Jane Beeby is unfit for public office.

I have just learnt that a board member of the Australian Vaccination Network wishes to run for office in Clarence Valley, New South Wales.

People who oppose vaccination do not belong in civilised society, the information spread by the Australian Vaccination Network is both dangerous and misleading. Not only is Jane Beeby playing a role in the spread of this anti-vaccination fear mongering but she also wishes death upon people who challenge her seriously delusional anti-vaccination ideology.

Photo via ReasonableHank.com

Jane Beeby writes “May your next shot be lethal one Jason, or at least one with a few brain cells.”

Jane Beeby did have a Facebook page for her political campaign, but she has since deleted it thanks to Reasonable Hank who went there to ask questions. Apparently she doesn’t like answering questions about her wishing death upon those whom she disagrees with.

Here is Jane Beeby telling another critic to drink bleach.

Photo via MyColleaguesAreIdiots.com

Jane Beeby writes “gargle with bleach peter, it will help with the smell of shit of your breath.”

Did I mention this woman also thinks children should be denied life saving vaccinations leaving them vulnerable to horrific disease. Yes, I did mention she was anti-vaccination earlier but it’s worth mentioning twice. Jane Beeby is absolutely unfit for anything except a straight jacket. Do NOT vote for Beeby; your children will suffer for it.

Anti-vaxxers don't like the truth.

Is it fair to suggest that those who spend a significant part of their lives advocating against vaccination derive some kind of sick pleasure from the damage caused by vaccine preventable disease?

Vaccines have prevented millions of people from suffering horrific deaths from disease. Measles alone was responsible for 139 300 deaths in 2010, and is one of the leading causes of death amongst young children [source]. However Anti-vaccination activists, whom I prefer to call ‘Disease Advocates’ actively campaign again vaccination for diseases such as Measles, Polio and Pertussis.

I think Peter Bowditch’s question is a fair one. Yes it’s rude, but if I had a choice between being rude or endangering the lives of children. I know where the moral high ground resides. People who actively oppose vaccinations are not just endangering their own children; but the entire community.

If anti-vaxxers only endangered their own offspring then an argument for natural selection and Darwin awards could be made. But these people aren’t contempt with living under rocks and instead choose to walk amongst society where they can pose a serious threat to the health of everyone within that community.

Of course anti-vaxxers don’t like the cold hard truth being pointed out to them. Meryl Dorey the lead anti-vaxxer in Australia and her loyal minion Liz Hempel have this week kicked up a fuss about the suggestion of death induced orgasms.

Of course it’s a bit rich for Meryl Dorey to accuse anyone of being rude after she and her fellow anti-vaxxers engaged in the vicious campaign of harassment against a family who lost their four week old daughter to Whooping Cough (pertussis) in 2009. [Source]

Meryl Dorey’s motivation for attacking a grieving family was that she personally disagreed with the cause of death, despite not being a medical professional and having no involvement with the patient prior to death. Meryl Dorey thinks she knows better than any doctor, and she’s not afraid to attack a grieving family or anyone else who disagrees with her ideology. [Source]

So here’s a message for Meryl Dorey and her fellow anti-vaxxers/Disease-Advocates

Burzynski swindle seeks another paycheque

The Burzynski Clinic in Texas claims to be able to cure cancer with a revolutionary new treatment. However this treatment has never been proven to work and its “pioneer” Dr Stanislaw R. Burzynski is a convicted fraud. Who also claims to hold a PhD, although my colleagues and myself have been unable to substantiate the existence of this qualification.

In fact it seems much more likely that Dr Burzynski’s PhD has been made up as a marketing tool. As Saul Green has discovered.

Burzynski’s claim to a Ph.D. is questionable. When I investigated, I found:

  • An official from the Ministry of Health in Warsaw informed me that when Burzynski was in school, medical schools did not give a Ph.D. [1].
  • Faculty members from at the Medical Academy at Lubin informed me that Burzynski received his D.Msc. in 1968 after completing a one-year laboratory project and passing an exam [2] and that he had done no independent research while in medical school [3].
  • In 1973, when Burzinski applied for a federal grant to study “antineoplaston peptides from urine,” he identified himself as “Stanislaw Burzynski, M.D, D.Msc.” [4]

    • –Saul Green, Quackwatch

    While a lot of people would ordinarily see through the lies and misinformation. Cancer patients and their families often find themselves in a desperate situation where they will do anything to save themselves or a loved one. It is certainly no coincidence that cancer patients are a favourite target of fraudsters.

