Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Anti-Vaccination Group Accused of Harassing Parents


July 12, 2010 on ABC Lateline (Australia)
The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has compiled a damning report into Australia's most prominent anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).

The HCCC accuses the AVN of providing inaccurate and misleading information and selectively quoting research out of context to argue against vaccination.

The report has also noted accusations that the AVN harassed the parents of a child who died of whooping cough last year, after the parents advocated the importance of childhood vaccination.
Read more
(via Pharyngula)

8 comments:

  1. There once was a time when I'd criticise this video as being overly dismissive to the point where it would come off as bias to anyone who is somewhat concerned about vaccines.  i now realize that this issue is so important that we should only be concenred with getting through to the as yet undecideds.  Groups like the AVN use dirty tactics and so do we if we want to fight them off and save innocent kids.  People aren't rational, so let's use emotional appeals if we have to, for people's own good even if they're not smart enough to realize it

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  2. Shut these people down please.

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  3. There's something I'm missing here. This anti-vaccs group (others similar?) seems to display a fanatical zeal that seems very similar to proponents of extreme religious and political views. I don't understand, if you refuse vaccinations, why you need to evangelize this decision. I once made a very difficult decision to remove my infant daughter from hospital following an overly-lengthy recovery from an operation, mainly because she kept catching one thing after another in the recovery ward.
    I believe the decision was a good one, but I do not find the experience authorizes me to start a national movement, <span>proselytizing</span> parents to yank their youngsters out of hospital.
    I find this attitude weird.  Is there a religious  or political connection here somewhere? It's been my experience that that's where this kind of fanaticism usual starts.

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  4. Herd immunity in principle works - but vehemint support for and against vaccination are not based on facts but on faith. Mercury and other neurotoxins are often used to weaken the pathogen - but they also weaken you. Basicly generalizations result is a lot of confusion, certain vaccines are killers - not all of them. Vaccines are not all the same there are different ingredients. Doctors are part of a guild, and guilds can show some behaviours similar to cults.

    My chiroprator of 5 years is certainly against vaccination. So as of this moment I am too. I would want to know everything about the vacine before injecting an unknown solution into my body. 

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  5. <span>I only see a "Flag" "Like" and "Reply" button. We need an Idiot button.</span>

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  6. @Johanna - Could you link to the research showing that thimerosal is harmful? Could you list the other neurotoxins of which you are speaking and how they weaken you?

    I would disagree and say that support for vaccination is what has (until recently in most developed countries) erdicated things like pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubells, etc.  This is based on solid medical research. 

    Your beilef that the ingredients in vaccines are harmful is based on faith, not on facts.  (Caveat: some individuals are allergic to certain ingredients, but this is different from the topic at hand).

    Different vaccines have different ingredients?  Really?  Glad you cleared that up for us.

    So, since your fake doctor think vaccines are bad, you believe him.  He's a chiropractor, not a medical doctor, he has no training in immunology.

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  7. Johanna, I have a question for you. There's a local chiropractic who claims it can *cure* all ills but all I ever hear of is 'adjustment' after 'adjustment' after 'adjustment.' If chiropratic works, why do you have to keep going back? And if the problem is the spine being pulled out of alignment, why don't they focus on retraining the muscles?

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  8. Johanna:
    Kindly go back re-read what you just posted.  How in can any sensible person - even one that uses a chiropractor (NOT a real doctor) possibly believe that a specialist in manipulating the joints of the spine would have ANY training let alone expertise in something like infectious diseases?  Don't purposely make a fool of yourself.

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