The AVN shoots themselves in the foot.
There has been extensive coverage of the HCCC public warning issued following the AVNs refusal to post a disclaimer on their website.
One wonders if Meryl Dorey would have saved herself a lot of bad publicity had she just quietly posted the disclaimer as requested. As it turns out, there have now been two waves of bad publicity for the AVN. The first, after the HCCC report was released some two weeks ago and now the second wave with the refusal to post the disclaimer.
It seems the tide has definitely turned in the media with respect to the AVN. Previously the majority of the reporting was staunchly about “balance” never referring to the AVN as anti-vax and generally giving Meryl a pretty easy ride when it came to her avoiding the question of “you say you’re not anti-vax but which vaccines do you recommend?”.
And if you don’t believe me, listen to Steve Liebermann – who reckons the AVN should be shut down – tear shreds off the AVN on radio 2UE.
In the extensive coverage of the last few weeks, there has only been one example of television that I have seen the term “balanced” used and that was on the frothy morning show Sunrise (not known for hard hitting journalism). This morning the show interviewed both Meryl Dorey and Prof. Booy, who had both previously appeared on Radio ABC 702 Sydney. Even when Meryl got a pretty easy ride from the interviewer, there was no misunderstanding about the agenda of the AVN, as Prof Booy made it abundantly clear by referring to the AVN at least twice as the Anti-Vaccination Network.
You can watch the full story here.
And whilst there was a follow up story in today’s SMH, (following yesterdays front page criticism), interviewing Dorey and detailing her reasons for starting on her anti-vax crusade, it was juxtaposed with a series of rather loopy quotes from Dorey. In a column entitled “Dorey on vaccines” four quotations were published. Although they’re certainly not the most loopy I have seen from Meryl, they nonetheless do not make her look particularly “balanced” and “pro-information” (as she is still feebly clinging to BTW).
“I don’t see that the measles vaccine has done anything for Australia”
“Make no mistakes folks, this measles “outbreak” has been orchestrated for one reason and one reason only – to force the issue of compulsory vaccination.”
More conspiracy nonsense from Meryl, directly contradicting one of my favourite quotes from her;
“…we are already seen as rabid, idiotic fringe dwellers by so many in the mainstream, it does our cause no good at all to bring in conspiracy theories, which though we may subscribe to them, are unprovable.”
Thanks to the hard work of Steve Cannane who kicked this campaign off with the awesome report on Lateline some 2 weeks ago, the tone has been set in the media. Steve did a follow up story last night, this time covering the government’s seemingly disinterest in instigating the vaccination education campaign they have been promising for what seems like an eternity.
In the meantime the McCafferys (who have been extremely brave and stoic throughout this entire nightmare) have contributed to a website in collaboration with Professor Booy called Chain of Protection
Meanwhile Meryl continues unabated. She continues to bleat they are not anti-vax, that the HCCC does not have jurisdiction over them, that she is seeking legal advice etc etc. It’s like a broken record.
Pro-tip Meryl, saying it over and over again will not make it right. And because you arrogantly refused to put up the disclaimer, many more people now know just that.
Below is some of the coverage I have collected from the past few days. If you come across anything else, please leave a comment and I’ll add it here.
SMH Anti-vaccine Group a Threat
SMH Parents who lost baby stonewalled
SMH Still No Warning on Whooping Cough
The Medical News Anti-vaccination Group Declared Unsafe
Northern Star Warning Issued About AVN
ABC News Vaccine Group Needles Opponents
Anti-Vaccination Campaigners Slapped with Warning
New Scientist Anti-Vaccination Website Poses a Risk
International Business Times HCCC Warns Public on Anti-Vaccine Group
Medical Observer Public Warning Against Anti-Vaccination Website
2UE Steve Lieberman interviews Ken McLeod
AVN a risk to public health and safety – HCCC warning
The HCCC issued a press release earlier today, describing the AVN as a risk to public health and safety and warning the public that they provide information that is inaccurate and misleading.
The public statement was issued after a fortnight’s grace during which time the AVN were instructed to issue a disclaimer on their website stating that;
- • 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 public warning follows a 12 month investigation into the AVN after 2 complaints were received.
The Commission’s investigation of the complaints focussed on the material presented by the AVN on its website www.avn.org.au. The Commission 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.
The AVN was given 2 weeks to post the disclaimer in a prominent position on their website. When the deadline passed, the HCCC was forced to issue the public statement.
Meryl Dorey, media spokesperson and immediate past president of the AVN responded by repeating she does not believe the HCCC has jurisdiction over the AVN and she is seeking legal advice in this regard. (She has been “seeking legal advice” about this matter for what seems like the duration of the investigation).
In a blog post entitled “AVN vigorously opposses HCCC notice” Meryl (who refers to the AVN as a “consumer advocacy and vaccine safety watchdog group”), states:
“Three times since this investigation started last September, the AVN has provided the HCCC with information on their lack of jurisdiction. Each time, this information has been ignored.”
“The HCCC states that our information is misleading because we do not include data on the benefits of vaccination,…..nobody would expect……those who argue against fluoridation of the water supply to write reports about the benefits of mass medication without individual consent.”
So apparently fluoride in drinking water is “mass medication” now?
But it gets even more hilarious.
- “The AVN is currently in discussions with our legal advisors….. to defend against the unsubstantiated allegations that our information is anything but complete, unbiased and fully-referenced from the medical literature.” (emphasis mine).
