I’ve written before about the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN – [snicker]) and its despicable leader, Meryl Dorey. Now it seems that Australian health officials have something to say about them as well. The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has produced a report condemning the claims and activities of the AVN.
Unfortunately, the HCCC is only demanding the AVN to place an easily ignorable disclaimer on their website. According to the HCCC’s AVN Final Report (PDF):
The Australian Vaccination Network should include an appropriate statement in a prominent position on its website which states:
- 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;
- the information provided should not be read as medical advice; and
- the decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.
The report also makes reference to the alleged harassment of the parents of Dana McCaffery, a 4-week-old Australian infant who died of the easily preventable pertussis specifically because she was too young to receive the vaccine and the disease was allowed to spread by irresponsible locals who chose not to vaccinate.
ABC covered the story here:
And you can hear more of Meryl Dorey spouting out dangerous misinformation on a radio show where fortunately, the hosts weren’t buying her bullshit.
Meryl Dorey and the AVN are so despicable they make the Westboro Baptist Church seem pleasant by comparison.
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- AVN gets spanked (scienceblogs.com)
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- Warning order for anti-vaccine website (news.theage.com.au)
- Unspoken danger of the Australian Vaccination Network (seantheblogonaut.com)
- Whooping cough now an epidemic in California (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
- A confluence of the anti-vaccine and “health freedom” movements at AutismOne in Chicago (scienceblogs.com)
- More truth-based weapons against the antivaxxers (blogs.discovermagazine.com)
