AVN2011

Anti-vaccination talk starts war of words Minister jabs at festival activist Folk festival's invited speaker needles AMA
Campaign of fear gives me the needle Vaccine group aims to win over the West Anti-jab group back in WA Anti-vaccination group under scrutiny ADVISING PARENTS TO VACCINATE THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN Vaccine debaters get needled in 'tough gig' Vaccination row erupts Anti-vaccine activist needles opponents AMA attacks anti-vaccine chiropractors AVN appeals fundraising ban Doctors demand answers Dorey backs fraud' medico The Diary MAKING WAVES "The anti-vaxxers' trick is to misuse words to build dangerous pseudo- science crafted to suck in the unwary I HAVE no problem with parents being allowed to decide whether they want their... Future glimpse Loverly' prospect How 'mommy instinct' outdid science True un believers To needle or not? Why charity fraud is the `softest' crime How charity fraud is the `softest' crime
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Diseases return as jab rate drops off - SPECIAL INVESTIGATION "Like almost every child-rearing decision, vaccination is about weighing up risks and benefits Pity you can't be immunised against deceptive snake oil salesmen Anti-vaccine zeal akin to my belief in Santa Claus
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Anti-vaccination talk starts war of words Ava Benny-Morrison Reporter 393 words 16 December 2011 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 4 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Woodford appearance by campaigner draws the big guns THE Australian Vaccination Network's scheduled appearance at the popular Woodford Folk Festival has been met with strong opposition from an influential women's website. Bangalow-based AVN founder Meryl Dorey was invited to speak at this month's Queensland festival to present her views in a talk on autism in children. Mrs Dorey's participation was criticised by the popular blog, www.mamamia.com.au, run by the former editor of Cleo and Cosmopolitan, Mia Freedman. Ms Freedman condemned the move through social media sites and the Mamamia website, which is frequented by mothers. Mamamia news editor Rick Morton said the site was trying to raise awareness about the dangers of not vaccinating. When talking about vaccines or stuff that is a threat to public health, we don't think she should get a public platform funded by the government to preach that, Mr Morton said. It's downright dangerous to put views out there to the general public that are lies and downright inaccurate. Mr Morton also accused Ms Dorey of pretending to be something she was not (an expert) and of being a threat to public health. Yesterday, Queensland Health Minister Geoff Wilson stepped in. Fortunately there are enough wonderful things to do at Woodford that patrons have plenty of alternatives rather than sitting through the nonsense Meryl Dorey spouts, Mr Wilson said. Ms Dorey said in a democracy, the only threat was someone trying to stifle public debate. If we trust people to make decisions about their own health, someone giving out information to balance a deficit in data can't possibly be a danger unless the people themselves are thought to be too stupid to make their own choices and surely Mamamia wouldn't be saying that, she said. I have never claimed to be anything other than the mother of a vaccine-injured child who has spent over 20 years researching the science behind vaccine safety and effectiveness. And whilst people are being injured every day from vaccines and contracting illnesses they were fully vaccinated against, it seems a bit rich to be trying to tell parents that they should not question this medical procedure. Document APNNOS0020111215e7cg0015p
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News Minister jabs at festival activist Janelle Miles 394 words 16 December 2011 The Courier-Mail COUMAI 1 - First with the news 15 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved QUEENSLAND Health Minister Geoff Wilson has accused an anti-vaccination campaigner of spouting ``nonsense'' but defended her right to speak at the Woodford Folk Festival. Australian Vaccination Network president Meryl Dorey, who has no medical qualifications, has sparked a protest over her inclusion on the platform at the Queensland Government-sponsored festival. She is scheduled to speak at Woodford on December 29 and 30. One of the talks will be on her controversial belief in a link between autism and vaccination, which has been debunked by scientists. But Mr Wilson said no sensible person should take Mrs Dorey's opinions seriously. ``People do speak nonsense and Mrs Dorey's opinions are, in fact, nonsense,'' he said. But he was adamant she should remain on the festival program. `Ì wouldn't support a gagging of anyone who wants to speak foolishness,'' said Mr Wilson, who has attended the festival ``numerous times''. ``The best inoculation to bad ideas is public exposure. Rubbish needs to be exposed for what it is,'' he said. Mr Wilson said $61 million a year was spent on vaccinations in Queensland and he insisted the benefits were obvious. `Ì remember as a child at school seeing kids with polio wearing calipers,'' he said. ``We now, a generation later, don't see anything like that simply because of mass-scale vaccination against polio - likewise with many other diseases. ``That's why I'm so frankly passionate about ensuring that the message is strong that vaccination is the way forward.'' Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said vaccination was the safest and most effective way to prevent a range of serious diseases including whooping cough, diphtheria, measles, the flu and cervical cancer. A 22-year-old woman died in Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital in April, after contracting diphtheria from her boyfriend, who had recently travelled to Papua New Guinea. She had not been vaccinated against the disease. Dr Young said vaccinations had improved over the years and now caused far fewer adverse reactions. ``Most of the adverse reactions are minimal,'' she said. `Ànyone concerned about the risks of an adverse reaction should speak to their general practitioner. ``That's where they should be getting advice about what to do about their health, not from someone who admits she doesn't have that medical expertise.'' Document COUMAI0020111215e7cg0000m
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Folk festival's invited speaker needles AMA 176 words 16 December 2011 Northern Times, The NORTIM 15 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE Woodford Folk Festival has come under fire for allowing anti-vaccination campaigner Meryl Dorey to speak at this year's festival. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says the Australian Vaccination Network has no credibility and festival sponsor Moreton Bay Regional Council has distanced itself from her involvement. Ms Dorey said she used credible information and provided balance to pro-vaccination information which allowed parents to make informed decisions. She said a doctor would also take part in the discussion at the festival. AMA Federal Council General Practice representative Dr Brian Morton said Ms Dorey spoke with no authority and relied on research proven to be wrong. Dr Morton said vaccination had a ``high level of safety'' and its value was backed by a strong body of research. `Ìt's the best health initiative that has brought about the biggest change in quality of life in western society,'' he said. In 2010 the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) found the vaccination network's website contained `ìncorrect and misleading'' information. Document NORTIM0020111220e7cg00008
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Features Campaign of fear gives me the needle Tracey Spicer 336 words 28 December 2011 Daily Telegraph DAITEL 1 - State 13 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved PART of the role of government is to protect its citizens from dangerous misinformation. Tomorrow an anti-vaccination campaigner will speak at a festival, sponsored by a state government and a regional council. Meryl Dorey from the misleadingly named Australian Vaccination Network continues to link the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine with autism, based on the work of discredited doctor Andrew Wakefield, who was struck off the register after the UK General Medical Council found he had behaved ``dishonestly and irresponsibly'' in his research. The anti-vaccination fear campaign led to a drop in immunisation rates in western countries, and a rise in whooping cough, diphtheria and measles. In Australia, there are about 35,000 cases of pertussis every year, with at least five deaths during recent epidemics. A grassroots group called Stop the AVN is running an outstanding campaign to try to stop the misinformation. After all, governments spend an awful lot of money encouraging us to vaccinate our children. Why would they undo this good work by supporting these unsubstantiated rantings? But the Queensland government and Moreton Bay Regional Council are refusing to pull their sponsorship from the Woodford Folk Festival. Queensland Health Minister Geoff Wilson said: ``Vaccinations have saved millions of lives. So don't take (Dorey's) nonsense too seriously.'' But Arts Minister Rachel Nolan defended the sponsorship, saying she would not be ``some kind of moral censor''. Under increasing pressure, festival organisers say Dorey will no longer speak solo. She will now be part of a panel, including an immunologist and a moderator. But why should someone with no medical or scientific training be put on the same level as an immunologist? Sure, it is a free country. I would never advocate censorship. But there should be a disclaimer at the start of the discussion that her views have no basis in fact. The benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks. To me, it is simple. Vaccinate your children. It saves lives. Document DAITEL0020111227e7cs0000p
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Vaccine group aims to win over the West DIGBY HILDRETH Senior reporter 387 words 28 October 2011 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 5 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved More interstate trips for campaigner PUBLIC demand for information about vaccination has prompted the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) to increase the number of workshops it is conducting around the country. Meryl Dorey, who leads the group from a base in Bangalow, is in the middle of a three-week tour of Western Australia the third time she has visited the state in three years. South Australia, Victoria and Queensland are on her agenda for the new year, she said. We are increasing the number of seminars we are running because there is a huge demand for this information that is not being filled by the medical authorities, she said from Perth yesterday. Ms Dorey stressed that the AVN was not an anti-vaccine organisation, but one that was pro vaccine safety. What the AVN is about is giving information to people who want it, she said. Two recent seminars in Western Australia had been well received, with a lot of people attending, including a number of pregnant women. The NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) revoked the AVN's licence to fundraise as a charity last year after a warning from the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) that its website contained information that was misleading and incorrect. The then gaming and racing minister said the group breached charitable fundraising laws and potentially misled the public and was no longer permitted to accept charitable donations. The AVN launched a civil suit against the commission in the NSW Supreme Court which is due to begin on November 9 in Sydney. We are hopeful of winning on the grounds that the complaint against us was not valid and that the HCCC failed to carry out a proper investigation, Ms Dorey said. The AVN had had to depend on donations from members since the OLGR ruling, but its barrister in the civil action was acting on a pro bono basis, she said. He is not doing so because of the vaccination issue but because this is to do with human rights. Do we have a right to access all information before we make a decision even if it is information the government disagrees with? Document APNNOS0020111027e7as000p7
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General Anti-jab group back in WA CATHY OLEARY 100 words 27 October 2011 The West Australian TWAU Second 18 English (c) 2011, West Australian Newspapers Limited An anti-vaccination group that sparked a political row in Perth last year is back in WA charging parents $15 for its public forums. The Australian Vaccination Network held meetings in Busselton and Perth this week. Last year, the Uniting Church in Perth refused to let the NSW group use one of its halls and the State Library came under fire when it let the group use one of its buildings. . Australian Medical Association WA president Dave Mountain said the group was trying to whip up antivaccine hysteria again. Document TWAU000020111026e7ar0003v
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General Anti-vaccination group under scrutiny Cathy OLeary 124 words 5 November 2011 The West Australian TWAU Second 13 English (c) 2011, West Australian Newspapers Limited Consumer Protection is investigating whether an anti-vaccination group breached charity laws by seeking donations at a series of meetings in WA in the past two weeks. The NSW-based Australian Vaccination Network held public forums in Perth, Busselton, Jurien Bay and Geraldton, charging $15 and giving out brochures asking people to donate to the group. Last year, it was stripped of its charity status by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing because of fundraising irregularities and it was ordered not to carry out public appeals in that State. The Health Care Complaints Commission has issued a public warning about the group, saying its action posed a risk to public health and safety. Document TWAU000020111104e7b500069
