First there was Rebecca Letourneau’s accurate report on the dangers of not vaccinating on Channel 7s Sunday night programme. You can hear my interviews with her on The Skeptic Zone episode 28 and 29.

Further, an update on my most recent post about the ABC Immunisation Fact Files. This was brought to my attention by my blogging colleague, Fuzztwin, who wrote to the ABC to ask them why, on a page purporting to offer sensible advice about vaccination, they had hyper-linked to the Australian Vaccination Network. Testament to the power of Twitter, and the tenacity of those who think the anti-vaxers are doing harm, the following paragraph was modified today. The original appearing below;

“The internet has become a popular source for those seeking further information on vaccination. But be warned, studies have shown that when you type immunisation into a search engine, you will get a disproportionate number of sites that carry an anti-immunisation message.”

has now been modified to say the following;

“The internet has become a popular source for those seeking further information on vaccination. But be warned studies have shown that when you type immunisation into a search engine you will get a disproportionate number of sites that carry an anti-immunisation message. The Australian Vaccination Network is one such anti-vaccination site.”

Thank you to the ABC for listening, considering what we said and making changes for the benefit of the community. Also, thank you to Fuzztwin for alerting me to this and to all who commented, especially David McCaffery.

“..Well done sceptics! Keep working hard to save and protect our babies and community”.

Following on from an equally damning article by Adele Horin from the Sydney Morning Herald in January 2009, the Sydney tabloid newspaper, the Daily telegraph published an article written by Joe Hildebrand about the irresponsible anti-vax movement today.

It has not been a good day for the anti-vax movement in this country. To add insult to injury, the Stop the AVN Facebook page reached over 500 members today, and this has occurred shortly after the AVN Facebook Fan page (can’t show you the link, because I quite simply can’t find it!) has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.

Fear not readers, we have many other irons in the fire, which I hope to reveal to you very soon. In the meantime, keep up the fight by signing the Stop the AVN petition and leaving a message of support at Dana McCaffery’s Facebook page.

Also, don’t forget my report from Dr Rachie that started my campaign against this group of scaremongers. Or listen to the audio from Episode 19 of The Skeptic Zone.

The world really has gone topsy-turvy and I couldn’t be any happier!

It gave Richard Saunders and me a good laugh, so I thought I’d share it with you. During some routine research compiling a list of psychic predictions for 2008 (essentially to see if they got anything right) I came across this little gem. A Google search led to me to a website known as the Australian Psychics Directory which contains several links to promos for Channel 7s reality TV show “The One“.

Links from the Australian Psychic Directory website

When I clicked on the first link, it took me to YouTube and to a channel known as “rachiesyd“. A channel belonging to well, me! The irony is, Richard, who was the sceptical judge on the show and for his troubles earned the reputation of “spook” and “meanie” had himself posted some of the videos when I was overseas earlier this year.

Richard "the meanie" Saunders applauds the psychics for their support of the sceptical community.

Further, the irony is not only contained in the link itself, but also that the psychics are inadvertently increasing the traffic to my YouTube channel. And an evil, sceptical, party-pooper channel at that!

But don’t let the psychics have all the fun, you too can hit up my YouTube channel here where you can see for yourself the video linked to their website and marvel at the 2,200 odd hits it has gotten as a result (ten times more than any others).

Thank you woo woo people, keep it coming!