.
There are families everywhere suffering everyday due to vaccine injury and you show them no compassion.
The Australian Vaccination Network is NOT anti vaccination, they are Pro Information. If that information indicates there is something wrong with vaccinations then it is everyone’s right to know about it. The AVN is doing the job you and the government choose not to do.
I believe you owe myself and many other parents and WA residents out there an apology.
Regards
MS Kenwick WA
Dear Mr Haase
It saddens me to hear that you have written an article disparaging individuals who have researched and chosen not to vaccinate themselves or their children, as well as attacking the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).
If you took the time to research the AVN you would find it is not anti-vaccination. It is an organisation based on educating and empowering individuals to understand:
What vaccination and immunisation mean
The effectiveness of vaccination
The ingredients found within vaccinations
The risks and potential benefits of vaccinations
How vaccines are tested (eg. What the placebo contains)
Perhaps you could invest $15 and actually go along to a seminar so that you could actually base your opinion on experience, rather than assumption? You might be surprised by the information presented. It is a wonder and a disgrace that this information is not widely distributed by the government.
I personally started to question vaccinations after my own experience in 2006 after receiving numerous vaccinations over a short period of time. Then last year I sadly heard the tragic news of Kirsten Button who was a client of mine at the time, that her precious little girl had suffered severe brain damage after receiving the flu vaccination in 2010. I was outraged to later learn that the vaccine used on Saba was experimental and had been rejected by the US FDA for use on American children. There were serious deficiencies in the manufacturer’s facility including a failure of staff to wear face masks when handling vaccinations; failure to properly split the viruses in the shot, leading to a higher rate of reactions and the possibility of flu infection in the vaccinated; and a failure to investigate the rate of reactions that was 10 times higher than ‘expected’ in vaccine recipients.
Are you then comfortable that the government used Western Australian children as guinea pigs for the new flu shot and due to poor reporting procedures took over two weeks to put a stop to this experimental vaccination?
As for the huge increase in cases of whooping cough – Mr Haase you may want to look at the worldwide epidemic that has been taking place for years, which happens to coincide with higher than ever vaccination rates, before you speculate further on this.
I feel highly insulted at your comment that those individuals who choose not to vaccinate are “not terribly smart”. I am university educated and graduated both of my degrees in the top 10% of Australia. I can assure you I am an intelligent individual who takes responsibility for my health and the health of my family. I have already experienced that my stance on vaccination can be contentious for friends and colleagues who do not agree. Thankfully, as these people are intelligent and open minded, we can happily accept each others’ points of view and not berate each other for them.
In a democracy, information is only dangerous if it is suppressed. Open and honest debate is the best means of arriving at the truth of matters and the AVN encourages this form of communication.
I urge you Mr Haase to meet with our representative, Meryl Dorey, when she is in Geraldton. You will see that this group is anything but radical and in fact, provides an important source of evidence-based information for those families who are seeking to do the best for their children.
Sincerely GJ
Mr Barry Haase, MP Liberal Party PO Box 6022 House of Representatives Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600
Tel: (02) 6277 4154 Fax: (02) 6277 8576
Barry.Haase.MP@aph.gov.au
Electorate Offices: 2B/209 Foreshore Drive Geraldton WA 6530 Tel: (08) 9964 2195 Fax: (08) 9921 7990
PO Box 1856 Broome WA 6725 Tel: (08) 9192 7216 Fax: (08) 9192 8860