Unbiased and fully-referenced? Meryl, surely you jest. Even you have admitted you don’t tell both sides of the story. And as for fully referenced? Well the HCCC had something to say about that too.
Fully referenced also might not mean what you think it means Meryl. For example, copying and pasting incorrectly attributed references from whale.to is not considered “fully referenced”.
Meanwhile Meryl is still screeching “free speech” and “democracy”. A comment left on her blog offered a much more sinister reason for the HCCC “witch hunt”.
Tracy says:
July 25, 2010 at 11:51
Doctors are hired assassins for the pharmaceutical companies and the government. Paid to kill and injure … method of death and grievous bodily harm … vaccinations. I tell you, there is something very sinister going on that they are going to such extraordinary lengths to silence the truth!
Hold on to your tin foil hats people!
Not only do the Australian public now know the true nature of the AVN’s agenda, Meryl appears to have got herself in some hot water over scanning and posting a pro-vaccine magazine article on her blog. The article, published in Cosmos Magazine, got her ire when she was apparently misquoted after declining to be interviewed. The publishers are now seeking legal advice about the breach of copyright and will be taking action to have the article removed.
And in another schemozzle, Meryl appears to have passed on the email list from her subscriber base to a third party, which breaches email privacy laws in Australia. Although in a blog post published today she denies this is the case.
This came about with the distribution of a media release from the International Medical Council on Vaccination, announcing their support for the AVN and “condemning the attempts of an Australian Government body to censor and suppress their work.” It was signed by well known anti-vaxers Sherri Tenpenny, VacTruth, Moms Against Mercury, and even Judy Wilyman, amongst others.
AVN readers have already begun to write to the HCCC complaining about the findings. One suggested:
- “The HCCC’s purpose is to provide misleading information about the importance and efficacy of vaccination, in order to perpetuate the substantial amount of one-sided, pro-vaccination information available everywhere.”
Or perhaps the science tells us that the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks? There’s no debate about that.
Meryl gives me a shout out on Howard Sattler 6PR!
I got a heads up to Meryl being on the Howard Sattler show on Radio 6PR Perth today.
Meryl is in town for her second anti-vaccination seminar at the WA State Library. I tweeted it so everyone else could experience the joy of Meryl’s inaccurate and misleading information about vaccines (share the love and all that).
My tweet was seen by someone on Howard Sattler’s show and Howard asked Meryl if she knew of a “Dr Rachael Dunlop” who has been tweeting that she was on. Meryl said she did know of me and I was “not a medical doctor”.
Well no, I’m not and I’ve never said I was Meryl. My qualifications are not hard to find.
Which leads me to enquire, what kind of doctor are you Meryl?
*crickets*
You can hear the full audio here.
It includes the same nonsense we have come to expect from “Australia’s leading expert on vaccination” including the corker that vaccines are not sugar water, then applauding a parent for choosing sugar water (ie homeopathy) to vaccinate their kids.
Meryl, you keep bleating about “freedom of speech” and “democracy” but when people’s health is at risk these things do not apply. What if I want to exercise my right to free speech by yelling “BOMB!” on a plane? Well I can’t (and I wouldn’t) because it potentially puts people’s lives at risk. Same goes for yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded cinema when there is not one. Laws exist in our society for the safety of the masses and this includes HCCC rulings about what constitutes medical advice.
The HCCC has ruled against you Meryl. This doesn’t mean you can’t spout your opinions – you just have to make everybody aware they are opinions and should not be construed as medical advice. And hey, if you want that to change enrol in uni, do a post-grad medicine course. With 20 years of research behind you already it should be a doddle.
Cosmetics companies – they make shit up
I showed this video during my science based medicine workshop at TAM8, Las Vegas. Many people asked me for a copy, so here ’tis!
Credit goes to Choice Australia who put this together for their Shonky Awards, an annual event that recognises Australia’s dodgiest products. You can see the full list here.
The AVN’s reputation is in tatters.
“I think it’s actually the wrong name; it shouldn’t be the Australian Vaccine network, it should be the anti-Australian vaccine network”, Radio Host 2UE radio, Sydney Australia.
Initially I was somewhat disappointed to learn the ruling from the HCCC was no more than a requirement to post a disclaimer on the AVN website, but as the news has spread, I am somewhat buoyed by what has been happening.
The HCCC ruling states that the AVN has 14 days to post a disclaimer clearly stating their website is anti-vaccine and that any information on the website should not be construed as medical advice.
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For more detailed information go here and here.
The McCafferys have posted a media release here where you can also find a statement from Ken McLeod who submitted the original complaint.
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Seems like a slap on the wrist right? At first yes, but since the story has spread across the webosphere, an unexpected result has emerged and one that makes me very pleased indeed. (I even happy-danced with @skepticzone in Las Vegas airport yesterday, apologies if you had to witness it).
Everywhere across the media, the AVN are now being referred to as anti-vaccine. Australia’s anti-vaccine organisation, the anti-vaccination network, and asked repeatedly why they are anti-vaccine. Regular readers of this blog will shrug and say, yeah we already knew they were anti-vaccine Maggie, so what? But what you may not know is that many people, especially vulnerable non-science educated parents and the media did not.
