The Verdict is in on the AVN

The Australian Vaccination network will have it’s charity status revoked next Wednesday thanks to a decision from the NSW Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing to revoke the anti-vaccination networks charity status.

A CONTROVERSIAL NSW-based anti-vaccination group has been stripped of its charitable status after the state government found its appeals had not been conducted in good faith.

The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) was ordered in July to publish a disclaimer on its website stating the group was anti-vaccination and its material shouldn’t be read as medical advice.

On Thursday, the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) revoked the group’s charitable status on the grounds it had failed to publish the disclaimer as recommended by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC). –Herald Sun

Strike #1: The HCCC Ruling

Strike #2: This is it!

Strike #3: Will it be the Copyright Violations?

This is turning out to be a pretty shitty year for the AVN and I hope the worse is yet to come.

AVN still wants to fight with the experts

Everyone’s favorite joke the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) is hitting back against the New South Wales; Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) for issuing a public warning about the information that the AVN has been distributing. The public warning can be found here. The HCCC recommended that the AVN place disclaimers on their website to inform the public that they are an Anti-Vaccination Lobby Group.

Meryl Dorey, who runs the AVN and considers herself above jurisdiction of the authorities refused to comply with the recommendations of the HCCC which then issued the public warning resulting in a media storm around Meryl and the AVN. In a recent media release the AVN has stated.

The HCCC does not have the authority to recommend that the AVN put this or any other statement on its website. The AVN is not a health service provider in the usual sense: it does not provide clinical management or care for individual clients. Instead, the AVN is a non-government organisation providing a point of view on a matter of public debate.

The AVN may not provide clinical care to patients but it does take on the role of a public health educator and even holds lectures in public academic institutions such as the State Library. The AVN also claims to be a “Vaccine Safety Watchdog” and requests that members of the public report any adverse health problems to them.

The HCCC misunderstands the role of public debate on controversial issues affecting public health. In the vaccination controversy, different participants operate on the basis of different assumptions and values, for example about the importance of individual choice. The HCCC has adopted pro-vaccination assumptions and values. In other words, it has adopted a partisan position. That is not its role.

The HCCC is not a debate moderator. The purpose of their investigation was the asses and evaluate the accuracy of the information appearing on the AVN’s website. Science does not care for debate on matters of opinion science is all about verifying the evidence to confirm a hypothesis, personal opinion holds little value. Upon investigation the HCCC found that the AVN 

  • provides information that is solely anti-vaccination
  • contains information that is incorrect and misleading
  • quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.

This is not opinion but is the result of thorough investigation into the accuracy information being distributed by the AVN.

By issuing a public warning about the AVN, the HCCC overstepped its mandate. By the logic of its stand, it might also investigate complaints against organisations presenting information and viewpoints about pesticides, climate change, nuclear power, stem cells, genetic engineering, nanotechnology and nuclear weapons, because, in each of these areas of debate, incorrect statements might pose a risk to public health and safety.

Not a single organisation presenting information on any of these topics is immune from scientific scrutiny. If any of them do provide misleading information in order to support a belief they are often exposed by regulatory authorities and the media. Perhaps the AVN have their head in the sand if they believe they are the only organisation to ever get busted spreading false information.

The complaints to the HCCC against the AVN are part of a systematic campaign to shut down the AVN and deny its ability to provide information about the disadvantages of vaccination. Those who have attacked the AVN have ridiculed and slandered AVN members, made false claims about their beliefs, made numerous complaints to a variety of official bodies, and made personal threats against individuals. The HCCC has allowed itself to be a tool of opponents of the AVN.

Yes, it’s true there is a campaign to shut the AVN down. Many people feel the social responsibility to speak out when they see anti-vaccination kooks spread misinformation and fear mongering in order to drive the rates of vaccination down. However no evidence can be found to support the AVN’s claim to have received death threats. Allot of people accused of threatening the AVN have asked for the evidence to be made public. So far the AVN has refused to provide supporting evidence for their accusations, this should not come as any surprise since the AVN seem to have a real problem with evidence.

Pope protestors march in London

On Saturday thousands of people marched in London to protested the visit of Pope Benedict XVI. The visit is being paid for by UK tax payers some of whom joined the 20,000 strong protest. The march whent from Hyde Park to Whitehall where the rally was held.

Andrew Copson from the British Humanist Association opened up the speeches.