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ADVISING PARENTS TO VACCINATE THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN 310 words 15 December 2011 Australian Government News HTAUGN English Copyright 2011. HT Media Limited. All rights reserved. BRISBANE, Queensland, Dec. 15 -- The Hon. Geoff Wilson, Health, has issued the following media statement: Parents should vaccinate themselves and their children, Minister for Health Geoff Wilson said today. Mr Wilson said fringe groups like the misleadingly named 'Australian Vaccination Network' are wrong to discourage people from getting vaccinated. "I love Woodford Folk Festival. I've been numerous times. There's great music, great food and great folk entertainment. Fortunately, there's enough wonderful things to do at Woodford that patrons have plenty of alternatives rather than sitting through the nonsense Meryl Dorey spouts about vaccination dangers", Mr Wilson said. "For the small number of people who might be entertained by what Ms Dorey has to say, Woodford Folk Festival has a place for everyone. Just don't take her nonsense too seriously." "The fact is vaccinations have saved millions of lives. Their invention was a miracle of scientific achievement." Queensland's Chief Health Officer said Queensland Health remained absolutely committed to delivering its immunisation program to as many Queenslanders as possible. "In the past year hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders have been protected against deadly diseases such as whooping cough, cervical cancer, diphtheria and measles, as well as influenza." she said. "The benefits of vaccination are obvious. Between 1930 and 1988, around 40,000 Australians developed paralytic Polio. Now Australia is Polio free." "Vaccination prevents potentially fatal conditions like measles, diphtheria and whooping cough." "This program saves lives, and we will continue to urge Queenslanders to vaccinate their children against life-threatening illnesses," Dr Young said. "Queensland's vaccination program is extremely safe and is the most effective way to prevent illness and death from vaccine preventable diseases," she said. Document HTAUGN0020111215e7cf00006
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News Vaccine debaters get needled in 'tough gig' Rose Brennan 330 words 30 December 2011 The Courier-Mail COUMAI 1 - First with the news 11 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved A STORM brewed in the Blue Lotus tent at the Woodford Folk Festival yesterday. In one corner, there was a pro-choice vaccination campaigner and in the other, an immunology specialist. Meryl Dorey, president of the Australian Vaccination Network, had been billed to speak alone on the topic of childhood immunisations, but pressure from the community brought a change to the line-up to ensure both sides of the debate were heard. Ms Dorey, who has no medical qualifications, has spoken at Woodford for the past two years. Professor Andreas Suhrbier, head of the immunovirology laboratory at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, said there was generally a huge problem with getting people to understand science. Professor Suhrbier acknowledged the debate was `à tough gig''. ``This is Woodford,'' he said. `Òne thing we do know is that vaccinations aren't the reason why there is an increase in autism. The movement that's been built up over the link with autism is extremely difficult to dampen down with scientific argument, so you end up with this insane expenditure on a theory that's dead.'' Mum Matilda Ramsay, 24, from Yandina, said she chose a natural birth for her two-month-old son Adviye and had made a ``lifestyle choice'' not to immunise her child. ``There's not a lot of public speaking about the issue. I'm such a healthy person and he's a healthy baby so he has natural immunity,'' she said. Woodford Folk Festival director Bill Hauritz said numbers were up on last year due to the fine weather. The festival has earned a reputation for putting on amazing shows on its final night on New Year's Day. This year, organisers have been unveiling a piece of a gigantic puzzle of the world each night to represent collective global harmony. Last night's piece was an illuminated lantern of a smiling face, representing happiness for children. Document COUMAI0020111229e7cu0000l
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Vaccination row erupts 395 words 14 December 2011 Sunshine Coast Daily APNSCD Main 10 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Pro-choice campaigner refuses to be silenced after spot at Woodford festival comes under fire A PRO-CHOICE vaccination campaigner whose appearance at this year's Woodford Folk Festival has drawn controversy claims she is the victim of an orchestrated campaign against her. A media storm has erupted over the listing of Meryl Dorey, of the Australian Vaccination Network, as a speaker at the festival on December 29 and 30. Critics have accused Ms Dorey of spreading misinformation and have suggested she would present a public danger by speaking at the festival. Ms Dorey said she had been targeted for the past two years by people opposed to her pro-choice vaccination views. She believed most of the opposition stemmed from the Australian Skeptics group. Mapleton resident Chrys Stevenson, who voiced her opposition to Ms Dorey's presence at the festival in a letter to the Daily, said Ms Dorey had been the subject of a public health warning by the Health Care Complaints Commission last year. Ms Stevenson, a member of Australian Skeptics, said she was not against giving a voice to various views but did not believe Ms Dorey should speak at the festival. What I'm against is someone who, after 12 months of investigation has been shown to be putting up false and misleading information, being given a platform at a large festival, which is not about health, she said. Ms Dorey said this year would be the third or fourth time she had spoken at the festival and she had never before been targeted by such strong and widespread criticism. Ms Dorey said she was pro-choice, not anti-vaccination, and would not be silenced. You need to have a public debate about all health issues and no scientific process is above debate or question, she said. Festival director Bill Hauritz said that he had been too busy to give any consideration to the appropriateness of Ms Dorey's appearance. Mr Hauritz said he would refer the matter to the festival's management committee for consideration. He was not aware of any reaction by festival sponsors towards Ms Dorey's scheduled appearance. Moreton Bay Regional Council, one of the sponsors of the festival, said it did not endorse Ms Dorey or her festival appearance. Document APNSCD0020111213e7ce001md
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News Anti-vaccine activist needles opponents Janelle Miles 389 words 15 December 2011 The Courier-Mail COUMAI 1 - First with the news 3 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved A STORM is brewing over controversial anti-vaccination campaigner Meryl Dorey being given a platform at the Queensland Government-sponsored Woodford Folk Festival. Chrys Stevenson, a member of the Australian Skeptics, said she was opposed to Ms Dorey being included on the Woodford program, given it was supported by the taxpayer. Ms Dorey is the Australian Vaccination Network president. The NSW Health Care and Complaints Commission last year ruled that information on the AVN's website was misleading and inaccurate. Ms Stevenson, who lives at Mapleton in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, said she was concerned that Ms Dorey, who will speak about vaccination, autism and toxicity, was putting babies' lives at risk by preaching misinformation. Despite the controversy, Queensland Arts Minister Rachel Nolan, whose department is sponsoring the festival, said it supported jobs and tourism. ``The Government, and I, as Arts Minister, are not going to be some kind of moral censor,'' she said. ``Who is contracted for the event is a matter for the festival. ``The Government's position has not changed. We support the vaccination of all Queenslanders.'' Ms Dorey said security guards would be on hand for her appearances at the festival on December 29 and 30. She accused the Australian Skeptics and a Facebook group, dubbed Stop the AVN, for being behind a campaign to have her pulled from the festival. ``They've been attacking us for over 2 1/2 years now. Those attacks have included death threats,'' Ms Dorey said. `Èvery time I go to a seminar anywhere, the Stop the AVN try to get the venue to cancel. `Ì find it quite disturbing that there isn't an outcry. People are not considering the implications of allowing someone to interfere with the discussion of a political issue. Freedom of communication is guaranteed in Australia.'' Public health academic Jon Wardle, of the University of Queensland, said although he disagreed with Ms Dorey's vaccination message, she should be allowed to present her views at public forums. Dr Wardle said he believed criticism by the pro-vaccination lobby of Ms Dorey's festival appearances had been counter-productive. Australian Medical Association Queensland president Richard Kidd said he respected freedom of speech but called on Woodford organisers to ensure all sides of the vaccination debate were presented. Document COUMAI0020111214e7cf00005
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AMA attacks anti-vaccine chiropractors 176 words 29 July 2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News ABCNEW English (c) 2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation One of the country's peak medical bodies says it is worried about links between chiropractors and a Bangalow-based anti-vaccination group. The Australian Medical Association's (AMA) general practice chairman, Dr Brian Morton, says many chiropractors are members of the Australian Vaccination Network. He says they should not be allowed access to public funds if they are caught encouraging patients not to vaccinate. "I think chiropractors, who support a non-evidence-based and dangerous process of telling people not to vaccinate their children and not to get vaccinations, should not be entitled to access Medicare benefits," Dr Morton said. "Public health policy is a very strong supporter of vaccination and that's because of the benefits, and the proven benefits and the life-saving nature. "To allow one group to access Medicare benefits and actively work against a public health policy is simply wrong." The Chiropractic Association of Australian says it does not have a position on vaccination, so it would not be appropriate to comment on the issue. Document ABCNEW0020110729e77t000ef
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AVN appeals fundraising ban 234 words 17 March 2011 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 8 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved A BANGALOW-BASED anti-vaccination group will go to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in May in a bid to overturn a fundraising ban impo-sed by the State Government. The controversial Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) was banned from fundraising on October 20 last year after Gaming and Racing Minister Kevin Greene revoked its charitable status, saying the group breached charitable fundraising laws and potentially misled thepublic. The organisation is now fighting to have the courts overturn Mr Greene's decision. The matter had a brief mention in at a tribunal sitting in Sydney yesterday and is listed for hearing on May 18 and 19. The minister's decision followed an investigation by the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing, which took into account findings of the Health Care Complaints Commission that the organisation's website provided information that was solely anti-vaccination and incorrect and misleading information. The revocation means that AVN is no longer licensed to conduct fundraising appeals in NSW and is not entitled to accept donations from members of the public via any method of collection including face-toface and online appeals, a department statement said at the time. AVN is not prevented from receiving donations from its members as this is not considered fundraising for the purposes of the charitable fundraising legislation. Document APNNOS0020110316e73h000gq
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Local Doctors demand answers 76 words 24 July 2011 Sunday Telegraph SUNTEL 1 - State 25 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved DOCTORS have accused a renegade group of chiropractors of undermining public health policy by supporting a discredited anti-vaccination group. The Health Care Complaints Commission issued a public warning to the Australian Vaccination Network last year after it found the group was spreading misinformation about childhood vaccination. The AMA's Dr Brian Morton said it was ``reprehensible chiropractors support the anti-vaccination lobby'' and they should not have access to Medicare rebates. Document SUNTEL0020110723e77o0006q
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Dorey backs fraud' medico MEL MCMILLAN Reporter 344 words 8 January 2011 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 2 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved AVN stands by thedoctor derided byUK medical journal AUSTRALIAN Vaccination Network spokeswoman Meryl Dorey is standing by the barred British gastroenterologist, Dr Andrew Wakefield, despite the current edition of the British Medical Journal labelling his work as an elaborate fraud. Dr Wakefield's 1998 study ignited a worldwide scare over a possible linkbetween vaccines and autism, and led millions of parents to delay or decline vaccination for their children. The study has long since been debunked and dismissed by the scientific community, which points to 14 independent studies that have failed to find any link between vaccines and autism. Last year, The Lancet, publisher of the original study, issued a formal retraction. British medical authorities last year also found Dr Wakefield guilty of serious professional misconduct, stripping him of his ability to practice in England. However, the Bangalow-based MrsDorey said there were dozens of peer reviewed studies that showed a possible link between autism and vaccination, and claimed the studies used to show the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) were poorly designed. Prof Robert Booy, director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, said Mrs Dorey's claim was laughable. There is not a single reputable study to support a link between MMR and vaccination, Prof Booy said. He said thousands of hours of research time, which could have been spent researching the causes and prevention of autism, had been wasted on a wild goose chase. The safety of MMR was well established, Prof Booy said. The BMJ reports that Dr Wakefield, who was paid more than $A676, 658 by a lawyer hoping to sue vaccine manufacturers, was not just unethical, he falsified data in the study which suggested children developed autism after getting an MMR shot. In fact, the children's medical records show that some clearly had symptoms of developmental problems long before getting their shots, BMJ says. Several had no autism diagnosis at all. Document APNNOS0020110107e71800133