Like the majority of anti-vaccine groups, the AVN have gone to great lengths to conceal their true beliefs from the public and especially the media – and the reasons why are obvious. Their rhetoric generally consists of “we are pro-choice”, “we want to empower parents to make a decision by providing both sides of the story”, “we provide a balance”, “we are pro-information, blah blah informed choice” etc. You know the drill.
And although it has been blindingly obvious to anyone who knows how to use teh internets, for many busy producers, journalists and the like, the AVN has been their first port of call for “balance” (or rather false balance) simply because they didn’t know any better. Well, never fear dear readers, things they are a-changing.
Even before the HCCC fallout, Meryl appeared to be concerned about the public perception of the AVN. In July 2009 (Yahoo! Group message # 44295) she wrote;
“….While we are already seen as rabid, idiotic fringe-dwellers by so many in the mainstream, it does our argument no good at all to bring in conspiracy theories which, though we may subscribe to them, are unprovable…”
But as they say, the truth eventually comes out and it seems the game is up for Meryl “I’m pro-choice” Dorey. Even the normally sympathetic morning television host Kerry Anne Kennelly, whose show consists largely of light entertainment and info–mercials, apparently asked Meryl twice why she was anti-vaccine.
In an email sent to her Yahoo Group, Meryl described how she had initially refused to appear on the show, eventually relenting under the condition that she was given 6 minutes to discuss the HCCC findings and that she was to have the questions ahead of time.
(Coincidentally the website 6minutes were the first to break the news of the HCCC report and wrote a less than flattering piece about the AVN).
But according to her email the questions were changed;
“Turns out not one of the questions they read to me last night was actually asked and kerri anne asked me twice why we were anti-vaccine!”
Why the exclamation mark Meryl? I’ve mentioned this before, but remember when you appeared on radio to defend your Australian Skeptics Bent Spoon Award?
Interviewer: “Which vaccines do you think are good then in Aust..?
.Meryl: “I think that all vaccines are up to the parents and…”
.Interviewer: “That wasn’t what I asked though was it. Which vaccines are good? This was the point I think the Skeptics were making is that you’ve never actually said, which vaccine is worthwhile, which scientific designed vaccine is good, worthwhile.
.Meryl: “It is not, it is not my role, nor is it the role of the Australian Vaccination Network to tell anyone what to they should or should not do when it comes to vaccination…”
Blah blah blah, rhetoric, rhetoric, deflecting the question. (You can hear the full audio here).
But c’mon, I’m just being a big meany. And afterall this is only one example. And as a scientist I require repeatable results. Oh wait a sec..
In an email sent to the AVN Yahoo! Group on Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:08 pm Message #36449 Meryl wrote:
“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”.
Does that sound like a pro-choice message to you?
Or how about this one? The t-shirts they sell on their website say;
“Love them, protect them, never inject them”.
And another; Yahoo! Group message #44295 sent Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:24 pm
“This is a sort-of off-topic question. I would like to donate to the efforts to help in Haiti but I don’t want ANY of my money going towards vaccines so that red cross and Unicef are out. Does anyone know of an organisation doing work on the ground there helping without vaccines?”
(Thanks to Scott Lewis and Podblack for alerting me to this one)
From a quick perusal of the blogosphere parents and babies’ blogs are also starting to cotton on. Mia Freedman who blogs at Mamamia, writing “A website of deception” described her reaction as she watched the Lateline story;
“I watched the report with tears in my eyes and my jaw dropped somewhere near the floor. Tears for the McCaffery family whose baby Dana died of whooping cough at only 32 days, and dropped jaw for the extraordinary cruelty and misleading dogmatism of the Australian Vaccination Network.”
Since then the story has been lodged with news aggregator AAP, meaning it will soon be distributed even further. And so far, every story I have seen refers to the AVN as antivax. Here are just a few of the headlines I have collected:
Anti-vaccine group rapped for false information
.
Anti-vaccine group accused of harassing parents
.
Top doctor backs disclaimer for anti-vaccination site
.
Warning order for anti-vaccine website
So not only are parents finding out that the AVN has not been completely truthful about their agenda, they also harassed the parents of a 4 week old baby who died from complications associated with a vaccine preventable disease.
Pro-tip: this is unlikely to endear you to parents Meryl. Just saying’.
If you haven’t seen the Lateline piece, DOET NOAW. It is a thoroughly researched and sensitively compiled piece by award winning journalist Steve Cannane (insert fan-girl squeeing here).
In addition, Meryl was totally pwned on radio 2UE where she was asked repeatedly why she was anti-vaccine and tried to avoid the question by saying the AVN does not tell parents what to do, but simply offer the “other side of the story”.
Interviewer: “Are you medically qualified Meryl?” “What on earth gives you any sort of qualification to make any informed comment on this at all..”
.Meryl Dorey: “20 years of research”
.Interviewer: “Well, 20 years of research? Well big deal, give me a break, please.”
.“You’d know a guy called Andrew Wakefield? Do you guys still support him?…..he was struck off the UK medical register…”
.“What qualifications do you have to disagree with the HCCC here in Australia and the UK medical registry? All of a sudden what you are saying is far superior that what these two credible worldwide organisations are?”
Man, it is refreshing to see the credulity gone from the media with respect to the AVN. Only a few months ago, they were unquestionably called upon to offer the “other side of the story” (in other words, false balance) to the vaccine “debate” (there is no debate – the risks from contracting a disease far outweigh the risks of having an adverse reaction to a vaccine).
