Perth Seminar, Information Suppression and Gutless Wonders

Tonight at 7:00 PM (WA time), the AVN will be presenting its Investigate Before you Vaccinate seminar at the State Library of Western Australia, Alexander Library Building, Perth Cultural Centre, 25 Francis Street in Perth.

This is the second time we have presented at this stunning venue and as many of you would know, the Library has come under an inordinate amount of pressure to cancel these events and to not allow us to book there again. To their credit, they have done what libraries have done since time immemorial - they have supported the right to freedom of information in opposition to those who would suppress it.

Presenting at tonight's seminar will be myself and Judy Wilyman. Judy presented a great talk at our last event in June on the influenza vaccine. You can listen to the audio of that seminar by clicking here.

Tonight's seminar will be an overview of the entire vaccination issue with Judy giving a talk to update everyone on the latest information about the Gardasil (HPV - so called 'cervical cancer') vaccine which has just been approved for use in boys as well as girls. I will be speaking about the other shots currently administered to children and why the information you have gotten from your doctor or council clinic leaves out so many of the details you need to know about making an informed choice.

These details include the ingredients, known side effects and effectiveness levels of these vaccines.

We had invited Professor Fiona Stanley from the Telethon Institute to present at this seminar too since we are all about encouraging public debate from both sides of this issue. Unfortunately, Professor Stanley had a prior commitment and was unable to attend.

Howard Sattler

Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call from the Howard Sattler program on 6PR - a very popular Drive-Time program in Perth. They got an email from our 'friends' at the skeptics informing them that we were having a seminar in Perth and telling the program that we should not be allowed to hold this event. They said that we were doing this in a State Government building at the expense of the taxpayers of WA. Since we were paying for the venue just as any other group that rents this facility for their events, it is hard to understand how we could be costing the State any money at all?

I must thank the skeptics however since this email did a great job of alerting Howard Sattler to the fact that we were once again in town and, though he does not agree with the AVN on our vaccination stance, he is a strong proponent of freedom of speech and democracy so he had his producer call to get me into the studio for a discussion on our seminar.

That discussion can be heard by clicking the link below:

[buzzsprout episode="9991" player="true"]

I have to thank the 'skeptics' for their assistance in giving us this extra publicity. I'm sure that there were many thousands of parents listening to the program and hopefully, many of them will now be going to their doctors to ask questions about this procedure and also, coming along to the seminar to hear the other side of this issue.

Those who listened to the show would have learned the following facts:

1- Vaccination is not compulsory. You can send your child to school, preschool or childcare whether you vaccinate fully, partially or not at all.

2- You cannot lose any government financial entitlements if you don't vaccinate or don't vaccinate fully. All you need to do is register as a conscientious objector and you will be able to get all of your entitlements. (If you listen to the program, be sure an hear how a grandmother who is caring for her 4-year old grandchild was bullied into vaccinating this child who had already been seriously injured by vaccines because she was told that government entitlements that she needed would be withheld if she stopped the shots - a complete and absolute lie!)

3- Vaccines may not be as safe or as effective as we have been told they are and doctors and the government do not give full information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines which is why the AVN is needed to balance the government's data and 'fill in the blanks' that have been left by these omissions.

4- Most reactions are not reported and they need to be.

Gutless Wonders

While I was on the show, Howard's producer kept coming into the studio with print-outs of emails and tweets that were bouncing around in cyberspace asking people to call into the program and challenge me on what I was saying. Interestingly, though there was no filtering of callers and though people could have called in from anywhere in Australia, it seemed to be impossible to get the skeptics to actually call in because other than the last caller who was much too respectful to be one of that cadre, all of the calls were from people whose children or grandchildren had already had serious reactions or from people who were questioning vaccination. Why is it that they are so brave when they are tweeting to each other and yet, they are completely unwilling to support their stance with information?

Howard said that they (those who were so busy tweeting to ask others to call in) were gutless wonders and I have to agree with that remark.

For years now, I have had an open challenge to anyone - doctor, immunologist, government health official - to meet me in a public venue with an independent emcee - in front of a public audience - to debate the benefits and risks of vaccination. For all those years, not one person has ever accepted that challenge.

A young immunology student, Tom Sidwell, said he would accept a few months ago (you can read the entire exchange by clicking here) but when it came to the crunch, despite the fact that I was willing to negotiate the terms to his satisfaction, Tom refused a public debate, insisting on one conducted via the internet - not at all what I had asked for and he had agreed to.

Where is the Debate?

So while we are constantly hearing about this 'vaccination debate' that is taking place in the community, I see very little evidence that it actually exists.

Shows like Howard Sattler's are a rare breed in that they are willing to allow their audience to access different viewpoints - even if they are not necessarily popular - and to make up their own minds. Other outlets, though they seem to thrive on political, sexual and environmental controversy, find this issue just a bit too hard to cover fairly. Perhaps they are concerned with loss of sponsorship or threats from the medical community? I'm really not sure.

In any case, if you feel that what Howard has done in allowing his listeners access to both sides of this issue is important and you would like to let him know you appreciate it, please drop him a line by clicking this link.

All I know is that there is no public vaccination debate and there needs to be.