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News and Features - The Diary The Diary by MATT BUCHANAN and SCOTT ELLIS 1,239 words 14 December 2011 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 20 English 2011 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. It's all relative in gay debate Are sibling differences the new trend in Australian journalism? Yesterday morning it was reported that Loree Rudd had left the Labor Party over its backing of gay marriage. Her view? Civil unions are adequate for homosexuals and recognising gay marriage would be an intolerable contravention of Mosaic law. Soon after, Crikey ran an item written by Stephanie Bolt, a lesbian who married in Canada, about how her gay marriage conferred a sense of "legitimacy and belonging I wasn't expecting to feel". There would be no debate without the airing of opposing views. That said, Loree Rudd's views just might have got the airing they did not because they are uncommon, or uncommonly strong, but because she is Kevin Rudd's sister and her views contrast with his. Likewise, as much as Bolt's piece's trembled with heartfelt personal experience, her view, she readily acknowledged, was a directly contrasting response to the opinion of her brother, the conservative columnist Andrew Bolt, who last week published a column inveighing against gay marriage. What we want to know is: where will this end? Next thing you know they'll be squaring off the Katter brothers against each other. Oh, wait, hang on ... PEDAL POWER The NSW Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, has made a few noises in the past about ripping up Sydney's cycleways. In June, presumably after knocking back a bottle of hyperbole pills, he said: "If the Greens had their way NSW would have cycleways worth $1 billion, enough to build 2000 kilometres of bike lanes - from Sydney to Cairns." Before that he called for the bulldozing of the College Street cycleway. We mention it because now his own department has been rewarded for building one. As the Liberal councillor and cycleway booster Shayne Mallard put it in his tweet: "City of Sydney wins RTA Award for Road Transport Infrastructure Project - Bourke Street Cycleway, Woolloomooloo (don't tell the Minister.) " WARNING SHOTS Usually when the word "controversy" appears in the same sentence as "music festival", it's because some reprobate muso has gone off on a drink and/or drug-fuelled frenzy, causing either offence and/or hilarity. Sometimes both, if we're lucky. But they like to do things differently at the Woodford Folk Festival, with howls of disbelief and derision aimed at the event before the first act has even taken to the stage. Why? Because the organisers have confirmed that one of those taking part in this year's festival will be Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network. That's the anti-vaccination group the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission issued a public warning about last year, describing their website as providing "information that is incorrect and misleading" and that "should not be read as medical advice". The AVN, they concluded, "poses a risk to public health and safety". Opposition to Dorey's appearance - at least without someone having right of reply - is growing, with the celebrity blogger Mi a Freedman leading the charge. "She can say what she likes," reads an article on Friedman's website Mamamia, "as long as others can point to her and say 'Dangerous, uninformed, unscientific nonsense'." The organisers of the festival, however, must think otherwise, with a blurb on their website promising Dorey will be chatting about vaccination as part of the festival, which begins on December 27. Nobody from the festival office was willing to speak with the Diary yesterday. KYLE'S BILE RULES DIAL They're funny old things, broadcast ratings. No matter how much people want them to show we reward the worthy, they just keep doing the opposite. And so it is with almost zero surprise to anyone that the latest radio ratings came out yesterday showing Kyle Sandilands has actually boosted his numbers. In the final set of ratings for the year, Sandilands, who memorably called a reporter a "piece of shit" and threatened to hunt her down after she criticised his recent heinous television special Kyle and Jackie O's A Night With The Stars, still helms Sydney's most-listened-to FM breakfast show, with an audience share of 11.2 per cent, up from 10.6 per cent in the previous survey. "2Day FM has closed the year on a high with gains across the board for the station Sydney has voted its favourite for over five years," said the general manager of Southern Cross Austereo Sydney (and Kyle's boss) Adam Lang. It should be pointed out the ratings term is 10 weeks, with only two covered by the period of controversy. The next Page 18 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
ratings period begins January 16, 2012. GOT A TIP? Contact diary@smh.com.au or 92822350 or twitter.com/thesmhdiary A BIG DAY FOR ... PHOTO-HUNGRY MINISTERS MARY POPPINS might be flying off into the sunset on Saturday (well, to Brisbane, actually) but the usually unflappable NSW Arts Minister, always ready for a media opportunity, had his wings clipped yesterday. Our musicals correspondent Wendy Frew reports that George Souris turned up at the Capitol for a "farewell" press conference for the Disney musical with one arm in a sling, after undergoing shoulder surgery on Monday afternoon. Souris appeared on stage with Mary (Verity Hunt-Ballard) and chimney sweep Bert (Matt Lee). Surrounded by half a dozen chimney sweeps and a London rooftop backdrop, pictured, the minister declared the show's Sydney run "practically perfect". Exact ticket figures weren't available but Souris said "almost half a million people" saw the show at the Capitol, which experienced 93 per cent capacity through the nine-month season. About the same number saw the show in Melbourne in its 10-month season. Destination NSW never reveals how much money it pours into big musicals like Mary Poppins but we do know the state paid for the show's marketing, plus all the banners and bunting around the city. In return, the state economy received $20 million from interstate and international visitors who came specifically to see the show. Add to that the money spent by interstate and international visitors who came to see the government-supported Jersey Boys and Dr Zhivago, and the figure tops $70 million. Mary Poppins formalities over, Souris then zoomed off to the the MCA after getting wind of another photo op. Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer gave Souris a guided tour of his exhibition which opens on Friday, the first in the museum's new gallery space. Souris's thoughts? "My ... first impression is the kids are going to love it," he told Adam Fulton. He also said that the shoulder was a bit sore, admitting: "I've got to have some more painkillers." Far be it from us to suggest he sustained his rotator cuff injury shouldering aside bystanders on his way to another photo opportunity. WHATS ON TODAY Rugby Union Players' Association Awards, The Ivy Room , Sydney. Sydney Film School Festival, Chauvel Cinema, Paddington, Steve Waugh's Battle of the Smashers 2: celebrity Twenty20, Drummoyne Oval, 2pm. "If you had tried to put a camera in the wild in a polar bear den, she would either have killed the cub or she would have killed the cameraman, one or the other. David Attenborough on why a sequence for Frozen Planet was actually filmed in a zoo. Document SMHH000020111213e7ce00044
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Features MAKING WAVES ROD BENNETT 488 words 13 January 2011 Manly Daily MANLYD 1 - Main Book 9 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved Spicy radio goes viral RADIO 2UE host and peninsula resident Tracey Spicer has gone viral in social networking sense with her confrontational interview with an anti-vaccination campaigner zipping around the world. During last Friday afternoon's interview with the Australian Vaccination Network president Meryl Dorey, Tracey pointed to a British Medical Journal finding that research by Dr Andrew Wakefield, which drew a link between vaccination and autism, was flawed and fraudulent. Tracey said that a decade ago this would have been a small interview on a Sydney radio station. However, because of the social networking site Twitter, her feisty discussion with Ms Dorey had been heard around the world and huge numbers of people had commented online. Halfway through the interview, as Ms Dorey tried to direct listeners to her website, Tracey terminated the interview. `Ì thought it was irresponsible to allow her to peddle this mis-information,'' Spicer said. The 2UE afternoons presenter has since received tweets from scientists across the globe. She joined Twitter only about two weeks ago. `Ì had just a handful of followers,'' she said. `Àfter the interview someone told me it had gone viral. I didn't even know what that meant. I wondered if I could be vaccinated!'' She said it was the biggest thing that had ever happened to her in her journalistic career. Chinese New Year gymkhana on foot CHINA Heart is the name of a new multicultural event that uses the internet to tell a Chinese tale, one that is based in Sydney. China Heart celebrates Chinese New Year, starting on January 30, and will see Sydney's Chinatown abuzz with people following the virtual and real-time clues to solve a mystery. The tale is a story by Annette Shun Wah and is about a Chinese-Australian woman, Lian, who is rediscovering her past and her heritage in the process of solving a personal mystery. Physically, it starts at the Powerhouse Museum on January 30, where participants download the application onto their mobiles or get the story using mobile web. Participants will unravel video clues, oral histories, soundscapes and historic re-enactments using their phones' GPS. Players search through the streets and laneways of the Haymarket area, and the pieces of the puzzle come together at each new location. The mystery culminates at the Chinese Garden of Friendship at Darling Harbour. Rock 'n' roll band You Am I's frontman Tim Rogers said he could not comment on the rumour that between gigs the band is imprisoned, joined together by chains. The 40+-year-old frontman said he was recently offered a biography book deal but will most likely decline it because he ``hasn't started to live yet''. "A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five" Groucho Marx Page 20 of 53
Contact us : PHONE: 9976 1939 FAX: 9977 3104 EMAIL: makingwaves@manlydaily.com.au Document MANLYD0020110112e71d0000e
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Opinion "The anti-vaxxers' trick is to misuse words to build dangerous pseudo- science crafted to suck in the unwary TORY SHEPHERD 867 words 29 November 2011 The Advertiser ADVTSR 1 - State 18 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE Government has hoisted up a large and slightly unwieldy carrot to boost immunisation rates. Families could miss out on around $2100 if the kids don't get their jabs. The announcement comes in the midst of a whooping cough outbreak, and at a time when clusters of non-vaccinators are allowing preventable diseases to incubate. The Government's changes, which will mean those who don't immunise will not be eligible for three payments of $729 under Family Tax Benefit A, is well-intentioned, if clumsy. Under the current system, families get an immunisation allowance even if they are ``conscientious objectors'' but this will now be scrapped, while more immunisations will be added to the schedule. Here's the likely outcome. Some lazy-to-the-point-of-negligence parents, or those disadvantaged enough not to know the importance of vaccinating, will decide $2100 is enough incentive to give their child crucial healthcare. Hopefully some dithering families who were initially swayed by the misinformation broadcast by the antivaxxers will be prompted to have another look at the science behind vaccination, and realise that the potentially life-saving benefits outweigh the tiny risks. And then you'll have the true believers who will sacrifice money because they have been duped by the pseudo-science and magical thinking spread by the likes of the Australian Vaccination Network. These conscientious objectors - who number just one per cent in the population at large but up to around 20 per cent in NSW's Byron Shire - will allow the Government to pocket more than $200 million in savings over four years. The Government should take the dosh gladly, turn around and use it for an aggressive campaign aimed at wiping out the nonsense that gets spun around immunisation. Now that the ``links'' created between the MMR jab and autism by the fraudulent Dr Andrew Wakefield have been entirely demolished, now that the deadly danger of whooping cough is clear, now that the science is in and it shows consistently and conclusively that vaccination works - you'd think that the fight would be nearly over. It's not. The latest announcement by the Government prompted the anti-vaxxers to trot out the same misleading lines all over again, and the media saw fit to give them space. They used the same hoary old chestnuts that magical thinkers everywhere do. They ignore the data in favour of anecdotes, find causation where there is none, blow rare incidences out of all proportion. So you'll hear them say: ``Well, I vaccinated my child and later they got autism.'' They take the cock-up with last year's Fluvax as proof that all vaccinations are bad. They - unbelievably - say there's no evidence that immunisation works, when there are mountains of dat a and hundreds of studies on exactly how it has worked. In short, they willfully misunderstand science and how it works, and the messy elegance of it as a selfcorrecting system. They talk about `ìnformed'' choice, and freedom, and horridly they often point to the rude good health of their own unvaccinated children. Children kept healthy by the mostly vaccinated herd around them. Children who could still catch a deadly disease like whooping cough, survive, and never know whether they in turn passed it on to a newborn or a sick person who in turn died. Then they - and by ``they'' we're talking about an enormous and growing industry that feeds on fear to Page 22 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