But, I gotta hand it to Meryl, she is nothing if not consistent. That is, consistently wrong and consistently dogmatic. She continues to wheel out the canards like the incidence of communicable diseases fell before vaccines were introduced, whooping cough notifications are at their highest levels despite equally high levels of vaccination, Big Pharma Shill, conspiracy, vendetta, septics, etc…
*Boom*
That was the sound of Meryl’s head asploding. And the AVN’s house of cards crashing down.
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Congrats to Ken McLeod for compiling the HCCC complaint and to everyone who submitted supporting material along the way and to the HCCC for carefully considering and responsibly ruling on the complaint. To Stop the AVN for all their hard work, all the other bloggers and tweeters who have constantly kept the pressure on, and to Steve Cannane for the brilliant story on Lateline.
Lets keep slamming that oyster shut. One day it might get permanently jammed.
Lateline report on damning HCCC findings
Thank you Steve Cannane.
AVN slammed for misleading, false and anti-vaccine information
After a lengthy investigation the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) have finally handed down their findings into the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).
The commission concluded that the AVN provide misleading information about vaccination and must post disclaimers on their website clearly stating they are anti-vaccination.
The report found evidence that the AVN misleads readers by using reliable and peer reviewed literature but selectively quotes from it, often in contradiction to the conclusions or findings of the studies. The AVN also gives non-peer reviewed and anecdotal material the same authority as peer-reviewed literature.
Ms Dorey responded to these accusations by saying:
“It is true that often times our information will contradict the conclusions of studies. This is because, as opposed to most doctors and government officials, we actually read the studies…that disconnect (between the data and conclusions) can be explained by the financial links between the study’s researchers and the companies whose products are being studied…This is not selective reporting, it is accurate reporting.”
Wow, talk about a disconnect. Firstly, it’s the old Big Pharma conspiracy theory again. When you got no evidence to support your claims, its time to roll out the Big Pharma Shill canard. *Yawn*
But this is interesting – she claims to have actually read the studies? This was not the impression Todd Sidwell gleaned when he analysed one of Meryl’s responses to the HCCC a few months back. Unless she intended to copy/paste mistakes, which were traced back to whale.to and other anti-vax conspiracy websites.
From Tom’s article: “At best she hasn’t read the papers she cites and includes them out of ignorance, and at worst she is being deliberately deceptive – and I spelled this out very clearly in the analyses I sent to the HCCC.”
See The Truth Behind the AVN Claims for the full details
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The complaint, authored by Ken McLeod, included accusations such as:
• The AVN claims to support “informed choice” but only provides information designed to dissuade people from vaccinating
• State on their website that there are links between vaccination, autism, Crohn’s disease irritable bowel syndrome and shaken baby syndrome
• Cherry picking data to suggest that Gardasil has killed young women
• Bacterial meningitis has increased since the introduction of the meningococcal vaccines
• Autism is caused by mercury in vaccines
• Vaccination is unnecessary since homeopathy can be just as effective
• Misrepresenting the facts surrounding the death of Dana McCaffery and harrassing her parents
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The AVN are considered Health Care providers under the public health act
This case was somewhat of a test for the HCCC, since it was not immediately clear if the AVN even fell under the HCCC legislation. Initially the Commisssion had to establish if the AVN could be classified as “health care providers”.
Mrs Dorey had this to say;
“The complaint alleges that both the AVN and myself are “health service providers” because we are providing “health education services to the public” for the purposes of the health care complaints act 1993…Neither the AVN or Meryl Dorey are health care practitioners as the term is generally understood colloquially or have we ever claimed to be.”
Yet the commission disagreed with this, noting “the provision of health education was evident” on their website and also “Mrs Dorey participating in pregnancy discussion groups and in lecturing at universities” did indeed constitute health education.
Even more embarrassing for Dorey was her own constitution which stated the purposes of the AVN were “the advancement and promotion of education and learning amongst the public”.
Plus, the legislation is quite clear about the definition of a health care educators/provider, nothing “colloquial” about it. Yet, despite the Commission findings and the fact that she lectures at uni, Dorey still denies they are considered health educators. From the Lateline report;
“We do not agree that the HCCC has jurisdiction over us and we have been saying this from the very beginning and we are seeking legal advice over this issue.”
She now claims to be seeking legal advice on this caveat, despite the fact that she has already had 12 months to do so? Odd.
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The Commission focussed cheifly on the issues raised by Mr McLeod and Mr and Mrs McCaffery in relation to the AVN website. Here they examined the post “10 reasons why parents question vaccination” which consists of such statements as “vaccines have never been tested”, “vaccines contain toxic additives and heavy metals” and “vaccines do not necessarily protect against infectious diseases”. They asked Mrs Dorey to provide evidence for these claims.
The Commission analysed references provided by Mrs Dorey and noted many were not relevant to her claims, she was guilty of cherry picking or omitting data to support her claims and other information was demonstrably false.
Of note is her citation of an article about Gardasil from Natural News. com – yes that guy – where she omitted paragraphs to reinforce the claim that the vaccine had been linked to deaths in young women.
On other vaccines the report stated; “The AVN has selectively quoted information to suggest vaccination against meningococcal disease has been ineffective when there is no evidence of this”.
