The Invisible Epidemic
Steven Higgs Tracks Autism's Generation Gap

Health Fascism in Australia.

Australia By Martin Walker

The sinister Skeptics group, agents of what used to be CSICOP now the  Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) organised from the US and linked to the major corporate lobby groups, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and American Council Against Health Fraud (ACAHF), which is in turn linked to the Australian CAHF) are making ground in Australia. Supported by authoritarian ideological influences in government and Big Pharma, the Skeptics are running constant attacks on homeopathy, natural cancer treatments, those who question vaccination and those who support any form of alternative medicine.

With the present world fiscal crisis, all those linked to Big Pharma and Science are fighting a bitter battle to preserve drug company competitiveness. But where fascist influences in government and health with most force come together is in attacking anyone who speaks out about freedom of choice and expression in relation to vaccination.

Over the last year the international corporate lobby Skeptics, have been behind a campaign against the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). In 2009, one of their trolls, a lay person with no standing in medicine or government complained about the web site of the AVN to the office of the State Government funded Health Care Complaints commission (HCCC) an organisation that accepts complaints against groups found be giving out false information about health.

The remit of the HCCC, did not actually cover parent groups which discussed the pros and cons of vaccination, so the State government slightly changed the remit to satisfy the Skeptics. The government then proceeded with a year long investigation into Meryl Dorey the woman who established and runs the AVN and the AVN itself.

Dorey was asked to answer their first 30 odd page report against her and the organisation, within a few weeks. She did this with a magnificent document that argued every point with brilliance. The complaint investigation actually argued against almost every sentence that had appeared on the AVN web site. If the AVN had said that vaccines contained toxic elements, such as mecury and aluminuim the HCCC argued with pseudo science that this was not true, giving pages of bogus evidence to support the vaccine manufacturers.

Yesterday Dorey received the final 30 page answer from the HCCC to the Skeptics complaint. This inevitably reiterated all the charges brought against and included many gems of  Orwellian Newspeak, such as:

'In Australia vaccination is a key plank of public health strategy. It is thus extremely important for individuals, especially parents, to be able to make informed decisions about vaccination. The AVN provides information that is misleading for the average reader by inaccurately representing information, selectively reporting information, and giving non-peer reviewed and anecdotal material the same authority as peer -reviewed literature'.

This is the hub of Health Fascism happily embraced by the HCCC evidently supported not by the votes of their constituents but by Big Pharma. The pharma-skeptics and corporate science geeks, have pushed this censorious line in Britain and America. In Britain they went so far as to draw up a set of rules suggesting that no one other than scientists or doctors should be able to write anything, or say anything in the media; no lay person was to be able to hold a view on their own health or that of others. The next step after ruling that no one other than scientists can speak about health, is the bringing into force of fascism. No discussion about compulsory vaccination - force it on people, no discussion about alternative medicine - ban it, no discussion about what constitutes democracy - bring in scientific and evidence based politics and human behaviour.

In the past Meryl and her co-workers has been subject to authoritarian style attacks by the Skeptics, her web site has been taken down and meetings she was arranged to address called off. She and her co-workers and the AVN, are presently gearing up for the media onslaught on her and her web site. The media, like vultures are circling, asking for special privileges to present her case and tell her story, but Meryl is far too  intelligent to fall for any of these parasitic manoeuvres; she's a fighter.  Inevitably, however at the moment she feels isolated - as those living in Australia must sometimes do! (LOL). Everyone must rally round and lend her their strength. E-mail the inappropriately named, Health Care Complaints Commission at: [email protected] Telephone them on (02) 9219 7444. Fax them on: (02) 9281 4585. Ask the HCCC why they accept complaints from people who belong to the global corporate science lobby group, Skeptics.

Support the AVN (http://www.avn.org.au/) . Contact any independent media, film makers or journalists you know in Australia and ask them to contact Meryl. Bring Meryl and the AVN into the international fold that is fighting to maintain health freedom and stands against Health Fascism. 
  
Martin J Walker is an investigative writer who has written several books about aspects of the medical industrial complex. He started focusing on conflict of interest, intervention by pharmaceutical companies in government and patient groups in 1993. Over the last three years he has been a campaign writer for the parents of MMR vaccine damaged children
covering every day of the now two year hearing of the General Medical Council that is trying Dr Wakefield and two other doctors. His GMC accounts can be found at  www.cryshame.com, and his own website is, www.slingshotpublications.com.

Comments

Will

Good article, Martin. It's great to AT LAST see something that calls the Australian "Skeptics" into question - or the fact that what they tend to do is non-skeptically defend the status quo for the benefit of big industry and use bully tactics on those who oppose them such as the AVN.

Quokka

I assume you will not post this as you have blocked my request for Martin to apologise for accusing me of making up an urban myth but in response to the accusation that I was off topic I was commenting on a paragraph of the article:

Supported by authoritarian ideological influences in government and Big Pharma, the Skeptics are running constant attacks on homeopathy, natural cancer treatments, those who question vaccination and those who support any form of alternative medicine.

Hardly off the point. I was pointing out that not all forms of medicine are equal. Homeopathy has never cured one person of cancer so why give it the same standing as methods such as surgery that have?