sell books and T-shirts and website hits - they also pepper their nonsense with science-y-sounding words. It's a trick the Creationists mastered, a house of cards built with words appropriated and misused, a dangerous pseudo-science crafted to suck in the unwary. We're living in an age of internet-fuelled credulity, where people mistrust or ignore science, or mistake the fallibility of scientists for some inherent problem with science itself, then turn to the snake oil merchants. It's doubtful this Government, mistrusted itself, could on its own restore rationality to the debate, but in this particular instance it has a moral obligation to spend the money saved on giving it a red hot go. shepherdt@thepunch.com.au COMMON VACCINATION MYTHS Vaccination causes autism. It doesn't. A study that linked MMR to autism was found to be an `èlaborate fraud'' by a discredited researcher with many conflicts of interest. Vaccinating is more dangerous than not vaccinating. It's not. Some vaccines can cause adverse reactions. A ``bad batch'' last year caused febrile convulsions. But reactions are rare and generally mild and it is still a much safer option than not vaccinating. There are ``natural'' alternatives such as homeopathy. No, there aren't. Homeopathy doesn't work. Your child will still be susceptible to deadly diseases and could pass them on to people who can't get vaccinated. Vaccines will poison you with mercury and other toxic metals. No, they won't. There are very stringent tests for safety and when they fail, it is front-page news. Document ADVTSR0020111128e7bt0004f
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I HAVE no problem with parents being allowed to decide whether they want their... Katrina Bailey 366 words 4 June 2011 Sunshine Coast Daily APNSCD Main 32 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved I HAVE no problem with parents being allowed to decide whether they want their children vaccinated or not. But I believe every parent should get both sides of the story and then make an informed decision. That is what my ex-husband and I did with our children. We looked at both sides of the argument, weighed it up and decided it was not for us. I suspect, however, that this is often not the case, as many parents opt to have a child immunised without examining the possible pitfalls. Regarding those possible pitfalls, which I consider to be very real based on the research I have conducted and the parents I have spoken to, the Australian Vaccination Network is an excellent source of information. The network has a booklet, Vaccination Roulette, which details the hidden truths behind vaccination and the associated dangers. The thing to remember about vaccination is that it involves a live virus entering the blood stream, and some children can have a bad reaction to it. In some cases, that adverse reaction is not known immediately. It is my opinion that in certain cases, immunisation can cause serious complications in children. I have spoken to people who said their child was perfectly OK until they had their immunisation, and then the child ended up with autism. Based on my conversations with parents, behavioural problems appear to be the major issue associated with immunisation. Basically, I just think it is a risky procedure. My children have not been vaccinated, and I never had a problem getting them into a day care centre and then a school. They are really healthy kids. I think the body is capable of healing itself, given the right opportunities a good diet, plenty of sunshine, exercise, clean water and natural remedies. I believe it is becoming more acceptable not to vaccinate a child, particularly on the Sunshine Coast, which has one of the highest unvaccinated rates in the country. Katrina Bailey is a naturopath and Buderim mother of two. Document APNSCD0020110603e764000jh
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Future glimpse 3,643 words 4 August 2011 The Northern Rivers Echo APNNRE Main 32 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Future glimpse I'm in northern British Columbia, Canada, in the small town of Rolla. Up here there's an abundance of oil wells and gas drillings using the fracking methods we've all heard so much about. They're everywhere, all across Saskatchewan and Alberta and BC, a plague of black tanks dominating the landscape. And the water is poison. You can't drink it. Canadians acknowledge it and laugh about it, nervously. Their jobs depend upon it, so they don't say too much, but they know they've been swindled. Someone, somewhere not here is getting very, very rich. But here, the water stinks. It's vile. This is the future. Get used to it. Mick Daley, The Re-Mains Fact-finding I was told about the possibility of a coal seam gas pipeline to be laid through Kyogle, along Lynch's Creek and up along the Lions Road, a couple of years ago. But, it wasn't until I watched the documentary Gasland the message really sunk in. After seeing this documentary I said to my husband, Our children should be watching this because it's scarier than a horror movie, it's true and it's happening here! I urge anyone who hasn't already seen the documentary to do so before they form an opinion as to whether coal seam gas should be allowed to be extracted, especially in our area. True, it is an American documentary but the devastation this procedure has caused to the land, people's health, drinking water and even causing the hair and fur to fall from animals is shocking. It seems that in the mighty chase for the money from this gas nothing is sacred ... not even the famous Yellowstone National Park! And now, coal seam gas production is happening in Australia! Recent 60 Minutes and Four Corners programs clearly illustrated the problems of farmers who have gas wells on their properties and the problems that are being caused by methane and carcinogenic chemicals leaking into their bore water. When I first arrived in this area I was totally struck by the beautiful countryside, so much so that wherever we drove around here I felt it was like driving through a picture book. Another plus was the beautiful creeks that abound in our area and the clean, country air. After watching Gasland I know that if coal seam gas is not stopped we too will have lost our picturesque countryside forever. Yes, it is a huge revenue earner and it does provide some work, but at what cost? Once these cancercausing chemicals are leached into the groundwater, they are almost impossible to remove. I urge everyone to do some research, find out the facts and then decide whether or not it's a good thing for Australia. At present our underground water is being polluted, our land is being scarred and our farmers and other land owners whose land is being contaminated by this procedure are the victims of this greedy grab for cash, no matter what the cost. Gwen Deem Cougal Fair go for Barry Is it me? Or does it seem like there's been a bit of Barry-bashing in The Echo lately? Page 25 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
O'Farrell has only been in charge for about 130 days. And restoring NSW's finances will be no quick and easy task - especially since economic conditions seem pretty tough right now. The O'Farrell government is seeking to cap wage rises for public servants at 2.5% unless first matched with employee-related savings. That doesn't seem to be such an outrageous policy in all the circumstances. The people of New South Wales voted decisively in March. How about giving Barry a fair go' at turning this great state around? Jon Laurence Lismore A weedy good idea Want to help the environment and not spend any money? Go to your garden or a friend's garden or maybe the garden at work and find some invasive plants. Then pull them out. It's that easy! Invasive plants are spreading their way across Australia. I estimate that about 50% of gardens harbour one or more invasive plant species. If every person killed a few weeds a week we could protect our bushland and wilderness areas from environmental degradation. Weed identification guides can be found at libraries and on the internet. Peter Napper Byron Bay No laughter here Ms Saffin I am serious. (Echo, July 28.) You campaigned in the federal election on two issues regarding carbon emissions. You were going to hold a Citizens Assembly on climate change, and you were not going to introduce a carbon tax. People voted for you regarding these two commitments. You have walked away from both. Ms Saffin, I am serious about the need for action on climate change. Our policy is committed to reducing emissions by 5% by 2020. We took a policy of direct action on climate change to the election and we are still committed to it. Ms Saffin, why did you break two key promises concerning climate change? Was a deal with the Greens more important than honouring your election commitments? Kevin Hogan Chairman, Page Electorate Council The Nationals City-centric Is it any wonder that the people in country towns are coming very close to being bankrupt and their communities are close to extinction. The Member for Warringah and junior Education Minister in the Howard government, Tony Abbott, in his recent outbursts, has added weight to the reasons behind the rise of country mayor independents and One Nation candidates. His push to move the unemployed citizens in the bush to overcrowded city addresses is blatantly anti-rural and ludicrously simplistic. Incidentally, itinerant workers need some form of low cost transport to get from one harvest to another given that they are ideally fit and swift enough to have farmers want to employ them. The unemployed, underemployed and pensioners in the countryside find it difficult enough to survive on their current rations but to move to the metropolitan area would, for many, make life impossible. Exorbitant prices for rentals, food, transport and the other necessities of life, plus the health risks of the severely polluted atmosphere of the industrially smogged-out major cities like Sydney, would create more problems than would be solved, or does Tony Abbott have in mind more cardboard cartons in doorways as up-to-date housing? Page 26 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
Certainly his logic sounds good ditch all your (support base) family and friends (and for some, your culture) and move to the grimy city in the (vain) hope that some generous employer will defer installing computer-based systems in his/its factory and opt for offering employment to unskilled or semi-skilled people at perhaps twice the financial cost because it is in the interests of a (grateful?) government. Christopher Axtens North Lismore Under Greens' cloak Under the all-covering green cloak of global warming, there are many explosive, destructive policies concealed, tucked into the belts of the Green MPs. Their intended destruction of the coal and power industry, the destruction of irrigated food production, refusal to consider more dams, the closure of fisheries, banning of many necessary farm practices, reduced defence ability, and open borders to asylum seekers are just a few of their policies. How can we stop this terrorist destruction that that now threatens us from under the Green burka? We will have no power, no industry, no food, no water, no defence, and no future, but less CO2? Ken Macdonald Lennox Head Sharp words The Truth About Vaccination: what an emotive issue! There is a lot of pressure on parents to make a choice on whether to vaccinate or not to vaccinate. There is a lot of information out there in so many formats giving parents lots to choose from. We live in a democracy so freedom of speech, faiths, ideologies and freedom of choice are paramount and free to be expressed. So to find a half page advertisement in your paper that is so biased I find abhorrent. It is a witch hunt. Why does this group want to rub out another group's rights to freedom of speech? This group should be free to give people information so as to give balance and choice in our society and not just a one-way street of non choice. The advertisement offends me, not because of the vaccination debate but because of the lack of understanding of other groups' rights. This smacks of a good old book burning. Instead of denigrating any particular group in an openly public way why not let them have their say and let the public decide for themselves? This group must think the general public are too stupid to decide on their own, therefore are advocates for thinking on their behalf. I think that most parents are competent enough to decide on which vaccine to choose and which ones they choose not to have. What about people of different faiths and religions who choose not to be vaccinated, are they to be targeted as well? What this group is advocating is that for unbiased medical advice talk to your GP but, correct me if I'm wrong, don't GPs get paid to vaccinate? If that's the case who pays them and why? One should also ask the question, Where does the money come from for the advertisement and what is the agenda of the benefactor, if there is one? Most people are mature enough to make up their own minds. It's called a democracy. If you want to railroad any particular group and vilify them perhaps you should go and live in a totalitarian country where perhaps you might find some of your rights suppressed. Food for thought! Danny Bethune Keerrong The last line of the ad should answer the questions regarding who paid for it and their agenda This advertisement was placed as a public service by members of Stop the Australian Vaccination Network.' Find us on Facebook. Contact: stopavn@gmail.com Page 27 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ed Seeing red Jill Garsden, Liz Scott and Sue Stock (Echo letters, July 20) believe a tax will magically cause CO2 and therefore natural catastrophes to disappear? Gadzooks and begone I say! The same empty baseless claims have continued via the Greens for over 30 years but Ballina and the Gold Coast are still above sea level regardless. To answer Jill's questions: A) N/A