And “The AVN claims that vaccination is linked with a range of long term side effects however has provided no evidence to support this”. (My emphasis)
The AVN is anti-vax and must declare this on their website
The Commission has recommended that The Australian Vaccination Network include an appropriate statement in a prominent position on its website which states;
1. The Australian Vaccination Network’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
2. The information provided should not be read as medical advice
3. The decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider
If the AVN fails to comply the commission will issue a public statement. Of course we had hoped the HCCC could have done more to limit the dissemination of false information by the AVN, but at least the resulting media coverage will shine some light on the true nature of the AVN.
Surprisingly, in her own response to the Commission, Meryl Dorey in fact admitted to being anti-vaccination, stating there is a need to provide an alternative to mainstream vaccination information.
According to the final report:
“In her response to the commission Ms Dorey conceded that provides anti-vaccination information. Ms Dorey stated there is a need to provide information about vaccination, alternative to that disseminated by the government.”
No longer can Ms Dorey hide behind “we are not anti-vax we are pro choice” which has always been her public persona.
Meryl has already issued a press release stating that the report constitutes an “outrageous attack”; “the threat to freedom of speech and the implications regarding loss of medical choice inherent in this decision make this an issue that cannot go unchallenged”. Interestingly, all references to skeptics with a capital “S” (thereby inferring Australian Skeptics) have been removed and replaced with Stop the AVN and their supporters.
The story has also been reported on 6 minutes here which contains a link to the full article as a pdf.
There is already a comment from Age of Autism UK editor John Stone, the same website who recently referred to the action as “fascist“.
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UPDATE #1
Apologies for any errors in the initial post, I am currently at TAM8, and am suffering from severe sleep deprivation! Plus, the post was written between the hours of 2 am and 5 am Las Vegas time (yawn).
Since then, I have had 4 hrs sleep and made some changes, plus others have now blogged the story.
See the story on YouTube
Podblack has a report here
ABC news has a related story here
Orac chimes in
Adelaide Now
Northern Star
Mia Freedman’s Mamamia
Immunisation – getting the right advice audio on 2UE
The World Today Top doctor backs disclaimer for anti-vaccination site
AAP story from Danny Rose
A win for science, scepticism and common sense in the House of Commons
What has become of UK politics?
A few weeks back on the Think Tank we heard the story of David Tredinnick, the UK Conservative MP who spent 700 quid of taxpayers money on astrology software. It turns out he believes in all kinds of woo, including such tosh as, depending on the phase of the moon, “surgeons will not operate because blood clotting is not effective and the police have to put more people on the street”. He is also a big fan of homeopathy, and in response to the recent Committee on Science and Technology evidence checks findings about homeopathy, he submitted four early day motions (EDMs) to the House of Commons for consideration.
For those non UK readers, EDMs are motions tabled by Members of Parliament for debate “on an early day” (namely an unspecific date in the future). EDMs cover all manner of subjects that the MP thinks parliament should be made aware of and possibly debate. They can address serious matters such as climate change, or trivial events such as the Pidgeon Bombs EDM which was tabled in the 2003–04 session of the UK Parliament. This EDM concerned itself with a disclosure by MI5 that it had proposed using pigeons as flying bombs World War II. According to Wikipedia, the motion condemned the proposal, describing humans as “obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal”, and proposed that the House “looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the Earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again”. (I realise this is Wikipedia but I sincerely hope this is true).
EDMs remain open for signature for the duration of the parliamentary session but are rarely ever signed by all 400 MPs and few make it to the floor for debate.
Despite the recent evidence check and the damning findings that the National Health Service should cease funding homeopathy, no further clinical trials of homeopathy should be conducted, evidence shows homeopathy doesn’t work, explanations for why homeopathy works are “scientifically implausible”, David Tedinnick was just busting to share some “new information” about homeopathy! So he tabled four EDMs, one citing “new research” concerning homeopathy as a effective treatment for breast cancer (which came out prior to the evidence check BTW) (EDM285), for depression (EDM286) and also insomnia (EDM287). Tredinnick also objected to the British medical association’s recent public statements that homeopathy is witch craft and calling for no further commissioning of, nor funding for, homeopathic remedies in the NHS (EDM284).
He cited published peer reviewed studies as evidence for his claims. One of them I happen to know very well, since I spent the better part of a Saturday back in February debunking the entire paper. The reason I did this was because Richard Saunders had received an e-alert from Homeopathy Plus! With a headline screaming “Homeopathy as good as chemotherapy for breast cancer and non-toxic!”. Which is a pretty extraordinary claim for some magic water. And also likely to be complete bollocks (I won’t keep you in suspense – it is).
EDM285 is reproduced below.
That this House welcomes the study published in the International Journal of Oncology, 2010 Feb; 36(2): 395-403 which revealed that homeopathic remedies have a beneficial effect on breast cancer cells; notes that researchers at the University of Texas conducted an in vitro study to determine whether products prescribed by a clinic in India have any effect on breast cancer cell lines; further notes that the researchers studied four ultra-diluted remedies, carcinosin, phytolacca, conium and thuja against two human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 and a cell line derived from immortalized normal human mammary epithelial cells, HMLE; observes that the remedies exerted preferential cytotoxic effects against the two breast cancer cell lines, causing cell cycle delay/arrest and apoptosis; believes that the findings demonstrate biological activity of these natural products when presented at ultra-diluted doses; and calls for further research in this important area.