Benedette, I am unsure of what point you were trying to make in your final paragraph. I don't know what causes Autism, no one does. The research being performed in genetics is interesting and may lead to a greater understanding in time. My work is with teaching and valuing children with disabilities, including autism so that they can be contributing members of the West Australian community.

BTW a quokka is an Australian marsupial fouind off the coast of Western Australia on an island called Rottnest.

Peace out

MinorityView

This anti-vaccine loons bit is getting insane. The BMJ recently called a respected group of Indian physicians and professionals anti-vaccine because they questioned the necessity and safety of a particular vaccine in India: http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2010/07/08/indian-physicians-slapped-with-anti-vaccine-label/

Tell me again that vaccination isn't a religious sacrament...

Benedetta

No Martin;
They did not blurr the facts, of what YOU were saying. Their point however, was rather confusing???
We were talking about vaccine injuries, and our right to at least choose, and all at once they start talking about cancer???

Cancer - well now there is a disease that the medical people can treat with a 100 percent cure! Yet, medical treatment for cancer is "iffffy" at best, there is some medical treatment (all of which are dangerous) - so what does this have to do with autism??? There is no medical treatment for kids with autism.

Unless they were saying that autism is not a medical illness, nothing wrong with them physcally just touched in the head. Just born that way. Just born dumb. It is natural. Maybe that was what Quotta (what ever the name but lots more like him out there) meant? I really don't know?

Jake Crosby

Well, I see the ever unoriginal, scavenging "Science"Blogs weighed in on your post, Martin:

"Health fascism' in Australia? The anti-vaccine loons think so"

quoting the parents of a child who died of pertussis:

"It's the most offensive statement because I watched over five days my beautiful daughter suffer the most agonising death," Ms McCaffery said.

"Then to be put in a position where I have to prove that she died of pertussis that's even crueller."

Then Sanofi-Gorski weighs in:

"I'm unaware of any case where it's actually targeted the parent of a child who died of a vaccine-preventable disease for harassment of this type. All that can be said is that Ms. Dorey is despicable beyond all belief, a truly vile human being."

Although I will agree that if Dorey really is doing this, it's wrong for her to do so -Sanofi-Gorski is calling her a "despicable person" for doing exactly what he does to us - claiming we have to "prove" death or autism causation from a vaccine whenever either occurs.

Martin Walker


In the penultimate paragraph of my last post, 'despite' was meant to read 'despise'. My apologies.

Martin Walker


I ended my day yesterday, unnerved at the way Quokka had managed to blurr and confuse the issues. To some extent this was my fault because I stupidly responded to his off-kilter missives. When I got on to the internet this morning, however, hope was renewed. Two great posts, returned to the very heart of the matter.

MinorityView asks, 'Are there really people who are opposed to freedom of speech and freedom of choice in healthcare?'

I empathise with this view completely, often I cannot grasp the enormity of such peoples social and political view of the world and I have daymares of hundreds of people queuing for vaccination given by men in white coats, wearing protective breathing appartus - they are aided in their task by armed soldiers on the edge of the cities there are whole groups of people who resist and they live without the amenities of a modern society. The answer to MinorityViews question, is 'Yes', there are people who would deny the citizen and the parent, any right to decide upon their own healthcare - a scientific and medical class who want to take political control. We have to do everything possible to stop them and establish and develop our rights in this new scientific age.

Then I read Winnie stating. 'Shame on our governments for supporting the pharmaceutical companies over people's rights.'
and hope was again renewed. The individual citizen has rights which have to be protected from governments and corporations, the two powers that have come in the modern and post-modern period to usurp democracy and freedom of choice.

The only strategy that can take us out of this quicksand, is to mistrust medical professionals, fight for the people themselves to make political decisions and despite the aims, objectives and life-styes of which corporations are the harbingers.

Information is vital to democracy and freedom, whether it be the information of personal experience or the honest information of scientific study. Just as vital is the right of the individual to make their own decisions on the basis of this information.

MinorityView

Step back. Let us look at the big picture.

People who value vaccines justify damage or even death to some because of the importance (to them) of "herd immunity."

I value freedom of speech and freedom of choice in medical care enough that I am willing to accept death and suffering as an unintended consequence.

What is the alternative? Let us imagine a world in which there is no longer free discussion of medical alternatives, in which it is no longer acceptable to ask questions about a treatment approach which is considered "the gold standard." Hormone Replacement Therapy was, for a long time, considered the standard treatment for symptoms of menopause. Fortunately, it is legal for doctors and laypeople to freely discuss the advantages and disadvantages of particular treatments. I was able to consider HRT and freely decide that I preferred hot flashes, miserable as they can sometimes be. It turned out that the alternative sources I considered were correct. HRT was dangerous. HRT was killing people who were medically compliant and will continue to kill people for quite a time to come, as the results linger on.

Of course, sometimes the alternative people get it wrong and someone makes a choice that ends up killing them. As I said, I think that freedom of speech and freedom of choice are such transcendent values...we will all just have to bear the burden to gain the advantages.

Are there really people who are opposed to freedom of speech and freedom of choice in healthcare?

Winnie

These vaccine-crazed "experts" are blinded by dollar signs. The truth is out about vaccines, and bashing those who point it out doesn't make vaccines any safer or effective.