    Now the Burzynski marketing team has managed to convince a family in Ireland that he can cure their two year old daughter, for a price of course. They have been quoted between:  €30,000 and €100,000 Euros to attend the Burzynski Clinic, although I expect the costs will probably rise. [source]

    Even if the family do raise enough money to write a paycheque to Burzynski, they aren’t actually being charged for treatment at all. Instead they are paying for their daughter to take part in a Clinical Trial for a treatment that’s never been proven to be efficacious.

    Of course nobody can blame the parents for doing what they genuinely believe will help their daughter, but I can certainly question the ethics and morals of people like Dr Stanislaw R. Burzynski who jump at opportunities like this to make cash. The worst part about health scams isn’t the money that is stolen; but the opportunity that is lost when people give-up proven conventional healthcare for a false hope that’s been sold to them by a charlatan.

     

    Further Reading

    Hope or false hope?

    Burzynski Research Institute

    Burzynski: When is a PhD not a PhD?

    Stanislaw Burzynski and “Antineoplastons”

    Burzynski: Morally reprehensible

    The Burzynski Clinic is using libel laws to silence critics of its cancer treatment

    Disrespectful and dubious Burzynski marketing

    Vaccination akin to kidnapping: Meryl Dorey

    I stumbled upon an interesting article posted by Australian Doctor about a new mobile service aimed at increasing vaccination rates amongst youth. The new service has proved effective so far at increasing vaccinations from around 50% up to nearly 100%.

    Tracking down and vaccinating wayward youths at bus stops and skate parks could prove a solution to raising immunisation rates in rural Australia.
    The approach has paid off at a high school in rural Queensland, where a drive-by vaccination squad has seen an increase from about 50% to up to 100% of 13-15-year-olds being immunised. –Australian Doctor

    Of course this increased protection from lethal disease has greatly upset Meryl Dorey of the deceptively named Australian Vaccination Network.

    Yes, Meryl Dorey has likened the application of life saving medicines to kidnapping. This shouldn’t come as any surprise given her history of calling vaccinations Child Rape, but I have to wonder how foolish someone would have to be in-order to take anything Meryl says seriously. Perhaps AVN supporters should take a good look at their beloved leader. She may be in need of psychiatric help, at least her past, present and possibly future actions seem to indicate a very disturbed individual.

    Perhaps Meryl Dorey missed this vital clue.

    “We’ve had parents contacting us and giving us permission to meet the children at the school bus … and we would have them immunised by the time they return to school,” said Gordon Luck, director of nursing at Mount Morgan Hospital, which runs the mobile service.  –Australian Doctor

    Then again, never let the truth get in the way of your lunatic fear mongering. That’s the anti-vax agenda.

    Anti-vaxxers trying to censor skeptic blogs.

    An interesting event came to light recently. Two well known Skeptic blogs Reasonable Hank and Lucky Losing were being blocked by Trend Micro.

    We believe supporters of the Australian Vaccination Network have been reporting skeptical blogs as malware in an attempt to have them blocked by malware vendors. This type of behavior has come to be expected from those who lack the evidence to backup their claims. 

    There is an especially nutty fruitloop called Liz Hempel who had a few things to say on Twitter regarding the blockage of Reasonable Hank.

    Liz Hempel (if that’s even her real name) is quite clearly making false accusations of fraud and criminal conduct. Without any evidence to backup those accusations of course, but then lack of evidence is what the anti-vaccination movement is all about (and promoting disease).

    Liz continues…

    Liz clearly knows little about the Internet. She receives the warning because she is most likely using Trend Micro which is blocking the page. Perhaps she thought reporting a page she didn’t like would get it removed entirely from the web, she is wrong only users of that particular blacklist are affected by the blockage.

    I like her suggestion of reporting it to WordPress.com. Services providers receive threats, abuse and complaints as part of their daily business but no decent service provider is going to remove content unless compelled to by a court of competent jurisdiction. They espesially aren’t going to act at the whim of anti-vaxx bullshitters. Nice try Liz but once more you fail.

    Incidents like this just highlight the lengths that anti-vaxxers will go to; or in this case attempt to go to in order to silence critics of their ideology. While Liz Hempel doesn’t know what she’s doing not all anti-vaxxers will be so incompetent with technology and those of us who run sites likely to incur the wrath of others should take steps to ensure that our sites and services are secure from those who would like to silence their critics in desperation. I expect we will see more underhanded tactics being used in the future, by those with an otherwise indefensible position.

    Catholic church provides financial support to convicted paedophile priests.