because the climate has always changed. England had a temperate climate (without any heavy industry to blame), the Earth has cooled since 2001 (satellite data) so I'm still waiting. B) Yes I already do. I am hit with the increased greedy government taxes and insurers' increased costs. Perhaps if there were more dams and fire breaks perhaps these tragedies wouldn't be so catastrophic and I would be happy for any climate alarmist to pay my share of the UN wealth redistribution plan, currently posing as an environmental remedy. C) No as in B, I blame government departments who disregard their duties to save $$$ by not back burning or controlling dam levels at 75% capacity. More than likely, the only reduction will be Australia's CO2 tax contribution of $599 million (Fast Start Financing Fund) pledged by Combet, not forgetting the Green Climate Fund a financial burden for developed countries to dish out $100 billion per annum to the poorer nations, which represents 10% of any of CO2 tax or ETS revenue once it is ratified at COP17 Durban S. Africa this December. So all this pain for Australia's contribution is a paltry 0.023% CO2 reduction. I for one strongly object to a foreign power dictating where Australia's sovereign funds are allocated to wealth redistribution (UN Agenda 21). To verify my claims ask Janelle Saffin where's the money going and what has it to do with the climate? Unlike Sue Stock, I am never pleased to hear from leftie Bob Brown. The fact that Sue omits that higher CO2 levels actually increase plant production is astounding considering the implications for massive increased food production and as for Julia keeping her word, was that the real Julia, or the one that backstabbed K Rudd, Sue Stock? Mark Boyd Kyogle Road block Ratepayers Association of Lismore Incorporated inc rural ratepayers' questions the priorities of Lismore City Council. We have a rural road system that is in chronic decay and a danger to road users. Yet our Council is happy to mismanage business units like the Art Gallery with a cash cost to ratepayers of $571,200 and the Aquatic Centre with a cash cost even before capital of $654,100. Worse still it has spent large portions of the regional road budget in recent years upgrading Woodlark Street, a questionable moral decision when many of our regional roads are so bad. Greg Bennett RRALI President Boundary riding I attended a councillor LEP briefing where staff make their recommendations considering the public submissions. It dealt with land reclassification including the issues around Riverview Park. The results were disappointing and predicable when we saw that staff recommended altering the LEP to deal with only one of the many, many problems the community had pointed out. Not least among these public comments was that Council will be legitimising an unlawful arrangement which it had been complicit in, that important community land will be lost forever including an access walkway on the north-east side of Riverview Park, and the health of the waterways, erosion, not to mention the health of the park users. All the Council staff could bring themselves to support was that Riverview Park need not be temporarily classified operational for the sake of boundary readjustments. Paula Newman made an attempt at explaining that she was not previously aware that it was possible to achieve the boundary adjustments without the reclassification. This was not convincing but it did highlight just how excessive and unnecessary the proposal to reclassify a public park to operational (even if so called temporary) was. The admission highlighted the staff recommendation was more of a correction of a poorly researched proposal rather than an attempt to address the public submissions. The geography of the area was misrepresented. The existence of the access walkway that clearly can be seen on the map was denied: Page 28 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
it was suggested that something would need to be built over Hollingworth Creek to grant access. This is untrue. There is a perfectly good access point that the levee creates over the creek. There is no need to spend any public money on building a bridge or a new pathway but the way the staff presented the lay of the land ignored this and pretended that an investment would be called for. Councillors asked some important questions regarding this recommendation. Cr Clough pointed out that the zoning related to when Norco was active in the area and Cr Ekins asked why the area was zoned 4(a) General Industrial at all, considering the large amount of residential houses in the area and perhaps the other businesses could exist under a more appropriate zoning such as Light Industrial. Staff said they would need to check the zoning requirements and would get back to her on that. Cr Battista made the observation that the freight business concerned was unsightly, was very close to and could be seen from the CBD and river. Ironically, staff commended themselves for having made consideration of LEP submissions. This was adding insult to injury. Overall the briefing was a farce and did not attempt to address in any meaningful way the legitimate concerns of the community. We will see what the councillors make of it. Amanda Morris Formerly South Lismore School centenary The Caniaba School is celebrating its centenary in 2012. The Centenary Committee has commenced organisation of this event and it is to be held on Saturday, October 27, 2012. The committee is looking to contact ex-students, teachers and members of the school community to participate in this event. An email address has been set up as a point of contact to allow people to contact the committee and keep you updated regarding the progress and program for the event. If you do not have access to email please contact Gloria Clark on 6663 1385. We are currently seeking memorabilia, photos, stories and historical information pertaining to the school and its history. If you are aware of anyone who has been associated with the school in the last 100 years and is unaware of the upcoming centenary, please pass on this contact information. Thank you. Gloria Clark Springrove Tree angels Last Sunday Planet Ark's National Tree Day at least 40 wonderful, community-minded people turned up on Angels Beach, East Ballina. Including a number of excited children, they chose to spend a few hours planting trees to beautify their local beach. This is to say thank you to them all you did a truly magnificent job. With tender loving care you planted over 350 trees. That number will be increased to reach 500 at working bees this next fortnight. It's to create a new rainforest, replacing the old one destroyed half a century ago. This year's site on Angels Beach was one of the most severely degraded areas. It was the very centre of a sandmining installation in the 1950s. Today it is a prospering young forest, rich habitat for native animals and birds. That's truly a miracle, thanks to generous, caring people like you. But one has to wonder why, out of the 300-400 people living in the bordering estates, only eight local families gave just an hour or two for their local beach? Was it really too big an ask to get hands sandy just once in the year? Doubtless there must have been so many other pressing duties to attend to on a sunny Sunday morning. Still, those who wanted to come but simply couldn't make it, will want to make amends? So feel absolutely free to join our regular working bees every Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday morning from 8.30-11.30am. Just turn up. Or leave your name on our message bank - 6619 1019 and we'll assure you of a warm welcome. Any and every week of the year there's great company and immensely rewarding jobs to do. No prior skills are needed so what about it? Lee Andresen Angels Beach Dunecare Group Licence to kill Page 29 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
We live up near to Doubleduke State Forest where a North East Forest Alliance (NEFA) audit revealed breaches by Forests NSW by logging an endangered ecological community (EEC). Many of us wrote letters to Forests NSW and the Department of Environment and Climate Change and Water (now the Office of Environment and Heritage) concerning these breaches. Doubleduke is in a catchment that contains Australia's largest tidal pool and wetlands of National Significance. There is an endangered emu population here that is part of only 120 individuals thought to be left in the wild in coastal NSW. We all have EECs on our properties and will not log them because it is the right thing to do. It is disturbing to read that Forests NSW's breaches are under different rules than private landowners. With lack of strict penalties it appears there is no incentive for Forests NSW to stop the breaches. Forests NSW has an AFS certification that guarantees to the public that their timber products are sustainably resourced. It is concerning the those of us who actively try to support products that are sustainably resourced might be being misled in purchasing AFS certified products if there are ongoing problems like those listed in the Nature Conservation Council's report If a Tree Falls'. www.nccnsw.org.au/ sites/default/files/110728 In a Sydney Morning Herald article Repeated logging breaches go unpenalised, says report' by Ben Cubby it states that the Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said Forests NSW was working towards the aim of having no breaches. That's great, but if any one of us speeds too much and get too many points against our licence, we lose it. Why can't we just keep going with the line that we are trying to improve our driving and aim not to speed and get away with it? There must be contractors out there and forestry staff qualified enough to ensure there is compliance of regulations and that our endangered flora and fauna is properly protected. They are logging our native forests and going against practices that are there to ensure sustainable forestry into the future. The current climate seems bent on breaking that commitment for the sake of wood supply agreements that our forests are not able to meet and remain healthy. Friends of the Bungawalbyn I think it is strange that terrorists bomb and kill the West to prove their violent point. But I found it even weirder that the bloke in Norway bombs and kills his own, to assist that violence. So, why can't we all see the actual cause of all strangeness is parochialism? Probably a questionable percentage of your readers won't understand the problem is the parochial, let alone what parochial actually means. We are all selfish head-bound egos, until we all learn that love must be all inclusive. Only the mind in itself because of institutional abuses becomes partial and wants to be proud of its parochial nature. The cure is so obvious. We can't teach anyone that humility can only be learned. And, any proud folks can't ever see that, let alone learn. We all, each and every one of us grew out of some abuse, but many kept those unlovable reasons to need to perpetuate it. Keith A Stone Lismore Document APNNRE0020110803e7840000y
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Loverly' prospect 893 words 15 October 2011 Coffs Coast Advocate COFFS Main 26 English Copyright 2011 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE multi-million-dollar land sale by Coffs City Council (CCA 12/10) could be just what is needed to enable the far-too-long-delayed Coffs Harbour Cultural and Entertainment Centre to become a reality. We already have the plans (local architect Ann Gee), we have land in the best spot possible that would enable the centre to be an easily accessible and beautiful feature of the town. If only we had the will to make it happen What Coffs Needs (To the tune of Wouldn't it be Loverly) What Coffs needs is a Centre fine, Somewhere smart so our town can shine ... Big hits, great shows divine, oh wouldn't it be loverly. Pretty beaches we're well endowed, Lots of sport yes, we do it proud; Bright lights, big bands, top stars, oh wouldn't it be loverly. But, we're, surely but absolutely missing all this wealth, And, good times just pass us by so money goes somewhere else! Local talent we have in spades, But no focus, and so it fades. Let's plan, no more delays, oh wouldn't it be loverly. Loverly ... loverly ... loverly ... loverly ELLIE HALLETT Insurance rorts SHAREHOLDERS need to be made aware of the appalling behaviour by the board of the big insurer IAG (which has NRMA Insurance as a subsidiary) and, like the NRMA Road Service which has its own behaviour problems, is presently holding its board elections. IAG, which has refused to pay out to some of the Queensland flood victims from last summer, is now apparently holding out on Christchurch earthquake victims. Richard Talbot, the former NRMA director who got the NRMA to pay out to Wollongong and Coffs Harbour flood victims back in about 1998 before it was divided up into an insurance company and a road service company, is again in the thick of it, fighting for flood victims through the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry with the supply of information and records. Mr Talbot has recently been contacted by an IAG insurance policy holder from Christchurch who read of his support for Queensland flood victims and that he is standing for the IAG board elections to tell him of IAG's delaying tactics on paying her claim. Page 31 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