Yeah, I guess Tredinnick, like Homeopathy Plus either didn’t read the entire paper or doesn’t understand how to interpret the scientific literature cause this aint what I gleaned from the paper.
So the Twitterverse was mobilised to gather rebuttals to these 3 papers. Once Dr Evan Harris had my blog and Orac’s from Science Blogs in his sticky fingers, Dr Julian Huppert got straight onto composing a rebuttal. And it is a joy to read.
So let’s see what became of EDM 285 once it Harris and Huppert had gone to town on it.
EDM285A1 now reads like this:
Line 2, leave out from `403′ to end and insert `as an example of the failure of adequate scientific peer review because the paper provides no statistical analysis to support any conclusion, indicates that the experimental control, 87 per cent. alcohol solution, was itself toxic to the cell cultures, does not illustrate or explain the different chromatographic profiles of the solvent and the test substances, and does not provide sufficient data to allow proper evaluation of the study; notes that the lead author has retired and runs a homeopathy website which falsely claims that homeopathy is as effective as a conventional chemotherapy agent, Taxol, in treating breast cancer; further notes that one of the authors, Alison Pawlus, has publicly disowned the paper; regrets that isolated poor-quality studies are cited by proponents of homeopathy to endorse dangerous and exploitative cancer-curing claims in the face of overwhelming weight of scientific evidence against them; and agrees with the conclusions of the Science and Technology Select Committee’s Fourth Report of Session 2009-10, Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy HC45 that putting patients through pointless further clinical trials, and the spending of scarce public sector funds on research into homeopathy cannot be justified.’.
The comment about Alison Pawlus, listed as an author on the study publicly disowning the paper is derived from a comment she left on my blog where she stated;
“As an unintentioned co-author on this study, I feel obligated to respond….”
Alison went onto say “…I asked to not be included because I did not think it was a sound study…”
And
“I believe this study demonstrated changes in alcohol percentages on cells rather than the efficacy of homeopathic medicine.”
The amendments to the EDMs constitute a marvellous result and are testament to the dedication of Dr Evan Harris and Dr Julian Huppert. The fact that this message got out so quickly is also a credit to the power of the blogosphere and twitterverse. In fact, this was how I originally got my hands on the full text of this article, by tweeting for someone to source it for me. Thanks @xtaldave!
But David Tedinnick is not the only one who has jumped to conclusions about the findings of this paper. I already mentioned Homeopathy Plus! making a giant leap in logic from “cells treated in culture” to “homeopathy is better than chemo for cancer.” Many others have picked up this meme and run with it, despite the fact that not even the paper itself makes this claim.
The only reference to a common cancer drug appears buried in the discussion and states, “Interestingly, the cytotoxic effect of two of the remedies investigated in this study, Carcinosinand Phytolacca, appeared similar to the activity of 0.12 ?M paclitaxel (Taxol), the most commonly used chemotherapeutic drug for breast cancer, when it was tested in the two adenocarcinoma cell lines investigated in this study in parallel experiments (data not shown)”.
I repeat, DATA NOT SHOWN. Interesting that homeopathy sympathisers can go from this, to homeopathy can cure cancer. But then facts, evidence and science never really did interest them much. As for David Tredinnick, well it seems he is not much interetsed either, as revealed in a debate between him and Dr Simon Singh BBC Radio 4. You can listen to the audio here.
You can also read two great stories about the loonie beliefs of David Tredinnick from The Guardian by Nature’s @AdamRutherford here and The Lay Scientist’s @mjrobbins here.
The entire exercise was summed up by tweeter @paulNUK2010 who relected; “How to get your scientific papers peer reviewed by experts in the field – get David Tredinnick to cite them in an EDM #homeopathyEDMs”.
So very true.
As I said in my original blog post, the journal that published this tosh has an impact factor of 2.234 but a fail factor of 10^23.
Sadly, these amendments do not mean the loonie EDMs have been thrown out. We still need MPs to show their support by signing the amended versions.
If you live in the UK, please write to your MP here. You will find a form letter to use for a guide here.
What’s the harm in homeopathy?
A coronial inquest into the death of a woman from untreated bowel cancer has begun in Perth, WA.
Sadly, this is not the first time I have reported on deaths associated with the use of homeopathy. Recently there was the case of the untreated eczema death of toddler Gloria Sam, for which her parents were convicted of manslaughter.
Penelope Dingle died in 2005 from untreated bowel cancer aged 45 after being diagnosed in 2003. She first presented with bleeding from the bowel in 2001. Following a colonoscopy, she was advised by doctors to have surgery to remove the cancer. She declined conventional cancer treatment, instead deciding on following a regimen of alternative treatments including special diets, vitamins and homeopathy.
Her husband is Dr Peter Dingle, a prominent Professor of Environmental Toxicology at Murdoch University in Perth and a media personality and author. Modelling himself as a kind of Aussie Joseph Mercola, he has a flashy website and has written such titles as “Is your home making you sick?”, “Improve your memory, your thinking and your life” and “The six week healthy eating planner”, the latter co-written with a naturopath (read: not a doctor).
The inquest was conducted at the request of the family following Mrs Dingle’s death in 2005. According to evidence given at the inquest from friends of Mrs Dingle and from her diaries, she and her husband made a pact with homeopath Francine Scrayen to not take any conventional treatment including pain relief. Dr Dingle also planned to write a book about how to cure cancer with homeopathy and alternative treatments once his wife was cured. A friend of the couple testified they were “enthralled and entrapped” in the spell of Ms Scrayen.