There is no going back. Parents are waking up to the reality of vaccine damage. It's too big now. Too many vaccines, too many sick children, too many dead children.

Good for Meryl to support the right to informed medical decisions. Shame on our governments for supporting the pharmaceutical companies over people's rights.

Quokka

Seonid - why doesn't the multibillion dollar alternative medicine industry do the scientific research.

I have a friend who works for a vitamin company. She gets great bonuses for the more space she can get pharmacies to use for the companies vitamins. Isn't she selling her soul to "big vita" - they can afford to send her on over seas trips if she sells enough space - maybe they could use some of that money.

Seonaid

Quokka – I thought it would be self-evident? The contents of this site should illustrate to you the value in general of a nutritional approach to illness. Exact dosages, would surely depend on the patient, the doctor and the condition to be treated. It’s such a pity that the successes mentioned here, though recognised at the time, were not followed up, researched, and put into practice, rather than populations being forced down the pharmacological route. Unfortunately money for research into medical conditions comes mainly from the drug companies, whose profits would suffer if such practices were used. Doctors who try to advocate such approaches in present times, are subjected to scorn, ridicule and victimisation.

Quokka

Seonid - can't see the point of the site - can you point out to me the place where they state the exact dosages of vitamins that cure cancer? I must have missed that bit

Quokka

Martin - you owe me an apology.

Google Peter Dingle, Penny Dingle and the West Australian newspaper. The entire enquiry is well documented. Also well documented is Penyy Dingle writing in her diary that she had made a terrible mistake.

The Oncologist giving evidence stated that her type of cancer has an 80% success rate from surgery and chemo.

It is not true to say homeopathy kills no one - it killed Penny.

It is also true to say that all cancer sufferers die in agony. I sat with family members who passed without pain and with fantastic care in hospital with our family by thier side.

While you are at it Google - 3 babies die of swine flu in Princess Margaret Hospital in one year. That is why WA has the swine flu vac.

Peace out.

Quokka

BTW Australians have a great sense of humour. We know when a plane of British has arrived at an Australian airport becuase when the engines have been turned off we can still hear the whining- see that's hilarious

Cherry Sperlin Misra

We need to remind those who would rid the world of non- mainstream-medical websites, that it is due to these groups that today their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren can receive a safer DTP vaccine.I had a child in my nursery school who lost nearly all hearing after receiving two doses of the old DPT vaccine. He had severe reactions lasting more than a week. Later he was given a dose of the newer DTaP and had only the usual mild reaction.
The so-called anti vaccine organizations had cried out in vain about the dangers of the DPT vaccine for many years before the new vaccine was developed and used. It is high time we recognize the contribution of such organizations. Are we going to do away with western medicine because it gave us Vioxx Avandia and Thalidomide?

Christina England

Meryl has become yet another statistic in a growing number of professionals who have come under attack for speaking out against vaccines.

Complaints seem to appear as if by magic as soon as a professional speaks out against vaccines. Many of these complaints have Big Pharma influence in the background and are dodgy to say the least.

Big Pharma are protected by Governments and the Media but who is there to protect the professionals who speak the truth?

Please read a few article I wrote a while back covering these very issues

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/91011

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/90434

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/88868

This needs to be stopped.

Christina England

Martin Walker

The indefatigable campaigner Erwin Alber of the Vaccination Information Network - VINE , who has a marvelous facebook site, told me that he couldn't post on AOA yesterday and asked me to post the two quotes below.

"Belief in immunization is a form of delusional insanity."
Dr. Herbert Shelton, prominent American health educator

"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
Charles_Mackay

Seonaid

I think this site could be of interest to Quoll and Quokka.

http://www.orthomolecular.org/history/index.shtml

Christina Waldman

Having read all the new comments down to this point, I'd have to say, I second John Stone's July 9 comment to the word.

What is the next step, Meryl? Let us know specifically how we can best support you in your task of informing parents of the real risks of vaccines.

Tasha David

I personally know that vaccines harmed my children...6 of my 8 children were vaccinated and that resulted in 3 having Autism, 1 with ADHD, 1 with a severe language disorder and finally 1 with food allergies and severe mood swings. My 2 youngest were not vaccinated and have all developed normally!!! We did all the genetic testing and there were no abnormalities and there is no autism in both sides of the family!!
We have to help people like Meryl and the AVN to keep fighting for the truth to be told so that families don't have to go through the challenges and obstacles that my family has had to suffer!!! I only wish that I had found out the truth about vaccines before my children were hurt!!! Meryl, don't let them get you down!!! We are so grateful to you for all you do and we support you!!!!

Seonaid

Thank you Martin for drawing our attention to what is going on in Australia. I am really disappointed to read that people are being targeted in this way i.e. those who support alternative therapies, and those who question the efficacy and safety of giving children multiple vaccines. Years ago I had read that in Australia about 40 % of the population were regularly using alternative, natural treatments as opposed to pharmacological ones, and had thus thought Australia to be really progressive and open-minded society. But it seems that there too, the battle for truth in medicine is becoming fiercer by the day.
Having watched how our establishment, isolated, targeted and discredited Andrew Wakefield, we in UK understand completely how strongly Meryl’s stance will be criticised by an increasingly nervous health department. Meryl must be a very special person to have put up with the snide remarks and insults aimed at her during the last year. Best wishes to you Meryl and thank you for alerting so many parents to the dangers of vaccination.