    Once more it seems the Catholic Church is protecting pedophiles. In a news report this week it is revealed that financial aid is being given to convicted child rapists.

    The archdiocese has disclosed to The Age that it is providing significant financial support to four clergy released from jail after serving sentences for child sex abuse.

    Victim support groups say more clergy found either by police or internal church investigations to have abused children are likely to be receiving financial support from different Catholic orders outside the Melbourne archdiocese’s control. –The Age

    So the Catholic Church is providing financial assistance to paedophiles; why am I not surprised by this?

    Monika Milka is upset by publicity.

    It looks like Monika Milka has been upset by all the negative publicity exposing her scams lately. She has posted this absurd piece on her public Facebook page.

    Because she wouldn’t want anyone to see her silly comments, such as this.

    That would be the Today Tonight show that publicly exposed her. Of course she provides no source for this claim. In true quack style Monika is rapidly deleting comments making it harder to keep them in the correct timeline. She has a lot of criticism that she doesn’t want anyone to see. The link to my blog post about her has already been removed from the Facebook page. So what you see in her timelines are only part of the conversation.

    After I mentioned that Homeopathy is bogus medicine she posted this.

    So I’m a terrorist, except I’m not the one harming people with unproven treatments. Some of Monika’s remedies have been shown to cause direct harm, which is why she is now on the radar of health authorities.

    People who sell fake medicine to the public hate being called out on it. The Facebook page where Monika Milka promotes her fake medicine can be found here.

    Introducing dangerous fraud Monika Milka.

    Monika Milka is a fraud operating in South Australia she sells fake medicines to vulnerable unsuspecting people. However Monika is a little different to most homeopaths because instead of her remedies having zero effect like traditional homeopathy, some of Monika’s fake medicines are actually doing some direct harm. The harm of Homeopathy normally comes from homeopaths persuading their victim to give up real medicine in favor of witchcraft.

    Of course now her victims are suing her for the damage she has done..

    AN alternative therapist is being sued by nine people who say they were injected with a bacteria.

    Tindall Gask Bentley lawyer Mal Byrne said his firm had settled five claims, with nine still pending. The victims were allegedly infected with the bacteria, mycobacterium chelonae, in 2008.

    They claim homeopathy practitioner Monika Milka infected them while performing biomesotherapy – designed to cure conditions from headaches to injuries. –Adelade Now

    In addition to being sued Monika Milka is also mentioned [page 42] in a report entitled “Inquiry into Bogus, Unregistered and Deregistered Health Practitioners” by the Parliament of South Australia. I personally like their use of the term “Bogus” it shows they are not afraid to label fake medicine for what it really is.

    The document reads. (I decided to copy/paste this report so that Google may find it better.)

     

    COMPLAINTS AGAINST MS MONICA MILKA
    The Inquiry received one written complaint about Ms Monica Milka. It alleged that Ms
    Milka had:
    • claimed that she was able to cure cancer, and
    • failed to provide receipts for payment provided.

     

    Letter of Complaint: Example 1

    “In 2005, my husband, Ross, was diagnosed with cancer of the bile ducts. After surgery and various courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments failed to halt the diseases, my husband sought the help of Monica Milka who did ‘alternative therapies’. Monika assured my husband that she could cure him and commenced treating him with all types of sprays, medicines and injections. The many injections she gave to his stomach were to ‘kill the worms’ that were causing the problem but in fact left him very sore. She also took photos of his eyes and then showed him those supposed images on a computer screen, pointing out the ‘areas of improvement’ and telling him how well he was doing. Ross paid Monica over $500 per week. Initially he paid by visa card so received a receipt for this payment but later on he began to pay cash and no longer received any receipts.”

    Written submission: Ms VWright

     

    In addition to this complaint, in the course of its Inquiry, the Committee became aware of an investigation undertaken by the Department of Health into treatment known as ‘mesotherapy.’ This treatment includes injecting minute quantities of various substances and saline under the skin to ‘target’ fat cells and reduce cellulite. According to the Department, instances of this treatment were provided by ‘Monika’s Entity’, an alternative therapist operating in Gawler, South Australia, and who the Committee understands is Ms Milka. Cases investigated by the Department were linked to skin abscesses affecting at least six people who had undergone treatment at the premises of ‘Monika’s Entity’. One patient was confirmed as having a mycobacterial infection which the Department noted is a particularly difficult condition to treat.

