The push is on in Australia for compulsory vaccination
This is part of a concerted effort within the media and the medical community over the last few months to make vaccination compulsory and to vilify those of us who have made informed choices not to vaccinate our children. Many have made this difficult choice after seeing children die or become permanently injured after vaccines. We MUST not allow our rights to be taken away. Once they are gone - they will be gone for good! Please write in to the Herald Sun newspaper and let them know you support freedom of choice on this issue and why!
This is written by Susie O'Brien under the banner - Standing Up For Families. Sue Ieraci who wrote the petition quoted below at change.org is a Ministerial Appointee to the NSW Medical Board as well as a very active member of the organisation Stop the AVN. To me, this is yet more evidence of the close cooperation between Stop the AVN and certain NSW government departments. The government should not be aligned with a hate group such as Stop the AVN.
On the Editorial page of the paper, it states that, "The Herald Sun is dedicated to accurate, fair and fearless publication of news and commentary. Well, this might be fearless, but it is neither accurate nor is it fair.
The email address for Letters to the Editor is hsletters@heraldsun.com.au or you can FAX your letters to 03 9292 2944. Please be sure to both forward this information to friends and families to ask them to act on it and also send copies of your letters to me at meryl@avn.org.au.
Kids Need Jabs Herald Sun - 31 January 2012 (No web link)
Parents Must Ignore Conspiracies About Childhood Vaccination
CHILDHOOD vaccination should be mandatory for all children. Children who are not immunised should not be allowed to attend state funded schools and preschools because they’re risking the health of all kids.
Standard vaccinations are safe, and essential to protect our kids from preventable deadly diseases such as whooping cough, diphtheria and even influenza.
So why are ignorant conspiracy theorists endangering our children by peddling crazy theories about the dangers of childhood vaccination?
A vicious online row has emerged between doctors who want all parents to vaccinate their kids, and a bogus group called the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), which pretends to be pro-choice but is actually an anti-vaccination front.
It’s a fight between a handful of uninformed quacks with a personal agenda, and just about every doctor in Australia — who have medical science on their side. The AVN’S Meryl Dorey has started a campaign on change.org calling on the Federal Government to stop penalising families who do not vaccinate by withholding $2100 of family benefits.
In response, a leading Australian doctor, Sue Ieraci, has put her own petition on change.org warning people about AVN.
As Dr Ieraci explains, in areas where people have stopped vaccinating kids, there have been dangerous outbreaks of whooping cough and measles.
It’s true Australia has one of the highest vaccination rates in the developed world — 94 per cent — but misinformation peddled by the AVN and others is causing parents unnecessary angst.
Doctors are also worried that immunisation rates are declining because of such misinformation.
My biggest beef with the AVN’S approach is the way they have set themselves up as an impartial group that wants to educate parents about both sides of the debate, but in fact they are totally anti-vaccination.
On their website they urge parents to ‘‘investigate before you vaccinate’’ and that it’s ‘‘a parent’s right to choose what’s best for their child’’.
Yet the rest of the website is little more than an antivaccination rant. Parents, don’t be fooled. Like homebirthers, parents who choose not to vaccinate their children are letting their own ideological beliefs get in the way of the safety of their children — in fact, all children.
Medical science is pretty united on immunisation.
As Dr Steve Hambleton from the AMA said recently, immunisation has meant two generations free from deadly diseases such as diphtheria and polio.
The best federal experts say side-effects commonly cited as being caused by immunisations are co-incidental, and not caused by vaccines at all.
As schools and kinders go back this week after the summer break, it’s up to all parents to ensure their children are fully immunised.
Kids whose parents deny them this basic right should not be mixing with the rest of us, and should not be allowed to attend state-funded schools and preschools.