This behaviour by IAG was also seen very recently at the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry where it failed to provide documents to the inquiry within the required period and the inquiry boss Cate Holmes threatened to lodge an application for a warrant with the Magistrates Court This behaviour by IAG is paralleled by the gagging of new candidates in the election material in the NRMA Road Service elections. The NRMA Road Service has shares in the IAG and thus has an avenue to influence IAG to look after the victims of these disasters, but no such action appears evident. The IAG Board has recommended shareholders not vote for Mr Talbot. You can bet the board will recommend that its members receive increased pay rises at the coming annual general meeting while flood and earthquake victims are still suffering. The board of both IAG and the NRMA Road Service need a clean out at these elections. BOB PATRECH An injection of facts I WRITE to respond to the spate of misleading adverts vilifying the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) by a group called Stop the AVN (Stop). Stop alleges that the AVN is totally against all vaccinations, and that it quotes selectively from scientific data and that it fabricates evidence. In fact, the AVN supports vaccinations in general. It rightly opposes the use of untested vaccines, and queries the morality of adding poisons like mercury and aluminium to them. It also questions the need for the hasty, multiple jabs forced on kids. In a recent report from the World Factbook, before it reaches its first birthday a baby born in the US will be given 26 immunisations as part of the most intensive vaccination program in the world. That baby has the doubtful honour of being least likely to live for one year. In contrast, babies in Sweden and Japan have the lowest infant mortality, and receive only 12 doses in that one year. The AVN has a website which openly explains its policies. Stop has a Facebook link, and an email address, but provides no access to its backers. The AVN has been vilified by health authorities, and is now banned as a charity, which means that it can't accept new members or donations. That's how much free speech is feared by vested interests behind Stop. MAL ANDERSON Do you have something to get off your chest? What local issue do you feel strongly about? It may be development (or lack of) in our area, perhaps it's barking dogs, vandalism, rubbish on our beaches, poor service or great service, bus timetables, the environment or a few words on the sport v culture debate. If you have something to say, this is the place to let loose. Letters can be emailed to advocate@coffscoast advocate.com.au faxed to 6651 4492 or mailed or dropped in to our office at 53 Moonee Street, Coffs Harbour 2450. (Note: all letters are subject to editing and preference given to those under 300 words.) Document COFFS00020111014e7af000jh
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News Review How 'mommy instinct' outdid science Julie Robotham 1,615 words 5 February 2011 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 4 English 2011 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. Myth-making led to a crisis of faith in vaccination, writes Julie Robotham. HE HAD planned to tell a sociological history, a footnoted exposition of how mistrust in routine childhood vaccines entered the collective mind 15 years ago and ignited explosions of conscientious objection across many developed countries. But Seth Mnookin's narrative got hijacked by its characters: among them the renegade and financially embroiled Dr Andrew Wakefield, popular culture queen Oprah Winfrey, and a down-on-her-luck glamour model called Jenny McCarthy. The real story of a crisis of faith in arguably the greatest health breakthrough of the last century, the US author says now, is one of strong personalities fixated on their own distorted perspectives and of a media that abetted and inflated them by valuing colour and conflict ahead of scientific fact. The bullet points of the Wakefield debacle are well known: in 1998 he published a paper linking the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism in a leading medical journal, The Lancet, which later retracted it after the extent of his financial and ethical conflicts of interest became clear. He had recruited most of the 12 British children in his study from an anti-vaccine lobby group and held patents for a rival vaccine. Wakefield, who also misrepresented some of his results, was struck off Britain's medical register last year. But the horse had long since bolted. In the five years after his findings were widely reported, the British MMR vaccination rate fell to 80 per cent from 91 per cent - a big enough drop to allow the spread of the viruses, leading to serious illness. Among several large studies conducted since, none has found evidence that vaccines trigger autism, and British immunisation rates are slowly recovering. "I think the media failed completely. As an institution it failed so enormously in this story," said Mnookin in an interview ahead of the release here next week of his book The Panic Virus: Fear, Myth and the Vaccination Debate. He was referring to reams of appealing, if spurious, copy centred on Wakefield, a hyperactive attention seeker in cowboy boots and insufficiently buttoned shirt, who was often portrayed as a children's hero battling an uncaring establishment. Even accepting most journalists' lack of scientific education, Mnookin said, Wakefield's original study should have rung ordinary reporting alarm bells. "The scientific method can take a while to understand because it's not always intuitive. But anyone can understand in two seconds that you can't draw conclusions about the population as a whole from 12 people," he said. Giving Wakefield's views free rein, even alongside more mainstream findings, inevitably skewed the field, Mnookin said. Genuine balance could not be achieved if a media report included "one person on each side when the consensus is 1000 to one". But then scientific balance was always secondary to the compelling story of one man against the system. In the US a couple of years later, a former Playmate of the Month and comedy TV star, Jenny McCarthy, wrote a book about her son's apparent autism, and her belief the preservative in the MMR jab had caused it. On the influential Oprah show in 2007, Winfrey applauded McCarthy's "mommy instinct", contrasting it Page 33 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
favourably against an emotionally neutral but scientifically scrupulous statement by the US's preeminent public health agency, the Centres for Disease Control, that "the vast majority of science to date does not support an association between thimerosal in vaccines and autism". The Oprah/McCarthy episode, said Mnookin, presented McCarthy in the same mould as Wakefield - as a brave warrior against authority - and demonstrated the superior power of a photogenic individual with a wrenching personal story over painstakingly gathered epidemiological evidence to sway popular opinion . "The people who shout loudest get listened to," he said. Associate Professor Philip Chubb, the deputy head of Monash University's journalism program, agrees the media has a poor track record in representing scientific debate. In the case of climate change, he said - which might apply also to the presentation of research into vaccines or tobacco - there was "a tendency to balance, in the name of journalistic ethics, the views of scientists with those of climate change deniers". "If you had a scientific community which was divided on the issue," said Chubb, "it would be perfectly reasonable for journalists to report on that division. When there is no division, and the only people opposed ... don't have any scientific credibility in this area and mostly don't have any scientific credibility at all, and are motivated by extreme ideology, then the idea of using them for balance is [wrong]." The media's use of defiant and charismatic individuals such as Wakefield and McCarthy, to give an otherwise opaque subject light, movement and a flavour of human power struggle, was another "failure of journalistic imagination", Chubb said. "The media does it because of a compulsion to entertain and always find the less serious side of an issue ... If the media does see itself as resting on a conflict model, there is enough disagreement [among scientists] to keep any journalist going." The promotion of dissenting voices from far beyond the boundaries of legitimate scientific debate could cause real harm, Chubb said, by muddying important policy questions: "In the minds of the general public the issue becomes confusing, and they switch off." Chubb also pointed to an anomaly in the public's response to scientific findings. "In surveys, people say they trust scientists" far ahead of those working in many other sectors, including the media, he said. "So on the one hand they're saying they trust scientists. On the other hand, on these really difficult issues they are ignoring them." Reflecting now on how the shaky vaccines and autism theory was able to garner such momentum, Mnookin, too, fingers the matter of trust. Some time in the latter half of the last century, he said, a longstanding love affair between science and the public quietly soured, and left a substrate of disappointment. "If you go back to the middle of the 20th century, and even taking into account World War II and the only instance of the atomic bomb being used on the human population, the story of science's effect on the everyday life of people over the previous 50 years had been one almost miraculous medical intervention after another," said Mnookin, citing vaccines and penicillin. "Then you look back at the last 50 to 60 years and the Cold War, this threat of nuclear annihilation has been part of everyday life. We haven't cured cancer, there have been accidents at nuclear power plants ... Agent Orange, thalidomide." The scientific community, in Mnookin's construction, failed "to realise that we're not in the 1950s any more and we're not going to believe you just because you tell us". But if science and ordinary people were already cruising for a fight, Mnookin said, then the latter may not have appreciated the seriousness of choosing immunisation as their battleground. "One unique aspect of this was that the potential repercussion of not vaccinating had become so notional," he said. A generation brought up free from the carnage of childhood infectious diseases did not have the imagination to appreciate the devastating consequences of forgoing vaccines. That is where the story gets complicated, said Dr Julie Leask, a senior research fellow and manager of social research at the University of Sydney's National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance. Leask, a firm supporter of vaccines, nevertheless believes the danger posed by a small cabal of antivaccinators, at least in Australia, is often overstated; full immunisation according to the national schedule is achieved in 94 per cent of children by age two, and of the remaining 6 per cent a mere half are conscientious objectors; for the others, practical issues such as time or transport difficulties means Page 34 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
they have not got around to it. She sees last year's clampdown on immunisation objectors the Australian Vaccination Network, which lost its charity status and was ordered by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission to prominently declare its anti-vaccine stance on its website, as an "intensification of the war between radical non-vaccinators and radical pro-vaccinators". Health authorities might do better, Leask said, to be less brittle in their cheerleading. "We know the vaccine issue is grey. It's not a simple case of vaccines are perfect," Leask said, and lack of acknowledgment of their limitations meant "if you get that disease [despite being vaccinated] then you're going to be disillusioned. If your child gets a mild reaction you're going to be disillusioned." Meanwhile among doctors and nurses there was "a fear that if you discuss the risks, if you even mention them, you put people off". Instead of expecting to convince people by bludgeoning them with vaccination facts, health authorities should be more conciliatory towards the motivations of unconvinced parents, especially women for whom "intensive mothering" was a point of pride. "Again and again we hear parents say, 'I want balanced information. I don't want to feel I'm being propagandised,' " Leask said. "Upper middle-class mothers are starting to question immunisation more than they would have done, as part of a suite of things they want to do for their child - things like baby gym. You want to show you're doing a good job of mothering and not just accepting the status quo." The Panic Virus: Fear, Myth and the Vaccination Debate is out on Monday (Black Inc, rrp $32.95). Document SMHH000020110204e72500041
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Good Weekend True un believers John van Tiggelen 2,164 words 12 February 2011 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 21 English 2011 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. Humanity wouldn't be where it is today without scepticism - so what harm can a little denial do? John van Tiggelen explores the perils of turning a blind eye to science. There is, in science, a sharp line between scepticism and denial. Scepticism is useful; it's what makes science tick. A scientist never assumes anything; she sorts fact from theory by setting up hypotheses and testing them. Denial is something else. Whereas a sceptic may doubt the theory, a denialist throws out the proof. Take global warming. One can be sceptical about the modelled consequences, or about the effectiveness of carbon trading, or about the altruism of Al Gore, but the evidence that humans are warming the planet is in. To contend otherwise is to deny the accumulated findings of sedimentology, chemistry, ecology, climatology, oceanography, marine biology, palaeontology, meteorology, vulcanology, astronomy, physics and geology. Some scientists claim denialism is on the rise. It's not quite clear that it is - flat-earthers were pretty shrill back in Galileo's day, too. What is confounding, however, is that denialist movements persist so readily in modern times. Why? Has an increasingly secular society acquired an appetite for pseudo-science to fill the spiritual void? Or is it simple self-interest at play, in that people are inclined to believe what suits them? Perhaps industry-sponsored research is eroding public trust in science? What about education standards; are they slipping? Or is the media failing science? What of the internet, with its relentless stutter of disinformation and conspiracy theories? All are plausible factors. In the meantime, though, we have a problem. Denialist movements can and do affect public safety. Here's a top five, arranged in no particular order and for no particular purpose other than to press the point that creationists, hippies and Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph columnist Andrew Bolt have more in common than they think. Evolution If creationism is the mother of scientific denial, then Glenn Beck, the American superstar shock-jock and global-warming denier, is one hell of a son. As he announced last October on his radio show: "I don't think we came from monkeys. I think that's ridiculous. I haven't seen a half-monkey, half-person yet." Some might smile and suggest Beck take a good look at himself. Clearly he occupies a position on the primate spectrum that is closer to the origin of man than most. But who needs a mirror when you reflect the USA? As survey after survey shows, Beck speaks for the majority: three in four Americans reject Darwinian evolution as fact. Australians are either more enlightened or more coy about that stuff. Take Steve Fielding, the Family First senator from Victoria. His children attended a school that teaches creation as fact and "evolutionism" as a theory, but he's never pushed the issue in federal parliament. He's very much a closet creationist. Not that there's anything wrong with that. There's something to be said for faith. On the other hand, if you are capable of disregarding the evidence for evolution in favour of, say, the pseudo-science of intelligent design, no science is safe. Page 36 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