Debra

Poor Meryl this reeks of the injustice of Dr Wakefield , we need more Meryl,s in every country to question safety , to many people do not want to lose their jobs or reputations

Fascist_Skeptics

Martin, the website in question is run by a Ms Christine Bayne, a skeptic operative, who was recruited and funded as a puppet by the Pharma controlled science/medicine lobby. She's probably as much a victim as the parents who are influenced by the same lobby when making decisions about vaccination. She has stated publicly she suffers with a disability which manifests in the form of deficits in higher order cognitive processes such as abstract thinking as well as mental health disorders such as mood dysregulation. She is one of the black and white thinkers described in an earlier comment. Justin Watson is Christine Bayne, who is using your article to spread her master's propoganda.

Martin Walker

OK, so I'm a mind reader, I can sense the question on everyones lips, 'Where is this mild mannered and personable Justin Watson coming from?' He seems to be quite an independent thinking guy.

Well, here's the news, Justin Watson is a part of the Vaccination Awareness and Information Service which is a rabid pro vaccination, vaccine damage denial web site. The 'article' that he posted in AOA 'comments' is also now up on this web site.

Unfortunately I can't tell you who takes part in the Vaccination Awareness and Information Service because they do not seem to be listed on the site, nor is there any mention of funding. But then Justin probable runs it all on his own and out of his own pocket - I have heard that these pro-vaxxers are great altruists.

Here is a few selected pieces from the site:

1
'In May 2009, on the Sunday program, Mike Munro asked Meryl Dorey what her medical qualifications were. She responded with “I have a brain”. So, the short answer was none.'

2
'Thimerosol(mercury): this toxic substance, harmful in any amount, causes autism and a host of other disorders (according to antivaxxers). The truth is, however, a lot more encouraging. Mercury is not in all vaccines, and if present, is in minute traces of the less toxic variety.(Thimerosol lite? sorry I couldn't help that mjw) You get more mercury from a single can of tuna than in all vaccines combined. Relax. And still eat tuna.'

3
'Why target the Australian Vaccination Network? The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) is Australia’s largest anti-vaccination organisation. They have been running a campaign of misinformation and fear-mongering since 1994. Many people who now refuse to vaccinate cite the information that they received from the AVN as being partly, or wholly, responsible for their decision not to vaccinate.
This site will include evidence that the AVN provide misleading information, promote dangerous practices, subscribe to various conspiracy theories, and therefore should not be allowed to continue their campaign which is contributing to a degradation in public health.'

This above, reminds me of the title of the book from the famous and brilliant Australian academic, the late Alex Carey, 'Taking the Risk Out of democracy'. Of course we have freedom of information in Australia, its just that we don't want to debate it.

4.
'But, I shall keep debunking Meryl’s lies and misinformation, and I shall do it again and again, whilst they continue to spread misinformation and propaganda of deadly consequence.'

This tone that is beginning to creep into the vaccine debate, if you oppose vaccination, it is possible you are a murderer! Like Brian Deer and Evan Harris says, Dr Wakefield should have been charged with criminal offences.

The site Vaccination Awareness and Information Service has a section claiming to offer resources. These include books by Offit and articles by Gorski, information from the Skep doc Harriett Hall and links to the Skeptic magazine which is crowded with articles by Skeptics about stupid, misinforming and criminal anti-vaxxers.

Amongst these articles is one by the Skepdoc about Dr Wakefield and as his case is one that I do know something about, I thought I might run four lines of it past you - the other lines are as bad:

'Despite this disclaimer, (in the Lancet paper, that it did not suggest that MMR led to autism) Wakefield immediately held a press conference to say the MMR vaccine probably caused autism and to recommend stopping MMR injections.'

This is not true. Wakefield did not hold a press conference, the Dean of the University joined to the Royal Free Hospital organised a press briefing that Wakefield attended.

No press conference was held 'immediately'. The press briefing was organised to coincide with the publication of the Lancet paper. Notice was sent out to the press some weeks before.

'a press conference to say that MMR vaccine probably caused autism' This is a not true.

'The individual components were not available as individual vaccines, so people simply stopped immunizing'. A complete lie. Single vaccines were available at the time the Lancet article was published.

If anyone has any doubts about the correctness of my brief article, Health Fascism in Australia, think over the points above, visit this rabid vaxxers site and see how many times you can find them referring to Meryl as a liar and her organisation as a vehicle for disinformation.

Don't let the bastards grind you down Meryl.
_____________________________________________________________

Justin Watson

This link sums this up in one.

http://www.antivaxxers.com/?p=2202


Sinister Skeptics + Health Fascism = LULZ
This is the first article I can find on the internet which covers the HCCC report recently received by Meryl Dorey, President of the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).

The article in question, Health Fascism in Australia is Conspiracy Crackpot Central from beginning to end. It is written by Martin Walker and contains many inaccuracies. Either Martin needs to learn some investigative skills, or he needs to learn that Meryl Dorey is not a reliable source of information.

The sinister Skeptics group, agents of what used to be CSICOP now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) organised from the US and linked to the major corporate lobby groups, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and American and the Australian Council Against Health Fraud (ACAHF) are making ground in Australia.

