Dan's Journal of Skepticism

Vaccination is the equivalent of child rape. At least according to Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network. Just when it seems that the Anti-vaccination crowd couldn’t get more absurd. The AVN and it’s supporters appear to excel in all area’s of stupidity.

A MOTHER has been ordered by the Family Court to have her five-year-old daughter immunised.

The girl’s father, who has remarried and has another child, wanted the girl vaccinated against preventable diseases for her own wellbeing, and for the health of his other children.

But the girl’s mother said her daughter was healthy and the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases was very small.

The couple separated before their daughter was born, and the father initially consented to her not being immunised because, he claims, he was desperate to establish a relationship with his daughter. But the father now wants her vaccinated and produced medical evidence that immunisation provided no unacceptable risks for his daughter. –Herald Sun

It’s a good thing the father of this child took the mother to court to get this resolved. It can’t have been easy but at least it is one more life that may now be protected from preventable disease. Parents who refuse to protect their children from disease are unfit to raise kids. It’s ashame the father wasn’t awarded full custody, one step at a time I guess.

Calling all Skeptics. We know that Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network likes to ignore government authorities and likes to claim that she is beyond their jurisdiction. With the recent Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing decision to revoke the AVN’s charity status, forbidding them from collecting donations coming into effect tomorrow (20th). The AVN will not legally be allowed to collect donations from members of the public from tomorrow onwards.

I propose that we keep a close watch on the AVN and if they do not remove their donations page tomorrow we should all send in donations and then immediately report the AVN to the OLGR for unlawful collection of donations. You can email the OLGR here: charity.inquiries@olgr.nsw.gov.au

It’s time to put this watchdog to sleep.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.