Again, take the good senator, who has become the best political friend of climate-change deniers (including, ironically, the fiercely anti-creationist campaigner Professor Ian Plimer). Early in 2009, Senator Fielding fretted in a Senate hearing how divorce created a "resource-inefficient lifestyle" and increased a couple's carbon footprint. Four months later, he announced carbon emissions did not cause global warming, because global warming wasn't real. He did not say whether that meant divorce was now okay. Evolution denialists include: former US president George W. Bush, the Discovery Institute (a Seattlebased think tank), Jehovah's Witnesses, Dr Carl Wieland (the Adelaide-based head of Creation Ministries International), Scientologists. Human-induced global warming Last year and the past decade were the equal warmest and warmest on record, according to NASA and the World Meteorological Organisation. But such minor details won't sway climate-change denialists from their objectives, says Professor Peter Doherty, an Australian Nobel laureate. "Denial is driven by big business," says Doherty. "It started with tobacco companies fighting the evidence that smoking caused cancer, which is the first time that big business really felt threatened by science. Ever since, big business has learnt to attack the science and to attack the scientists." Doherty urges people to read Merchants of Doubt, a new book by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. Climate change, the American co-authors argue, is merely the latest in a long line of issues where vested interests have engaged in the deliberate dissemination of scientific denial. As the two authors examine various issues in turn - the threats of a nuclear winter, smoking, the accretion of DDT pesticide in the food chain, acid rain, the hole in the ozone layer and, of course, global warming - the same scientists and industry-funded think tanks grimly re-appear. Time and again these men - for they are mostly men, and rather old ones at that - are appointed to high places to "fight th e facts" in order to protect their ideology, satisfy their employers, confuse the public and delay government action. Hearteningly, in each case science eventually wins through, the world is impelled to act and - the proof of the pudding - the problem is either solved or abated. Curbs on nuclear proliferation, cigarette sales, DDT, sulphur dioxide emissions and CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) pollution have all helped make the world a safer, healthier place. Similarly, very few scientists on top of their game doubt that a reduction in greenhouse emissions will help address global warming. Says Peter Doherty, "We need to beware of those think tanks that draw on the so-called expertise of retired scientists. In science, once you leave the field, you become redundant very fast. "You can remain generally supportive of science and back the consensus - that's the dignified way to go. Or, you lose your relevance, you miss being up there in the public swing of things, and the only way to get people talking about you again is to take up a contrary position. You see it all too often." human-induced global warming denialists include: Professor Ian Plimer, Family First senator Steve Fielding, federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, newspaper columnist Andrew Bolt, radio host Alan Jones, Czech Republic President Vclav Klaus, US politician Sarah Palin, British environmentalist David Bellamy and other retired scientists. Vaccination In 2008, Australian health authorities introduced a new vaccine for babies. The rotavirus vaccine is routinely administered at two, four and six months of age. Few would have heard of it. But if you're the parent of young children, you'll know about it soon enough. A rotavirus is the most common cause of severe "gastro" in children, and typically cuts a swath through childcare centres, leaving children bed-ridden and unable to keep down food or liquid for up to a week. Some end up on a drip in hospital. Today's toddlers, however, are immunised and will at worst contract a very mild form of the disease. The merits of vaccination are beyond conjecture. Smallpox is no longer of this world, polio practically isn't and the childhood diseases that plagued baby boomers can't touch their grandkids. Yet Australiawide, about eight per cent of children miss out on vaccines. Their parents' objections may be steeped in religious overtones - many adherents of Rudolf Steiner's education methods, for instance, accept his belief that vaccination interferes with a child's "karmic development". More austere religious groups insist vaccination interferes with God's will. Other parents simply can't bear to see their child getting jabbed. They'd rather vacillate than vaccinate, in the belief that the public health benefits have largely been taken care of by other, less squeamish Page 37 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
parents. For the most part, they get away with it, although in the naturopathic hot spots of central Victoria and northern NSW, where vaccination rates are relatively low, children still die, unnecessarily, from diseases like whooping cough. Then there are those parents who think vaccines are dangerous. In theory, it is possible for clinical trials to miss something. But an unsafe vaccine is like unsafe drinking water: it is going to be found out very quickly. (In the late 1990s, for instance, an initial rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn after it was linked to a rare form of bowel obstruction. More recently, a flu vaccine was withdrawn from use for young children after it was linked to febrile convulsions.) The most persistent myth, promulgated on the web by the likes of the Australian Vaccination Network (an anti-vaccination lobby group), is that vaccines cause autism. The myth went viral, so to speak, in 1998, when The Lancet medical journal published a paper drawing a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism. Immunisation rates dropped sharply, measles infections rose and, in Europe, children succumbed to the disease. Meanwhile, it transpired the lead author, Andrew Wakefield, had used a highly biased sample of just 12 children - their parents were mostly clients or friends of a lawyer hoping to sue the makers of the MMR vaccine - to manipulate results. Britain's General Medical Council found he had been "irresponsible and dishonest" and The Lancet retracted his paper. Numerous studies have since debunked any autism link. vaccination denialists include: actor Jim Carrey, the Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses, Rudolf Steiner, the A us tra lia n Va cc in ati on Network. HIV-AIDS Of all the examples of scientific denialism, the one that denies that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, causes AIDS is perhaps the most nefarious. Mostly mired in anti-gay and/or racial conspir-acy theories, it would likely have remained there but for the intervention of a once-respected American scientist, Peter Duesberg, in 1987, four years after the identification of the virus. Duesberg, who had achieved fame as the discoverer of the first cancer gene, argued that HIV was harmless, a mere "passenger virus", and that AIDS instead was caused by the cumulative consumption of recreational drugs and/or anti-AIDS drugs. He stuck to his hypothesis even after the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs, which saw a dramatic decline in AIDS deaths from 1995. Thus thoroughly disproved, Duesberg's views were nonetheless embraced by then South African president Thabo Mbeki (the successor to Nelson Mandela), whose country's black population was being ravaged by AIDS. Mbeki and his advisers regarded the West's discovery that HIV caused AIDS as a racist smear, designed to portray Africans as promiscuous, as well as to obscure poverty and malnutrition as the real causes of the scourge. Deeming anti-retroviral therapy dangerous and too costly, Mbeki's health minister, the late Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, infamously urged sufferers to eat beetroot and garlic instead. Public health experts have since calculated that the government's dithering over the distribution of anti-retroviral medication caused up to a third of a million extra deaths, as well as the preventable infection of tens of thousands of babies. HIV-AIDS denialists include: Thabo Mbeki, Peter Duesberg, Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel, Australian ethicist Hiram Caton, the so-called "Perth Group" of scientists (led by medical technician Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos). Big placebo In his recent book Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, New Yorker writer Michael Specter outlines "the useless trust placed in the vast majority of dietary supplements". Very few dietary supplements have the necessary clinical evidence behind them to back their claims. In fact, most clinical studies show such supplements are wholly ineffective. Yet dietary supplements are phenomenally popular. This is possibly a reaction to Big Pharma - it seems the more drug companies push their products, the greater the demand for alternative medication. Specter has a name for the burgeoning supplements industry: Big Placebo. An example of Big Placebo is the success of the anti-arthritis supplements chondroitin and glucosamine, so beloved of tabloid current-affairs shows. Extensive independent research suggests these drugs are no more effective than a sugar pill. What the studies also reveal, however, is that the placebo success rates for arthritis treatments are very high - in one study 60per cent of patients taking a sugar pill claimed it reduced their knee pain. Placebo rates depend on all sorts of factors: the marketing of the drug, the desperation of the patient, the nature of the affliction. The measure of pain, in particular, is highly subjective and prone to Page 38 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
numerous outside influences, such as hope and hype. Although Specter describes people's faith in inert supplements as "useless trust", arguably their belief is at least helping them cope, even if it's not helping them heal. Unfortunately, it's also costing a packet. big Placebo adherents include: talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, tabloid current-affairs shows, actor Gwyneth Paltrow. Document SMHH000020110211e72c000at
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Zest To needle or not? KYLIE MATTHEWS 1,344 words 15 June 2011 Illawarra Mercury ILM First 28 English 2011 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. Zest HEALTH Claims and counterclaims can make it hard for a parent to sort the fact from the myths in the immunisation debate writes KYLIE MATTHEWS. For the new parent, researching the pros and cons of child immunisation can be a minefield of confusing and conflicting information. What exactly are we injecting into our babies? Are the vaccinations as harmless as the government purports or do they pose their own serious health risks, as anti-immunisation advocates claim? The on-going debate is an emotional, deeply personal and often volatile one that continues to evoke varying degrees of scepticism, anger and mistrust. Making sense of it can be difficult because its arguments go well beyond the science to include political, ethical, economic and social elements. The Australian Government advocates the vaccination of babies and young children so they are immunised against serious infections before they come into contact with them in the community. They fund the National Childhood Immunisation Program, a free, voluntary service that encourages new parents to vaccinate their children against a number of infectious diseases, with the majority of those being administered in a child's first 18 months of life. The program offers protection against 13 different diseases; diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), poliomyelitis (polio), measles, mumps, rubella (German measles), haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, meningococcal C, pneumococcal, varicella (chickenpox) and rotavirus. In some cases, a child will experience minor side effects like low grade fever and soreness or swelling around the injection area. The program's official literature states that these side effects will only last a short time and the child will recover without any further problems. While the government reports that "... the benefit of protection against the disease far outweighs the small risks with immunisation", there are still a small number of children who experience an extreme and adverse reaction to the immunisation program. Chairman of the Illawarra Division of General Practice Dr Russell Pearson says such severe reactions are uncommon. "Complications are rare - approximately one in 1.5 million children will have this adverse reaction," he says. But overall, he believes that vaccination is safe and of important benefit to all children in our society. The Illawarra boasts a 90 per cent child immunisation rate, but there's still a handful of people who have chosen not to take part in the government's voluntary immunisation program. "As parents, we're all motivated to do what's best for our children and we all have different ideas on Page 40 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
