Bad Times for Australian Anti-Vaxxers

Meryl Dorey of the Australian anti-vaxx group (although they hate being called that) Australian Vaccination Network or AVN has lost her bid to silence some of her critics via Apprehended Violence Orders (AVO).  Ms. Dorey sought AVOs against Peter Bowditch, founder of the Millenium Project, Daniel Raffaele, founder of the Stop the AVN Facebook page and Daniel Buzzard, a sceptical blogger and outspoken opponent of Meryl Dorey and the AVN.  Ms. Dorey's AVO petition against Mr. Bowditch was thrown out and apparently she cried about it.

But she suffered a setback last month when her AVO was thrown out against one critic, Peter Bowditch, who she claimed posted harassing and abusive messages online.

Unfortunately, Dan Raffaele agreed to the order for lack of will to fight it:

Mr Raffaele, who denied making any threatening calls, said he eventually agreed to the order because he was "sick of dealing with it", although he made sure her "gag order" was struck out.
"The only thing I was never going to agree to was being silenced on the internet," Mr Raffaele said. "The information (the AVN) spread is dangerous and it's not based on anything other than lies - and it costs lives."

All Ms. Dorey succeeded in doing was ensuring that Mr. Raffaele wasn't doing to begin with, which was personally harassing her.  She couldn't silence him though.

Mr. Buzzard is defending his complaint:

Western Australia-based Dan Buzzard, another AVN opponent, said Ms Dorey probably saw taking out the AVOs as a "quick and easy" way to silence her critics.

He will defend the application today.

It is obvious that Ms. Dorey is abusing the laws of her land to silence her critics, a play out of the book that other anti-vaccinationists have done because they want to spread their fear and lies uncontested.  Barbara Loe Fisher, Meryl Dorey's American counterpart and head of the also misleadingly named National Vaccination Information Network (NVIC) tried to sue one of her critics Dr. Paul Offit. The suit was dismissed before even being heard and she whined miserably about it.  JB Handley also tried to sue Dr. Offit and was unsuccessful (correction for the actual settlement here).

We wish Mr. Buzzard defeat over Ms. Dorey's frivolous complaint and hopes she cries again.

But that is not all. New South Wales (NSW), Australia's legislation is submitting a bill that would prevent unvaccinated children from entering pre-school and childcare centres.

Labor leader John Robertson will introduce amendments to the public health act which would give early childhood centres the right to refuse kids who haven't had their shots.

The move comes amid concern about high rates of unvaccinated children in some parts of
 NSW as well as the emergence of so-called "anti-vaxxers" who refuse vaccination.

Some parts of NSW had lower vaccination rates than Rwanda, Mr Robertson said.

In other words, no jabs-no school.  Congratulations AVN!  And another inadvertent action due to Meryl Dorey and her misnamed AVN is the unanimous denunciation of Meryl Dorey by parliament and her deceptive work along with greater scrutiny of dubious healthcare practitioners.  Keep up the great work Meryl, you're your own worst enemy.

Deadline for the Australian Vaccine Network (AVN)

The inappropriately named "Australian Vaccine Network" or AVN for short was ordered by the NSW Fair Trading Commission to change its name to reflect its staunch anti-vaccine position rather than continue to mislead parents by 21 March 2013.

The future of the Australian Vaccination Network is in doubt, following the government rejection of five suggested new names for the group because they don't reflect its anti-vaccination stance.

The AVN has until March 21 to change its name or it faces deregistration, after NSW Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts issued a formal order that its name misleads the public.

The organisation does not present a balanced case for vaccination and has no medical evidence to back its anti-vaccination stance, he says.

The current AVN president, Greg Beattie proffered equally misleading name change suggestions that were rejected.

AVN president Greg Beattie told News Limited it was vital the words Australia and Vaccination remained in the group's name because they defined what the organisation was about.

He said the group had sent a letter to the Fair Trading Department to ask whether they would accept one of five suggested name changes.
These include Australian Vaccination Information Network and Australian Vaccination Choice.