Sinister Skeptics! Go take a looksie, you will find nearly all skeptic groups are stand-alone organisations. To make a connection with all the above groups would require a straw long enough to suck up water on the moon. Martin, please provide evidence of your claims.

Supported by authoritarian ideological influences in government and Big Pharma, the Skeptics are running constant attacks on homeopathy, natural cancer treatments, those who question vaccination and those who support any form of alternative medicine.

Not so sure about this support as most skeptic groups get by on a combination of volunteer labour, fundraising, and donations. Martin, please provide evidence – which groups are provided with what kind of support, and by whom.
Yes, many skeptic groups have focused on the dangerous and negative aspects of alternative medicine. Deaths have resulted from people who shunned science-based medicine in favour of unproven, sometimes disproven, alt med treatments. It is unethical to take money from people for treatments that do not work.

With the present world fiscal crisis, all those linked to Big Pharma and Science are fighting a bitter battle to preserve drug company competitiveness. But where fascist influences in government and health with most force come together is in attacking anyone who speaks out about freedom of choice and expression in relation to vaccination.

There is no freedom of choice when the information being presented is wrong. Whilst deluded, misinformed people continue to propagate dangerous, misleading information about vaccination, you can be assured that there will a strong, loud voice to correct it. I spend my time highlighting the misinformation and propaganda from the alt med market, and I get paid by no one. I would be very grateful if Martin could provide me with contacts to Big Pharma and Big Science so I can be paid for my efforts.

Over the last year the international corporate lobby Skeptics, have been behind a campaign against the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). In 2009, one of their trolls, a lay person with no standing in medicine or government complained about the web site of the AVN to the office of the State Government funded Health Care Complaints commission (HCCC) an organisation that accepts complaints against groups found be giving out false information about health.

There is no international corporate lobby of skeptics. Martin, take your head out of the conspiracy bucket, you look ridiculous. Ken McLeod is the name of the person who lodged the report, not troll. Ken is also not a member of the Australian Skeptics, and I’m not even sure if he considers himself a skeptic or not. Ken’s qualifications are irrelevant; anyone can make a complaint to the HCCC. The HCCC complaint actually included both Meryl Dorey and the AVN, and covered more than just the AVN website.
I’m becoming more and more convinced that Martin is simply parroting information given to him by Meryl Dorey, and that he hasn’t bothered to conduct even basic research before writing this article.

The remit of the HCCC, did not actually cover parent groups which discussed the pros and cons of vaccination, so the State government slightly changed the remit to satisfy the Skeptics. The government then proceeded with a year long investigation into Meryl Dorey the woman who established and runs the AVN and the AVN itself.

Meryl and the AVN met all the requirements for the HCCC to investigate, and basic research shows what is required. Martin needs to provide evidence that the HCCC made changes in order to investigate the AVN.

Dorey was asked to answer their first 30 odd page report against her and the organisation, within a few weeks. She did this with a magnificent document that argued every point with brilliance. The complaint investigation actually argued against almost every sentence that had appeared on the AVN web site. If the AVN had said that vaccines contained toxic elements, such as mecury and aluminuim the HCCC argued with pseudo science that this was not true, giving pages of bogus evidence to support the vaccine manufacturers.

This so-called “magnificent” document was found to be wanting in so very many ways – please refer to Tom Sidwell dissects Meryl Dorey. Not so magnificent now, is it.
Once again, Martin displays his ignorance about the HCCC investigation by the focus on the AVN website, and his scientific illiteracy in referring to Meryl’s submission as magnificent.

Yesterday Dorey received the final 30 page answer from the HCCC to the Skeptics complaint. This inevitably reiterated all the charges brought against and included many gems of Orwellian Newspeak, such as:

‘In Australia vaccination is a key plank of public health strategy. It is thus extremely important for individuals, especially parents, to be able to make informed decisions about vaccination. The AVN provides information that is misleading for the average reader by inaccurately representing information, selectively reporting information, and giving non-peer reviewed and anecdotal material the same authority as peer -reviewed literature’.

This is the hub of Health Fascism happily embraced by the HCCC evidently supported not by the votes of their constituents but by Big Pharma. The pharma-skeptics and corporate science geeks, have pushed this censorious line in Britain and America. In Britain they went so far as to draw up a set of rules suggesting that no one other than scientists or doctors should be able to write anything, or say anything in the media; no lay person was to be able to hold a view on their own health or that of others. The next step after ruling that no one other than scientists can speak about health, is the bringing into force of fascism. No discussion about compulsory vaccination – force it on people, no discussion about alternative medicine – ban it, no discussion about what constitutes democracy – bring in scientific and evidence based politics and human behaviour.

I’ll just ignore the conspiracy-speak about fascism and Big Pharma. I do not believe there is anything democratic about allowing crackpot conspiracists with no understanding of science or medicine, to spread misinformation and propaganda in the community about health-related matters. The effects of such misinformation can be deadly – vaccine preventable diseases can kill, and do kill.