It’s true that as a matter of national policy we don’t use our status as a nation to lobby at the UN against the human rights of women or the human rights of lesbian and gay people. It’s true that our state doesn’t use its recognition as a state to lobby against the use of condoms, even in places suffering epidemics of AIDS. It’s true that our country has never, as a matter of national policy, concealed the sexual abuse of children and frustrated justice for survivors of sexual abuse. But I don’t think this makes us a moral wasteland! And I’d rather be a citizen of Britain than of the Holy See. -Andrew Copson

The tide is turning against the Pope. When he isn’t protecting paedophile priests from the law he is fueling a third world AIDS epidemic. Or using the status of the Holy See to lobby against human rights. The public backlash against the pope should serve as a warning that people want justice to be done. This protest sends a clear message that allot of people do not approve of the Pope; and for good reason. So far the pope and his freakshow have gotten away with covering up paedophile activity but with the world increasingly becoming more secular these human rights abuses can’t continue forever.

Gillard wants prohibited debate.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants to talk about euthanasia, a topic that is banned from discussion under the Australian Government censorship regime.

Julia Gillard has opened the way for a fresh debate on legalising euthanasia after the Greens leader, Bob Brown, nominated it as one of his top priorities.

While three state parliaments wrestle with euthanasia legislation, the Prime Minister and Senator Brown are expected to discuss the Greens’ demand for the repeal of legislation preventing territory governments from legalising voluntary euthanasia. –Sydney Morning Herald

Dr Philip Nitschke founder of Exit International has had his book titled The Peaceful Pill Handbook added to the Australian Governments ‘secret’ blacklist. The book is available online here and because our internet is currently uncensored we can access it. However a quick check of the blacklist shows that the (un-)Australian Government is very much against it’s citizens having access to euthanasia material.

Part of the ACMA Blacklist; peacefulpillhandbook.com is highlighted in green.

If you want to check the list yourself you can find it on wikileaks.org. The Sydney Morning Herald article “Web filtering pulls plug on euthanasia debate” also documents the governments anti-discussion stance.

So why does our Prime Minister suddenly want to discuss euthanasia. Certainly this puts her at odds with government policy. Still it’s good to see that some progress is being made.

Hopefully this will highlight how incompatible censorship is with a democratic society. Not even the PM will bow to the will of the censors, ironically her own party.

Web filtering pulls plug on euthanasia debate

Catholic Cardinal spits the dummy.

In the UK a senior cardinal of the Catholic Church has spat the dummy and accused the BBC of being bias in favor of Atheists. Because the BBC gives more time to Richard Dawkins than it does to the Church.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, claims that a radically secular and socially liberal outlook is tainting the corporation’s news and current affairs output, which is “utterly lacking” in professionalism and balance.

Cardinal O’Brien said disproportionate airtime was given to atheists such as Richard Dawkins, while mainstream Christian views had been marginalised. He said he was alarmed by a reduction in religious programming on the BBC and its failure to appoint a religion editor to mirror similar roles for the arts, science and business. –The Australian

If the religious freak shows were more entertaining they might have better luck holding a crowd. It seems people in the UK are growing tired of the same old medieval bullshit that the Church has been repeating for hundreds of years. They want something fresh; like Richard Dawkins and Science.

The Catholic Church in particular has a long history of prejudice and it is nothing short of irony for them to spit the dummy when their inane rantings are now ignored by the mainstream media. These accusations of bias are unfounded since the BBC does give them airtime it’s just that they never come up with anything new If the BBC were to give them the same air time they give to science it would be endless reruns of unfounded bullshit, and that’s not what people want.

AVN in the shit again!

Well it didn’t take long….

Now that the spotlight is shining upon the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) as a result of the recent Health Care Complaints Comission (HCCC): Ruling people are now starting to pay closer attention to this anti-vaccine organisation. Publicity is generally a good thing unless you are doing something dishonest in which case publicity can quickly become your downfall.  The AVN is learning this lesson the hard way from the HCCC Ruling to the even more recent NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) investigation in which the OLGR has asked the AVN to justify it’s status as a charity.

THE Australian Vaccination Network Inc is being investigated after claims it engaged in unauthorised fundraising.

The Bangalow-based anti-vaccination group has three weeks to prove why its charity fundraising authority should not be revoked after an audit by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) found alleged breaches of legislation.

Possible breaches of the Charitable Trusts Act 1993 also have been referred to the Department of Justice and the Attorney-General. –Northern Rivers News

It seems the AVN just cannot stay out of trouble because now they have been caught for commercial copyright infringement. Special thanks to @fuzztwin on twitter for being so quick to share the storey.

An anti-vaccination group is under fire for allegedly breaching copyright laws by selling newspaper and medical journal articles online without permission from the authors.