A report from the West Australian newspaper described;
“….Pen had so much faith in Francine. She was totally in her control”.
The friend described how Mrs Dingle has called the homeopath “at least a dozen times a day” and would only consume homeopathic medicines prescribed by her.
She came to visit Mrs Dingle in 2003, and was shocked to see how emaciated she was, since she had been assured by the couple that Mrs Dingle was responding well to the treatment. When the friend spoke to the homeopath, who consulted exclusively by phone, her concerns were dismissed, with the homeopath saying Mrs Dingle’s pain “was in her head” and she merely had constipation. She would not allow Mrs Dingle to take any other forms of medicine.
The friend also described how Mrs Dingle moaned in pain every night she was there, and even a visiting nurse who rated her pain nine on scale of ten was unable to convince her to take pain relief. Eventually she did succumb, receiving morphine in hospital and emergency surgery. This was only after she was advised by doctors that she would vomit feacal matter and die an excrutiatingly painful death within 24 hrs if she did not. Her bowel was completely obstructed by the tumour at this stage and she had not had a movement for 12 days.
It was too late for Mrs Dingle by this stage as the cancer has metastasized after such a long period of neglect and she died in 2005.
The question now is will the homeopath be held accountable for contributing to the death? I am not familiar with the legislation in WA, but in NSW it is illegal to claim to be able to cure incurable diseases, in accordance with the Code of Conduct for Unregistered Practitioners, legislated by the HCCC. But technically, homeopaths are actually not unregistered practitioners since they do have a regulatory body, the Australian Homeopathic Association which has a code of conduct of their own.
It seems you don’t need to dig very deep to see where Mrs Scrayen has breached the code (mind you on looking through it, it is not particularly specific about harm or seeking conventional medical advice when necessary).
Section 1, part 1 under general principles of professional conduct, states that:
“the welfare of patients…..shall take precedence over a member’s self interest and the interests of employees and colleagues.”
Section 2, part 2 also states:
“Members shall not …cause undue harm to patients.”
The only other section that is relevant in this case is Section 2.4:
“Patients whose state of health is deteriorating shall not be attended indefinitely without the member in charge suggesting or insisting upon a consultation with at least one other practitioner to confirm the assessment and treatment.”
But by stating “at least one other practitioner” does suggest another homeopath, not like a proper doctor or anything, you know the ones who are qualified to treat cancer for example.
The HCCC Code of Conduct is not so ambiguous. Section 5 states:
“Health practitioners not claim to make claims to cure certain serious illnesses. (1) a health practitioner must not hold him or herself out as qualified, able or willing to cure cancer and other terminal illnesses.”
Now I don’t know if the homeopath claimed she could cure Mrs Dingle’s cancer – this information has not been revealed as far as I know. It might be the case that the couple made the decision to only use homeopathy and not conventional medicine. But even of this is true, the homeopath did apparently forbid Mrs Dingle from using conventional pain relief and surely this breaches either code of conduct for responsible behaviour.
We will wait and see. In the meantime, this is yet another sad case to add to the hundreds on the What’s the Harm website. It makes you wonder what exactly motivates people to shun science based medicine, and especially in this case, where the alternative was just water and the desire to pursue this line of treatment even after it became obvious the magic vibrating water was not helping.
Add to this, the fact that Dr Dingle has a PhD? None of it makes sense.
The AVN WA library lecture becomes a political bun fight where kids are the losers
Last night the State Library of Western Australia hosted the AVN on their premises, for the purposes of spreading bountiful misinformation about vaccines.
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Dear Margaret Allen, If you do read this, please follow this link to see the nature of the AVN’s material. As a librarian of experience, I expect you have researched this group prior to agreeing to host them. If not, and I understand you are very busy, then it might be of interest.
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Well done to Margaret Allen, CEO of the library, who was apparently responsible for this lapse in judgement and now has the dubious honour of putting the health of WA children at further risk. I hope she is pleased with her decision to host a “controversial” group that is the AVN.
Message to Margaret Allen: there is nothing “controversial” about vaccines, except that which exists in the minds of the anti-vaxers.
Over 200 people attended the event, including the brave sceptics @podblack, @luminousmonkey and @danbuzzard who live tweeted and blogged the event. (They must have stronger stomachs than do I). If you want to follow the course of events as they unfolded you can search twitter for the hashtag #stopAVN.
The seminar itself featured a talk from PhD candidate Judy Wilyman from Murdoch University Perth and Meryl Dorey, media spokesperson (and immediate past president) for the AVN.
There is a history to this talk – it is the second time the AVN have scheduled a public lecture in Perth in recent weeks. The first time, their booking was cancelled at the eleventh hour owing to the Uniting Church in the City (responsibly) deeming that hosting the AVN was not within their charter and ethos and “..there may be a public perception that the Church does not support childhood vaccinations“.
Unfortunately for Meryl, she was informed of the decision as she was about to board a plane to Perth from the Gold Coast, and was forced to forfeit her airfare and return home with her tail between her legs. What a shame.
This time, the library assured Meryl they would not repeat such a cancellation. And so they kept their promise with Margaret Allen responding to emails of complaint with the same form response;
“The State Library of Western Australia provides facilities and services to the community of Western Australia as a whole; inevitably from time to time this may include interest groups with views that some may find controversial.