In the past Meryl and her co-workers has been subject to authoritarian style attacks by the Skeptics, her web site has been taken down and meetings she was arranged to address called off. She and her co-workers and the AVN, are presently gearing up for the media onslaught on her and her web site. The media, like vultures are circling, asking for special privileges to present her case and tell her story, but Meryl is far too intelligent to fall for any of these parasitic manoeuvres; she’s a fighter. Inevitably, however at the moment she feels isolated – as those living in Australia must sometimes do! (LOL). Everyone must rally round and lend her their strength. E-mail the inappropriately named, Health Care Complaints Commission at: [email protected] Telephone them on (02) 9219 7444. Fax them on: (02) 9281 4585. Ask the HCCC why they accept complaints from people who belong to the global corporate science lobby group, Skeptics.

This snippet appears once again like Martin parroting Meryl-speak before researching anything himself. The AVN website was not taken down by the skeptics, and Meryl knows it – hence why she has never offered the proof of it, despite repeated requests. Yes, the AVN has been under the spotlight by a group of concerned citizens, aiming to highlight the misinformation, the conspiracy theories, and even the lies, that Meryl and the AVN use to garner support.

Support the AVN (http://www.avn.org.au/) . Contact any independent media, film makers or journalists you know in Australia and ask them to contact Meryl. Bring Meryl and the AVN into the international fold that is fighting to maintain health freedom and stands against Health Fascism.

karen

I believe my baby required polio after her polio vaccination. No doctors would admit this. Are babies born with bent and curved legs. I only just figured this out.. The OPV was discontinued. Now that I have a handicapped child I believe all of her illnesses were vaccine related. She has type 2 diabetes which she got after her last booster shot. Gardasil almost killed her. She has been sick for three years. Why do they want to injure our kids. My daughter lost her cycle after the gardasil shot. developed peripheral neuropathy almost immediately after them. She has constant migraines. Stomach Issues, fatigue, lost her peripheral vision, bloody stools, coughing up blood, fungal infections, viral infections. I am going to get to the bottom of the polio vaccine....If it gave her polio I am going to be so pissed. Because doctors lie. Gardasil has totally destroyed my daughters life. It has also ruined my career. My daughter was also fainting and becoming paralysed all the time.We never knew if she was going to live or die. This is no way for any family to live. She still has relapses. Thanks to Merck my daughter is one less. I am so mad at these so called scientist and big pharma. Stop killing our kids.

HumanRightsOfOurChildren

The issue of vaccination is a human rights issue. Children's Human Rights are being violated by the number of medical experiments being conducted on them today in the form of vaccination. As a post war baby boomer, I have enjoyed good health, which children are being denied today due to the large number of assaults they are taking in the form of vaccinations. Do we as parents have the right to subject our children to an endless number of medical interventions that we were not subjected to as children? As an early childhood teacher, I see the tragedy of this unfettered medicalism everyday. Eleven of my current 25 students requires some form of medication at school. When I first started teaching in the early 1970's this number may have been 1 student requiring medication every few years. These children have had their health stolen from them by well-meaning parents who were not subjected to such widespread medicalism as children. It has to stop now! We need to find out why so many children are sick.

VaccinesAreDangerous

It was recently reported in the mainstream press in Australia, that greater than 40% of health care workers do not receive vaccinations against influenza.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/medics-ignoring-jabs/story-e6frea83-1225889991894

One can only speculate why these same people are then publicly advocating injecting this hazardous product into children as young as 6 months of age. The conduct of the pharmaceutical and medical industries would be better described as criminal rather than mere negligence, and I'm sure the parents of the 2 year old who died 12 hours following this years withdrawn influenza vaccine would agree with me. These people are criminals, period.

dumbeddownaustralia

The complaint against the AVN was undertaken by a a skeptic devotee Mr Ken Mcleod, a retired air traffic controller who until recently identified "shit-stirring" as one of his hobbies on his Facebook page. One can only wonder why Mr Mcleod would feel the need to wave his flag for the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. That's right, Ken Mcleod holds shares in Big Pharma.

freehealthchoice

The skeptics are made up of self-interested agents of Big Industry, which includes Big Pharma, as well as their susceptible, black-and-white thinking followers who "wanted to be scientists when they grew up". Far from having a compassion for humanity, they are ruthless defenders of their taxpayer-funded territory, who mercilessly target and character-assassinate any person who challenges the established orthodoxy. Many of the skeptic followers are computer geeks who are incapable of understanding the flawed nature of epidemiology as it applies to the subject of vaccination and biological systems. After all, not all science is created equal. Clinical studies regularly show links between vaccines and a range of chronic disease which includes autism, where epidemiological studies do not. These people are fascists, who represent a real threat to democracy. Their unethical, sociopathic, hounding, bullying and likely illegal behaviour should send a chill down the spines of all free-thinking Australians.

Jenny Allan

'Quoll quote':- 'The recent problem with the CSL vaccine in Australia was quickly spotted and vaccination for children under 5 suspended.'

Well good for Australia!! I wish our UK Governments could be so pro active so quickly!! But can I ask how many children suffered severe adverse reactions to this vaccine?-and just how much of a public outcry was required in order to make the government back down?? Why was this vaccine not properly tested before being given to tiny children??

This sounds like a very similar scenario to the recent US problems with the MMR+Chicken Pox vaccine, also recently rolled out as part of a US government mass vaccination programme. The high numbers of infant seizures, (and another public outcry!) has now forced a rethink.