"We can't just change our name under the Association's Incorporation Act, we must go through a process of consulting with our members and we need a 75 per cent majority vote," Mr Beattie said.

Mr. Beattie is able to keep "Australia" and "Vaccination" in their name and in fact can just add an "A" to the acronym to make it reflect what it really is, "Australian Anti-Vaccination Network".  This would be beneficial to them as typing in "AVN" will fetch you a porn site.

The AVN (the anti-vaxx one) has filed an appeal with the Administrative Decisions Tribunal and granted a stay until a hearing which has been set in June.

The AVN is fighting a December ruling by Fair Trading that it must change its name, and the warning was put in place on the condition that the group will not have to change its name until its challenge is heard in June.

However a condition has been set that the AVN must place a prominent warning on their website, blog and Facebook page by 26 March 2013 that directs consumers to the current order and misleading name.

Tribunal president, Judge O'Connor, responded to a bid by the AVN to stay proceedings on Friday by placing a number of conditions on the organisation.
A prominent consumer warning must be published on its websites and Facebook page by March 26.

It will state: "NSW Fair Trading has directed the AVN to change its name because it regards the name to be misleading.

"The AVN is challenging this direction and the challenge is currently before the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal."

We'll see what the AVN will do and keep you posted.

Update: Since it is 26 March 2013 in New South Wales, Australia, the AVN website and Facebook pages have been updated with the requisite warning.  Let's hope it serves to caution unsuspecting parents looking for factual vaccine information and irritate the AVN on a daily basis.

Australian Anti-Vaccination Network AVN pwned by stopAVN statistician at their own seminar

Since we didn't post anything yesterday, here's a quick post to celebrate Stop the AVN's Scotty Harrison's beautiful talk at the Australian Anti-Vaccination Network's seminar "Vaccination and health - your right to choose" held in Armidale NSW a couple of days ago. I think the audience and organisers were expecting a slightly different take on the issue than they got - have a look and hear the guffaws about 3 minutes in as the penny drops:



Rather small-mindedly, the organisers turned down Scotty's generous offer of coming back for the next seminar the next day to provide some balance. Pwned - just beautiful - cheers mate!

Thank you American Airlines, for not spreading anti-vaccine lies

After fast and furious consumer protest and the petition that Paul Gallagher started raising over 2500 signatures in under two days, it appears American Airlines has seen the light of day and will not give vile anti-vaccine lies a platform in the in-flight "infotainment". Thank you American Airlines - thank you all who wrote, tweeted and signed!

ETA (26/4/2012) - the local (Australian) newspaper have apparently picked up on this and correctly identify the AVN as anti-vaccine on their first page:

Australian AntiVaccination Network to advertise on American Airlines

The CDC reported a couple of days ago, that 90% of the US' 2011 record 222 measles cases were associated with imports from other countries, nearly 90% of patients were unvaccinated or with unknown vaccination status; and of those eligible to have received the vaccine, a whopping 76% had a non-medical exemption. These numbers stress the significant risk of vaccine refusal. Measles imports into the United States come at substantial medical risk and cost, about $10000 per measles case and over $700 in income loss and other costs per quarantined family. Recent outbreaks in California, Utah, Minnesota and Arizona have cost the health system/hospitals between $130000 and $800000 to contain.

Less than a year ago, an unvaccinated infant, returning from India, exposed passengers of American Airlines flight AA3965 from Chigaco to Des Moines to measles. As a consequence of this measles import, 100 persons had to be contacted about their exposure, 25 had to be quarantined.

American Airlines seem to have a very short memory. Apparently, they are planning to feature the notorious Australian anti-vaccine campaigner Meryl Dorey of The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), via it's in-flight "Executive Report" media and "American Way" magazine, from July to August 2012. The interview (transcript) is clearly intended to discourage parents from vaccinating, which we know will lead to resurgence of deadly diseases, like measles and pertussis. I am not sure that disease is what American Airlines means to "give back to our communities".

You don't think deadly disease should be encouraged by advertising? There is a petition - sign it!

ETA (24/04/2012): see fab update!