The Australian Vaccination Network, which was the subject of a public warning issued by the Health Care Complaints Commission last month, withdrew 11 information packs from its website yesterday after complaints from authors. –Sydney Morning Herald

So that’s two government authorities and now Commercial Copyright Infringement. Looks like this is going to be a bad year for the Australian Vaccination Network. I believe their blatant copyright infringement will hit the hardest because it is not simply a mere violation but actually turning a profit by selling another persons work… that is a serious “don’t”.

I am sure somebody will go dirt digging to try and accuse me of being a hypocrite (my views on copyright) so I will clarify my position on copyright. I see no harm in the non-commercial infringement of copyright provided that attribution is applied where it is due and content is not deliberately taken out of it’s original context. However I do not agree with commercial infringement because there is no ethical justification for making a profit from someone else’s work without their permission. By all means information wants to be free and I believe it should be shared for the common good. Many authors and publishers allow such sharing, but no common good arises from commercial infringement. Particuarly when the infringer is a public health menace.

Australian Labor: stepping back to 1984

I think Labor’s proposed National Broadband Network is bullshit. Not because we don’t need faster broadband but because Labor is offering it as bait to try and win back the voters. Having seen how fast Highspeed Broadband in mainland China is I am happy to say ‘no thanks’ to Labor’s National Broadband Network. Because while a faster Internet may seem tempting the idea of being restricted to government approved sites and services via Internet Censorship makes it a pretty raw deal.

Yes, Australia needs faster Internet but I believe there are better ways to achieve it. One of the reasons Conroy wants the ability to censor at the ISP level is because content providers; including Australian Citizens and Businesses often place their websites on United States based servers in order to avoid take down notices from Australian Authorities.

I believe the key to upgrading our infrastructure is to encourage more companies to set-up their data centres over here and the only viable way to do this is to abolish the regime of censorship that our nanny-state of a country has embraced for so long. (We don’t even have R18 for games.) Nobody is going to place servers in Australia if they think there is even the slightest change of being ordered to shut it down. I am not talking about the proposed ISP level censor here but rather the existing censorship that comes from ACMA in the form of take-down notices and $11,000 per day fines. This type of censorship has been around for many years but fortunately the Internet has help liberate the Australian people by giving them a means to speak out. The Internet has given the people a voice and freedom of speech like never before and the Australian Labor party wishes to silence it by implementing mandatory service provider level censorship. This combined with the plan to monitor the Internet usage of all Australian Citizens is destroying our digital economy and moving us towards George Orwell‘s Nineteen Eighty Four.

Labor will chase any would be investors away with even more draconian Censorship. In order to move forward we need to become a safe haven for freedom of speech and freedom of information. That combined with our own investments into the infrastructure will provide an incentive for overseas and Australian companies to run servers in Australian data centres which ultimately means they will be investing in Australia’s communication infrastructure and economy.

Meryl cries witch-hunt and trial by media

Meryl Dorey of the anti-vaccination group “The Australian Vaccination Network” has broken her silence with fresh accusations against not just Skeptics, The Government and Stop AVN but she now accuses the media of inventing lies about her organisation. It seems Meryl just wants to fight everybody lately.

Newspapers and radio stations have been reporting ridiculous lies stating that the AVN believes in reptilian aliens and mind-control chips. They got this misinformation from Mr Ken McLeod, an active member of a group that has set out to either shut our small, volunteer-run organisation down or shut us up in any way they can. That is their agenda. What is the media’s excuse? –No Compulsory Vaccination

When you’ve been lying and bullshiting in public for as long as Meryl has the past is always going to catch up with you in one form or another. Especially when you earn yourself so much negative attention it always prompts people to look to the past. Meryl once posted the following message to a Yahoo group.

There will come a time – I pray to God that it will happen in my lifetime – when those who have pushed vaccines upon innocent, helpless babies – doctors, pharmaceutical companies, government officials – will be proven to have lied and cheated these instruments of death into our children’s bloodstream. When that occurs, the outcry will be heard around the world and there will not be enough hiding places on the globe for these murderers to hide or enough money to pay for compensation. Of course, it will be too late for the babies, like this poor child, to be saved. But we will be able to take satisfaction from the fact that never again will anyone have to be pushed to poison their child because for once and for all, it will be known as poison and we will all wonder how it was we fell for the vaccine lie for as long as we did. -Meryl Dorey, AVN Yahoo! Group, Tue 16 December 2008 9:08 pm Message #36449

Meryl really is that crazy and now the media are onto the trail and she is not happy. In her latest blog post Meryl also writes.