In the UK, in 1992, the Urabe Mumps MMR component was very quietly withdrawn due to massive numbers of adverse reactions in children. At least one child died from seizures shortly after receiving this vaccine. This vaccine was previously banned for causing seizures and meningitis in the US and Canada. It was given a nice 'new' name before being 'sold' to the UK Government by the vaccine manufactors. The government's response to dire warnings about this vaccine from Canadian and other sources was to indemnify the manufacturers!! It took the UK government 3 whole years to finally ban it but it should NEVER have been administered in the first place. We have NEVER been told the whole story due to press restrictions in the UK, but some papers recently surfaced in Scotland under the 20 year rule. Speculation and conspiracy theories!!?? Try telling THAT to those parents who believe their child died or was damaged by this vaccine!! Lectures are just what they DON'T need!!

Please do not 'close your mind' to dietary therapy for your autistic child. Many such children benefit enormously from a gluten and casein free diet. We also removed all artificial additives from our autistic boy's diet too. This is a far cry from 'experimenting with chemical concoctions'!!

Martin Walker


Quoll:

Your well written low key letter, sends exactly the same message as Quokka. I just want to comment on two points:

'The only way a parent can hope to make a good decision about vaccination is to have acces to good information from reliable sources - doctors and public health officials who see both benefits and problems with vaccinations every day.'

1. Do you mean by this, that the only way parents can hope to make a decision for or against vaccination is to have access to 'good information'. No, of course you don't, what you mean is, 'the only way we can make parents decide in favour of vaccination, is to give them pro-vaccine information.'

2.'... from reliable sources - doctors and public health officials who see both benefits and problems with vaccinations every day'.

The words 'sheep' and '1984' come to mind when one reads this. Please provide a reasonably long list of qualified doctors, pediatricians and Public Health Officials who regularly speak publicly - on television for instance - on the problems of vaccination. Perhaps you could incorporate this list in a long detailed articles, including case histories, on long and short term adverse reactions to vaccines or various kinds. Such an article would I'm sure be appreciated.

The area of vaccination is not an information level playing field, you say it yourself, 'I absolutely support the rights of parents to receive good information based on facts' - it's just that the AVN don't provide 'good information'.

I for one couldn't possibly take you seriously. 'I'm all in favour of a debate, but I don't think that the other side should be allowed to speak (LOL). What was that wise saying about the sound of one hand clapping? I'm in favour of democracy as long as the other side isn't allowed to vote!

The fact is, in mass vaccination campaigns even local practitioners (lets be generous and say in the UK) are so keen to get their fee for each vaccination and so busy pushing the responsibility on practice nurses that even simple questions about coughs colds, allergies and infections are not asked of parents.

One of the most serious aspects of this global problem - adverse reactions to drugs and vaccines - is that the great majority of doctors have abdicated much responsibility for health care and act simply as conduits for the drug and vaccine companies and in the case of vaccines, for the government.

Quoll

I've got to back Quokka's comments. The Australiam Coronial inquest has revealed a profoundly disturbing side of homeopathy and the woman who died of cancer chose that the only treatment she would recieve was homeopathy. No surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Now you might say that is her choice, and you are right, but she also relied on the homeopath to provide medical advice on treatment of cancer, something that a homeopath is not qualified to do. On the issue of the Australian Vaccination Network, while I absolutely support the rights of parents to receive good information based on facts I would also dispute the AVNs view that this is what they provide. Facts are based on evidence, not speculation and conspiracy theories. Spending your days imaging dark pharmacy plots does not lead to informed choice. The only way a parent can hope to make a good decision about vaccination is to have acces to good information from reliable sources - doctors and public health officials who see both benefits and problems with vaccinations every day. The recent problem with the CSL vaccine in Australia was quickly spotted and vaccination for children under 5 suspended. This was done using the same public health surveillance techniques used by most governments and it works to provide good information. It also revealed that the problem was just the vaccine from one manufacturer and the cause is being investigated.

As the parent of a child with autism I shared with others here many concerns about the potential cause of autism and what I could do about it. My child will have his neurological differences at a structural level for his whole life, but not his behavioural ones. Autism is a developmental delay and we have made fantastic progress with first a speech therapist and now physic and occupational therapy added to the mix. No meds, no diets and no experimenting on my own child with chemical concoctions designed for other purposes.

Sylvia

Meryl Dorey is a wonderful advocate for human rights. Thank God for people like her!
The crusade against her is dispicable, pure and simple.

patrons99
cmo

Is Austraila once again the "testing ground" for the 2010 - 2011 flu shot by big pharma ??

I am not sure of who decided that the flu always starts below the equator and then can only move North....

When is the next pandemic going to be declared so we can start to form a line for the vaccine ?

julie

Anyone who thinks following mainstream medical treatment for cancer can't end with a gruesome and horrendous death is terribly naive. I guess if the horrendous death takes place in a hospital it's ok.

Theodora Trudorn

I would trly like to know what people have against homeopathy. I work with alot of herbs at home. I make loose leaf herbal teas to help combat the spasms in my legs and I can tell you, it has brought me far more relief than anything mainstream medicine would do for me!!

Many people do both homeopathy and still do main stream treatments as well, and sometimes they compliment each other if you get a good doctor. (I've been lucky) Why is anyone who uses supplements, herbs and vitamins automaticly considered crazy?

