David Heath
Thursday, 06 August 2009 19:28
Science -
Health
Page 2 of 3
In this carefully constructed 23-page submission, the author, Ken McLeod, makes two very strong points.
Firstly that the AVN offers advice that is both biased (against immunisation / vaccination) and untrue.
Secondly, that under the definitions included in the NSW Health care Complaints Act 1993, the AVN and its Public Officer, Meryl Dorey are clearly within the jurisdiction of the Health Care Complaints Commission.
McLeod's submission commences with a short profile of the work of Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty (Australian of the Year 2007) who said that Childhood Vaccination Denial is a "Crime against humanity." Doherty was further quoted with respect to the increase in cases of whooping cough due to the decline in immunisation (which, as was mentioned earlier, caused the death of Dana McCaffrey) as "a tragedy and a completely preventable tragedy."
McLeod outlines numerous examples of the AVN selectively quoting scientific research or of promoting a specific scientific finding, only to totally ignore the overwhelming weight of contrary findings which followed. He also offers many examples of outright lies by Dorey on behalf of the AVN.
It seems that for people such as Dorey, personal events (such as a child contracting autism within some short period of receiving a vaccine) far outweigh the huge volume of rigorous scientific evidence. Unfortunately, the old proverb holds so very true: "one swallow, a summer doth not make."
Allow me a moment to personalise this story: my wife's cousin (many years ago now) appeared to suffer a severe reaction to a polio vaccine which left him significantly mentally retarded and under permanent care. This did not cause us to change our decision to ensure our own children received all recommended vaccines.
Earlier this week, in a
posting the Australian Skeptics display an excerpt from the most recent AVN newsletter, noting that the AVN has indeed received a copy of the complaint.
Read on for their reaction.