    Under the provisions contained in the Public and Environmental Health Act 1987, the Department of Health seized samples and equipment from the premises and ordered that the procedure no longer be undertaken by the therapist at the centre of its investigation

    Concerned that this potentially dangerous treatment would continue to be undertaken, the Committee wrote to the Department asking how the public will be protected from this practitioner administering this treatment in the future. In reply, the Department advised the Committee that it would ‘continue to monitor and enforce the standards required under the Public and Environmental Health Act 1987.’

    –Parliamentary Inquiry; Page 42

    Although I didn’t write any of that report, I have learned that charlatans prefer to blame me for the actions of Government Investigators. However what I will write in response to this report is that Monika Milka is a dishonest fraud selling bogus medicine. I’m sure anyone looking into her remedies will draw the same opinion. This woman has already harmed people and she needs to be stopped.

    Today Tonight has even done an episode starring Monika Milka:  Quackery of the first order

     

    Pathological Liar Meryl Dorey's pathetic attempt at impersonation.

    That infamous assclown Meryl Dorey of the Australian [anti-]Vaccination Network (AVN) has created the website AustralianSceptics.com (fake Site)  in a pathetic revenge attempt towards those who expose her fraudulent “charity” for the money making sham that it really is.

    For the past three years a group called Stop the Australian Vaccination Network (SAVN) has been exposing the misdeeds of Meryl Dorey and her dodgy “charity”. As a result Meryl has gotten into a whole heap of legal trouble with government regulators. Although SAVN and Australian Skeptics (Real Site) are not the same thing, Meryl repeatedly blames Australian Skeptics for the actions of SAVN. Which is a fairly moot point because all activism undertaken by SAVN falls well within the law; and Meryl even acknowledges this fact.

    The Skeptics have worked out a way to rort the system by using current legislation to victimise those who they disagree with. -Meryl Dorey, 28 April 2012 nocompulsoryvaccination.com

    So blaming Australian Skeptics for the actions of SAVN isn’t the insult she thinks it is.

    In what I can only assume is an act of desperation Meryl has decided to seek revenge on the Australian Skeptics by creating a website in their name and filling it with bullshit. The domain name AustralianSceptics.com is indisputably owned by Meryl Dorey.

    Click to Enlarge.

    Although she’s owned the domain name since 2009 I have always wondered what she might do with it. Now we know, this is clearly a desperate attempt to lash out at her critics after all legitimate avenues have failed. This pathetic attempt at impersonation shows just how desperate the anti-vaccination network is becoming.

    Her choice of domain name and the wording of the website are an obvious attempt to mislead and deceive the public into thinking they are visiting the real Australian Skeptics website. Considering how much trouble she keeps getting into for spreading lies and deception a rational person would of expected her to learn her lesson by now. No such luck it seems.

    ACCC acts on Homeopathic dishonesty.

    HomeopathyPlus is a website run by Fran Sheffield whose integrity has been diluted to homeopathic levels of non-existence. The site is notorious for ignoring instruction from the Therapeutic Goods Administration to remove false and misleading claims from its website. Of course if Fran Sheffield had any ounce of honesty the website probably wouldn’t exist in the first place.

    Now the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has stepped in:

    Homeopathy Plus! Pty Ltd has removed representations from its website that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission considered to be misleading and deceptive and that could lead to serious health risks for consumers.

    The representations were made on the ‘Whooping Cough – Homeopathic Prevention and Treatment’ page which has since been removed from the Homeopathy Plus! website.

    “The combination of claims that the vaccine was ineffective and that the homeopathic remedies listed on the page were an alternative prevention and treatment regime elevated this matter to one of extreme concern,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

    The ACCC examined content on the Homeopathy Plus! website following a complaint from the medical profession. The ACCC considered that the Homeopathy Plus! claims that the current whooping cough vaccine is dangerous and ineffective, while the homeopathic remedy is a proven and safe alternative, were likely to be misleading or deceptive.

    Reliance on these claims may influence consumers to avoid the whooping cough vaccine and rely solely on the homeopathic approach for treatment and prevention of whooping cough, which is strongly discouraged by medical professionals. Whooping cough is a serious respiratory infection which can cause a long coughing illness and is life threatening for babies.

    The ACCC result was considerably assisted by the engagement of the Therapeutic Goods Administration and NSW Fair Trading with Homeopathy Plus! Pty Ltd in resolving this matter.

    The ACCC will continue to monitor the Homeopathy Plus! Pty Ltd site for potential breaches of the Australian Consumer Law. –ACCC, Media Release

    Its good to see that action is being taken against those who profit from the spread of dangerous information. As we have seen in the past misinformation is deadly. I hope to see a lot more government crackdowns on Homeopathy, which is litte more than a means to scam the sick.