Trace

Quokka
Although I am not fully aware of the situation you speak of regarding the woman with cancer, choosing homeopathy, vitamins, faith and positive thoughts does not make this woman or her husband lunatics. They made a choice to go a more natural route. There are no guarantees that if she would have chosen the "life saving medical care" that the outcome would have not been the same. Is chemo a cure all? Some feel it is the kiss of death. There are no guarantees. We just try to educate ourselves and make the best choices we can at that time. Who says what she did was a bad thing if she was at peace with the choices she made to pursue alternative health care? I respect people's choice regarding medical care(traditional or not) and you should respect hers.

John Stone

When the state claims a monopoly on truth we will surely only get lies. It is appalling to watch what Meryl has been subjected to, and what is happening in Australia is a terrible warning.

The bureaucracy can be used to control the scientists and medics, and when only the citizen is left to speak up they go after the citizen.

Cynthia Cournoyer

Where is the "peer reviewed" study on vaccinated vs unvaccinated? OOps, there is none. Where are the "peer reviewed" studies that say it is safe to give several vaccines in one day? Oops, there are none! When a journalist says, get your vaccine or risk certain death, where is the "peer reviewed" study there?

Martin Walker


I'm sorry that I seem to have upset you so much Quokka. I must say that your little story about the cancer death and the homeopath, is real bunkum. Having heard these urban myths constantly spouted over the last twenty years in the UK, I'd just like to make a few points.

Death from cancer is usually painful.

'horrendous' is a word which means nothing in this context.

I presume the woman chose her own treatment.

More than probably orthodox medics had given up on her as they give up on thousands of cancer patients, as they gave up on my mother when they found she had liver cancer.

Your statement that the husband and a homeopath treated the woman with alternative medicine so they could write a book, is asinine and I would imagine incorrect.

Cancer killed the woman, as it kills thousands who elect for and are treated by chemotherapy and other orthodox pharmaceutical treatments.

Homeopathy does not kill people, while the pharmaceutical arthritis drug Vioxx is reckoned to have killed 30,000 patients and the diabetes drug Avandia is estimated, by the FDA, to have killed around 83,000 people.

Your comment shows clearly that you didn't read my article which was about the censure by the State of the rights and liberties of free Australians to voice opinions upon and chose whether or not to have their children vaccinated.

I couldn't agree with you more about Universities with academically shoddy reputations which are local to you, lets have less of those.

Finally, with respect to my silly joke about Australians being isolated, I think it's time you lightened up a bit and maybe learned to laugh at yourself, I certainly have.

Virginia

Heidi
I recovered my now 6 year old son also. We are also looking at opening a "biomedical" orphanage. So great that you adopted an autistic child!! God Bless You!

Heidi N

Quokka:

My children are recovered from autism. I get upset when I read commentators tell me that they have knowledge because they work with children with autism. So, what!! Tell me you recovered some children like I did, and then I will listen. After recovering mine, I even adopted a child and recovered her. There are many people who work in the field who have no knowledge on how to help these children, such as the many psychologists and psychiatrists my children went to who said there is nothing anyone can do. They were completely wrong. It's about results. When you get children from special needs classes into regular classes without modifications, then you have some knowledge.

Maurine Meleck

This is so frightening. One can see them starting to gear up in the states now too-with a new school year approaching and the H1N1 just over the molehill.
Thanks, maurine

Lover of Truth

Based on Quokka's comment, Propoganda from Australia's pharma industry appears to be working. Hopefully the truth about the lack of safety studies on vaccines will not be lumped together with individual articles about vitamin therapy in the minds of every Australian. Thanks for posting.

MinorityView

BMJ attacked some medical doctors in India for questioning the necessity of hib:
http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2010/07/08/indian-physicians-slapped-with-anti-vaccine-label/

http://www.beyondconformity.org.nz/_blog/Hilary%27s_Desk/post/When_Indian_doctors_open_their_mouths/

Quokka

BTW the comment about Australians feeling isolated is patronising - we aren't and we don't.

Quokka

I live in Western Australia. A Coroners enquiry is currently under way investigating the horrendously painful death of a woman whose husband and homeopath wanted to cure with vitamins, faith and positive thoughts - allegedly so they could write a book about how they cured cancer with vitamins. The husband works at a local university which has a shocking academic reputation - this certainly has left a lot more there very red faced. The massive backlash against this idiocacy is not co-ordinated by big pharma. I and thousands of others see the lunacy of rejecting life saving medical care for what it is. By the way the attempt you have made of the Australian flag is completely out of proportion and incredibly insulting. You can't even get that right. I know you won't approve this comment and will accuse me of some pharma shill nonsense. I am not - I have spent the last 20 years of my career working with children with disabilities, including autism.

Jim Thompson

“Welcome to the Australian Vaccination Network
The AVN urges you to investigate before you vaccinate.”

http://www.avn.org.au/

This sounds like a safety first approach—which also threatens the profits of Pharma.


And most of the “peer -reviewed literature” that the Australian Health Care Complaints commission uses to justify censorship of free speech just happens to be reviewed by “experts” paid by Pharma.

How convenient.


This is Health Fascism without a doubt.

Thank you Martin.

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