Entitled “Vaccine fear campaign to be investigated” health reporter Louise Hall details allegations about the AVN which she describes as “a group that claims vaccines cause autism, brain damage and cancer..” who are “…allegedly spreading misinformation and endangering children’s health”.

Meryl Dorey, the president of the AVN claims that she fills the gap left by the mainstream medical profession and government bodies and

“We never have and never will tell anyone that they should not vaccinate. We simply fill the information void left by government and the mainstream medical community.”

Of course you do Meryl, you fill the gap with stories of vaccines being the biggest hoaxes of the 20th century, a plot to commit mass genocide and a method for the “illuminati” to implant all recipients with microchips. And you and your followers tell parents that vaccines contain toxic levels of mercury and aluminium, plus cells from aborted fetuses (amongst other things), cause shaken baby syndrome (or shaken “maybe” syndrome), vaccines have never been tested, there is no science to back up the benefits of vaccination, homeopathy, a healthy lifestyle and a loving family are suitable alternatives to vaccination, kids are meant to get childhood illnesses, whooping cough is not that serious, swine flu is a manufactured epidemic, vaccination efforts in the third world “put Hitler and Stalin in the shade”, and that doctors are a danger to children.

Oh, and Meryl is also an HIV/AIDS denier as well as being a member of the Facebook group Australians against vaccination* (odd, since she claims to be “pro-choice”).

If you need confirmation of the depths these people will sink to, then please read this comment, which was left on my blog in response to a post by Toni McCaffery, the mother of Dana who died from whooping cough at 4 weeks of age, some 6 months ago.

Then convince me that these people are well meaning and care about the health of children.

—–

*if you are directed to your home page on Facebook with this link, it means you have been banned from accessing this page by the administrator. This is most likely due to the following; “First and foremost, THIS IS NOT A DEBATE if you are pro vax don’t even bother”.

Nothing strange about that you might say, except for the fact that she insists publicly that she is absolutely not anti-vaccination but rather “pro-choice”. She even stated as much in a recent article about the dangers of not vaccinating, published on July 18 in the Brisbane QWeekend magazine;

“We are labelled as the antivaccination group but that’s simply not true,’’

Really Meryl? Then please explain why you have joined a group which describes itself as follows;

“First and foremost, THIS IS NOT A DEBATE if you are pro vax don’t even bother. This group exists to help educate the Australian public about the dangers of vaccination if you are here to learn and contribute stay, if you want to argue, leave.

Wow, now that doesn’t sound very pro-choice to me! Could it be that Meryl has not been completely transparent about her views on vaccination?

(Click on the image for better resolution)

The last paragraph says 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.”

Following on from this, they provide links to the

• Australian Childhood Immunisation Register
• The Australian Vaccination Network
• National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance
• Immunise Australia Program

The Australian Vaccination Network? Isn’t this precisely what they warned us about in the previous paragraph?

We wrote to the ABC to point this out to them and they have advised us they will remove the link. We await their actions.

Tip o’the hat to Bastard Sheep