The AVN are vaccine whistleblowers and, like all organisations that are perceived to threaten an entrenched status quo, we are now being victimised by a group that openly states their object is to stop us in any way they can. Their tactics include death threats, threats of violence, calling our supporters to threaten them, filing complaints with every government body they can think of and generally inciting fear, hatred and violence towards us in the community – all with the support and cooperation of the government and the media. –No Compulsory Vaccination

To start with none of these claims are true except filing complaints with the authorities. The group she claims are threatening her go by the name “Stop the AVN” and they are making a good collaborative effort to monitor Meryl Doreys claims and blow the whistle when necessary. Interestingly Meryl who calls herself and the AVN both a “vaccine whistle blower” and a “Public Health Watchdog” has a problem with whistle blowers and watch-dogs whenever they aren’t serving her agenda.

This is the typical “Special Pleading” fallacy that we have come to expect from Meryl Dorey and the AVN. She may wish to question the efficacy of vaccinations; we are here to question the accuracy of her information.

Somebody Think of the Children!

I find it bizarre that the pro-filter mob have adopted the “Somebody Think of the Children” stance because in my opinion it should be the exact opposite. While I have no kids myself and would never want any in the first place. I do believe in protecting the rights and freedoms of the future generations. It seems appropriate to me that anyone who wants to protect children should be opposed to censorship in every way shape and form and be focused on upholding human rights, not suppressing them.

Surely any reasonable parent would want their child to grow up in a democratic society that upholds the freedom of speech and rejects totalitarian idealism that would see even the most fundamental human rights removed. We live in one of the greatest countries in the world and the freedoms we all take for granted only exist because of our modern democracy that allows the free exchange of ideas and information. The internet has played a primary role in enhancing our lives in recent decades not only because it gives us access to information but also because it allows us to contribute in return. The rise of the web 2.0 phenomena means that now everyone can contribute to the global conversation we call “The Internet” and only the most callous individuals would seek to silence it for there own ends.

Meryl Dorey and the AVN in the spotlight.

The Australian Vaccination Network is receiving plenty of negative publicity ever since the Health Care Complaints Commission issued this public warning.

by the Health Care Complaints Commission under section 94A of the Health Care Complaints Act 1993

The Health Care Complaints Commission has investigated two complaints about the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), a non-profit organisation registered in New South Wales that provides information about vaccination. The complaints alleged that the AVN provides incorrect and misleading information about vaccination. 

The Commission’s investigation of the complaints focussed on the material presented by the AVN on its website www.avn.org.au.

The Commission’s investigation established that the AVN website:

 

  • provides information that is solely anti-vaccination
  • contains information that is incorrect and misleading
  • quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.

On this basis, the Commission recommended to the AVN that it should include a statement in a prominent position on its website to the following effect:

 

  • The AVN’s purpose is to provide information against vaccination, in order to balance what it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere.
  • The information provided by the AVN should not be read as medical advice.
  • The decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.

The Commission recognises that it is important for there to be debate on the issue of vaccination. However, the AVN provides information that is inaccurate and misleading.

The AVN’s failure to include a notice on its website of the nature recommended by the Commission may result in members of the public making improperly informed decisions about whether or not to vaccinate, and therefore poses a risk to public health and safety.

–Health Care Complains Commission; NSW

Since this warning was issued the news has been rapidly spreading across the main stream media. I looks like everyone wants a piece of the AVN. These are the known news articles so far.

Anti-vaccination website poses public health risk – New Scientist

Warning issued about AVN – Northern Rivers News

Warning order for anti-vaccine website – Sydney Morning Herald

Anti-vaccination campaigners slapped with safety warning – ABC News

Vaccination network to be audited – Northern Rivers News

Vaccine fear campaign investigated – Sydney Morning Herald

Anti-vaccination group declared unsafe – News-Medical.net

AVN website to carry warning – Pharmacy News

Anti-vaccination group accused of harassing parents – ABC Lateline

Vaccination group needles opponents – ABC News

Vaccine campaign plea: parents who lost baby Dana stonewalled by government – Sydney Morning Herald

Still no warning on whooping cough – Sydney Morning Herald

Public warning against anti-vaccination website – Medical Observer

HCCC warns public on anti-vaccine group – IBTHealth

Steve Lieberman interviews Ken McLeod – 2UE

 

This list doesn’t even count the dozens of independent blogs covering this issue; they can be found here. Since the HCCC issued it’s warning it looks like the AVN’s reputation is sinking quickly. I look forward to seeing how much more negative publicity the AVN can generate for it’s self.