.
The State Library does not make any judgment about individuals, groups or organizations, unless there is a clear breach of law, policies or procedures, in which case we may act to exclude clients.”
I personally called the WA Dept of Health to ask them to explain themselves, but was informed that the matter had been passed to the Minister for the Arts and Culture since the majority of complaints pertaining to the event, were about the use of a state tax-payer funded facility.
So it was apparently out of their hands.
I think they should have made it their job to put a stop to this, and I informed them of such (I am not shy), but despite them agreeing with all my points about the AVN, they sat on their hands. They did however have a meeting with Meryl Dorey and Judy Wilyman the evening prior to the event, which I was told was a routine event offered to anyone requesting so. I imagine Meryl taught them much about vaccines.
I’m certain the head of the Immunisation Programme for WA Health, Dr Paul Effler can’t possibly know as much as someone touted as “Australia’s Leading Expert in Vaccination” whose qualifications are a “brain”.
Perhaps because of the current government departments sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling “TROLOLOLOLOL” the Shadow minister for Culture and the Arts, John Hyde got mad. I don’t know if he knows the AVN’s work, but he was quoted in a West Australian newspaper article entitled “Anti-vaccine forum causes row” saying the Barnett Government had opened the floodgates for any group to use the library’s facilities to push their agendas.
“Does this mean that the Liberal Party can hold a membership drive there, or for that matter the Ku Klux Klan or a bike gang?” Mr Hyde said.
“Why should a group that endangers the lives of WA children be allowed to speak and promote their cause at a taxpayer-funded venue dedicated to learning?” Mr Hyde said.
He also informed a colleague in a personal communication that he would be asking Ms Allen and the Minister to explain their policies with respect to allowing groups like the AVN free rein of State funded facilities in parliament today. I look forward to hearing their explanation.
Channel 7 news reported the story where Mr Hyde said:
“Our state library shouldn’t be subsidising or promoting propaganda that puts the lives of our children at risk.”
Professor Fiona Stanley was less polite, simply stating: “This misinformation will lead to the deaths of children.”
As for CEO Ms Allen, the resident sceptics last night reported that Channel 7 was forbidden from filming inside the venue and that this was at the request of Ms Allen, not the AVN. It seems strange to me that Ms Allen is happy to host “controversial” groups, but doesn’t want anyone to know what they say. Either way, she now has a lot of explaining to do.
Tweets such as this:
Hey @statelibrarywa good job on hosting an anti-vaxer and HIV/AIDS denier. Australia’s children thank you #stopAVN #FAIL
Very nice of AVN to talk about free choice, sorry, if your choice means a child dies, you don’t get to be free on that.
were appearing all over their twitter page last night as the seminar progressed.
Leading up to the event and because of the previous last minute cancellation, Meryl was constantly screeching about “free speech” and democracy. Well, I want to be free to say “I HAVE A BOMB” on a plane, but for sake of public safety I wouldn’t, I can’t and I don’t. Much the same as yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded cinema when there is no fire.
Meanwhile a report which appeared in the West Australian last week claimed that more WA parents were opting out of vaccinating their children, with the number of youngsters not fully immunised in the national program doubling over the past five years.
But according to the Dept of Health this report was exaggerated. Medicare figures show WA has the lowest rate of childhood vaccinations in the country for children aged 12 to 15 months, but only by 0.2%.
The percentage of children 12-15 months of age (age calculated at 31 December 2009) assessed as fully immunised. Date of processing 31 March 2010.
ACT 92.8%, VIC 92.0, QLD 91.5%, SA 90.6%, WA 89.2%, TAS 93.0%, NT 89.4%, AUS 91.4%.
Similarly, the percentage of children 24-27 months of age (age calculated at 31 December 2009) assessed as fully immunised is lower by a difference of 2.3%.
ACT 93.9%, VIC 92.3, QLD 92.6%, SA 91.6%, WA 89.9%, TAS 93.5%, NT 92.0%, AUS 92.0%.
And according to Dr Paul Effler, the medical co-ordinator of the immunisation program in WA, the state is consistently lower than the rest of the country largely because the State had the fewest GPs, who give 63 per cent of immunisations, per capita.
I’ll bet you can’t guess where the lowest rates of immunisation nationally might fall. Go on, guess. And here’s a clue, the AVN are based in Bangalow, an area know as the Northern Rivers.
From the most recent Medicare figures reporting the rankings for Divisions of General Practice in descending order based on immunisation coverage rates calculated from the General Practice Immunisation Incentives scheme. Rated for the May quarter 2010, from 1 (first) – (last) 113.
113. NORTHERN RIVERS GENERAL PRACTICE NETWORK 79.6%
Is it a coincidence that this is the region where the AVN are based?
Discuss.
Congratulations to Meryl Dorey and the AVN for campaigning hard and long, and succeeding in discouraging parents from vaccinating their children. First place in the lowest vax uptake in the country is nothing to be proud of.
And congratulations must also go to the WA government for allowing this dangerous group to spew their “controversial” BS all the way to Perth.
And what will be the prize? Mumps, whooping cough, pick your favourite communicable disease. They’re all in the running now.
Please see @podblack’s blog here for more information. Also a blog has been established for this event.