what that is and no-one should be vilified for their choice," Dr Pearson says. "I think it's good to live in a society that has individual freedoms, even when that freedom includes not believing in strong scientific evidence." However, he argues that parents who do not vaccinate their children are putting them at far greater risk of serious illness than the alternative. "We have immunised parents who enjoy the benefits of immunisation themselves refusing to vaccinate their own kids," he says. "Every parent has the responsibility to concern themselves with the welfare of their children but the question is - to whom do our children belong? To their parents or to the society?" He says our current generation of parents haven't had the experience of living through the horror of an epidemic, which he attributes to the success of the national immunisation program. "Today's parents haven't seen their children suffer from polio and diphtheria (for example), but our grandparents did," he says. "In the '50s I was one of the first children to get vaccinated against polio and there was no question in my parents' minds at the time - the horror of the disease was so fresh." Meryl Dorey is the president and founder of an organisation called the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), an independent group famously critical of vaccination and which advocates the right of the parents to choose. Dorey set up the AVN to offer parents an alternative resource to use when deciding whether to immunise their child. "Everyone has the right to make an informed choice when it comes to childhood vaccination," she says. She says while parents are made aware of the benefits, they must also be educated on the risks. "Prior to vaccination, doctors should be asking for a child's family medical history and parents should be supplied with information about the ingredients of the vaccinations," she says. "The AVN is not an anti-vaccination group - our aim is to offer parents an opportunity to understand that they have a choice when it comes to vaccinating their child and it is their right to decide." Parents who choose not to vaccinate their children must fill out a "conscientious objection" form, available from Medicare, which declares a personal, philosophical, religious or medical objection. This is submitted to schools, childcare centres, hospitals and other institutions who are required to ask for a child's immunisation status. By law a child can not be discriminated against or excluded based on their immunisation status, however, if there is an official outbreak of infectious disease at the facility like chicken pox or whooping cough, they must be removed for a time to avoid infection. While Dorey agrees with Dr Pearson that this is a fortunate nation in which people have the personal freedom to decide, she does not agree with his statistic that only one in 1.5 million children suffer from adverse reactions to vaccinations. "This statistic only reveals the extent of cases that are officially reported," she says. She says it can be very difficult to prove that a child's symptoms are an adverse reaction to a vaccination. Also, she claims, the quality of state-based reporting systems of these reactions are poorly administered so there is no official way of knowing just how many children really are affected. "Doctors do get it right sometimes, but it's important to keep in mind that they also get it wrong," she says. Scientific findings on vaccination and its effects can vary and often contradict and advocates on both sides of the fence tend to grasp at what will best support their own arguments, sometimes without questioning the validity of the research itself. Page 41 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
For example, in the '90s, English surgeon Dr Andrew Wakefield released the findings of a scientific study that alleged a link between autism and the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The findings achieved worldwide publicity and although the study itself was quickly discredited for serious flaws in subject (child) selection and Wakefield's own vested interests, conscientious objectors were quick to jump on the connection and use it to reinforce their anti-immunisation stance. Despite the dubious nature of the findings and its inevitable retraction, some parents, particularly in the UK, were influenced by the study and chose not to immunise their children with this vaccine. "As a result, thousands of kids went un-immunised against measles, mumps and rubella and there was a significant rise in cases of these infectious diseases and, in several cases, kids did die," Dr Pearson says. Despite the study being widely discredited, the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism still lingers. Dorey even claims that subsequent scientific studies have actually reinforced the MMR link to autism. However, one thing both sides agree on is that parents should do their research and make an informed choice on what is right for their child. Dr Pearson and Dorey suggest you talk to your GP, an early childhood health nurse and even Google it. But before you log on to the internet, Dr Pearson issues a serious word of caution about what you might find. "I think with every issue out there you'll find an internet group that promotes a conspiracy theory," he says. "The internet is a vast library with no librarian on duty so make sure you only go to authoritative and reputable websites like the NSW Department of Health or a local children's hospital for information." Document ILM0000020110615e76f0001w
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Local Why charity fraud is the `softest' crime JESSE PHILLIPS 472 words 24 July 2011 Sunday Telegraph SUNTEL 2 - First 14 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved d ALLEGED charity fraudsters are not only escaping prosecution in record numbers, but their fines are usually less than the amount they pilfered. Charities that have made misleading claims to public and flouted fundraising laws have also escaped the full force of the law, figures reveal. While alleged swindler Russell Loel (see story, right) faces numerous charges for illegal fundraising The Sunday Telegraph can reveal he is the only person the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) has prosecuted since 2005. That is despite the fact the state government body has investigated over 600 suspect charities in that time. OLGR insists it has taken other actions in the past, including cancelling the fundraising authority of two dodgy charities and refusing to approve applications, but it has initiated no other prosecutions. Even after The Sunday Telegraph reported in 2008 that charity boss Jeff Gambin, who ran Just Enough Faith, had put almost $150,000 worth of donations through the pokies, the OLGR did not launch a prosecution under the Charitable Fundraising Act. Gaming and Racing Minister George Souris has pledged that investigating charity fraud will be a priority and that he will initiate prosecutions where appropriate. A spokesman for the OLGR said the ``vast majority'' of charities it investigated were legitimate and had only made technical breaches and `àmend it as soon as it is brought to their attention''. Reports of bogus charities were rare but all complaints about suspicious charities were investigated, he said. Last year the office cancelled the fundraising authorities for Solutions to Obesity Problems and the Aust ralia n Vacc inati on Network. Solutions to Obesity Problems had its charity status revoked following publicity from radio presenter Ray Hadley while the AVN's charity status was revoked after it was found to have breached charitable fundraising laws and potentially misled the public as its appeals were not done in good faith. Neither was prosecuted. However, even if it does prosecute, the OLGR's powers are so limited that it can only prosecute for breaches of fundraising law. The maximum fine a court can impose if someone is found guilty is $5500 for each offence, which can be far less than the fraud that took place. Gambin, 61, was a celebrated philanthropist who was honoured as Sydney's Humanitarian of the Year and raised about $1.4 million from a $2000-a-head fundraiser hosted by broadcaster Alan Jones and sponsored by the Packer family and Russell Crowe. Gambin's problems began after The Sunday Telegraph revealed he allegedly gambled away $150,000 of the money raised by the charity on the pokies. He was not charged with any offence. He was also accused of owing the Australian Taxation Office almost $20,000 after failing to lodge a tax return for nine years. Document SUNTEL0020110723e77o0000d
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Local How charity fraud is the `softest' crime JESSE PHILLIPS 766 words 24 July 2011 Sunday Telegraph SUNTEL 1 - State 14 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved ALLEGED charity fraudsters are not only escaping prosecution in record numbers, but their fines are usually less than the amount they pilfered. Charities that have made misleading claims to public and flouted fundraising laws have also escaped the full force of the law, figures reveal. While alleged swindler Russell Loel (see story, right) faces numerous charges for illegal fundraising The Sunday Telegraph can reveal he is the only person the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) has prosecuted since 2005. That is despite the fact the state government body has investigated over 600 suspect charities in that time. OLGR insists it has taken other actions in the past, including cancelling the fundraising authority of two dodgy charities and refusing to approve applications, but it has initiated no other prosecutions. Even after The Sunday Telegraph reported in 2008 that charity boss Jeff Gambin, who ran Just Enough Faith, had put almost $150,000 worth of donations through the pokies, the OLGR did not launch a prosecution under the Charitable Fundraising Act. Gaming and Racing Minister George Souris has pledged that investigating charity fraud will be a priority and that he will initiate prosecutions where appropriate. A spokesman for the OLGR said the ``vast majority'' of charities it investigated were legitimate and had only made technical breaches and `àmend it as soon as it is brought to their attention''. Reports of bogus charities were rare but all complaints about suspicious charities were investigated, he said. Last year the office cancelled the fundraising authorities for Solutions to Obesity Problems and the Aust ralia n Vacc inati on Network. Solutions to Obesity Problems had its charity status revoked following publicity from radio presenter Ray Hadley while the AVN's charity status was revoked after it was found to have breached charitable fundraising laws and potentially misled the public as its appeals were not done in good faith. Neither was prosecuted. However, even if it does prosecute, the OLGR's powers are so limited that it can only prosecute for breaches of fundraising law. The maximum fine a court can impose if someone is found guilty is $5500 for each offence, which can be far less than the fraud that took place. Gambin, 61, was a celebrated philanthropist who was honoured as Sydney's Humanitarian of the Year and raised about $1.4 million from a $2000-a-head fundraiser hosted by broadcaster Alan Jones and sponsored by the Packer family and Russell Crowe. Gambin's problems began after The Sunday Telegraph revealed he allegedly gambled away $150,000 of the money raised by the charity on the pokies. He was not charged with any offence. He was also accused of owing the Australian Taxation Office almost $20,000 after failing to lodge a tax return for nine years. The house built on shaky foundations A MAN who sought donations to build a ``school for needy kids'' has been accused of being a scammer. Page 44 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
Instead of erecting the school, Russell Loel, 78, was allegedly using up to $1 million in free building materials and labour to build himself a home in Oxford Falls. After a lengthy investigation the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) has charged Mr Loel with numerous offences. The Sunday Telegraph can also reveal that since he was charged Mr Loel has made an application to the Department of Community Services to run a children's service at the Oxford Falls address. It's alleged over a two-year period Mr Loel sought help from construction and building companies, with many supplying free materials and labour. A concrete supplier, a concrete pumper, roofing and timber suppliers, a concrete tank supplier, an insulation company and an electrical parts supplier had all allegedly contributed to the building since 2008. Court documents allege, between July and September 2008, Mr Loel made ``written or verbal representations to Cemex Australia Pty Ltd'' where he ``participated in a fundraising appeal, which he knew, or could reasonably be expected to know, was conducted unlawfully''. A spokesman for the OLGR said Mr Loel was facing numerous charges `ùnder the Charitable Fundraising Act for conducting and participating in unlawful fundraising''. `Ìt involves multiple counts of alleged unlawful fundraising in and around Sydney's northern beaches over a two-year period for a supposed school for incapacitated children,'' he said. It is understood investigations are continuing and further charges may be possible. Comment was sought from Mr Loel but he did not return The Sunday Telegraph's calls. If found guilty he faces a maximum penalty of $5500 per offence. Document SUNTEL0020110723e77o0006b
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Local Diseases return as jab rate drops off - SPECIAL INVESTIGATION JANE HANSEN 1,210 words 22 May 2011 Sunday Telegraph SUNTEL 1 - State 14 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved DEADLY diseases eradicated decades ago are making a comeback because more parents are refusing to vaccinate their children. Health authorities warn children are at risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria and tetanus because they are not having their jabs. Parents who refuse to immunise believe the vaccines are harmful, but doctors say they are ill-informed and putting the entire community at risk. `Ìt is unfair to the child as the child is too young to make an informed decision, and these are very nasty diseases that can kill,'' infectious diseases expert Dr Jeremy McAnulty said. ``The scientific evidence is overwhelming: immunisation has effectively got rid of many diseases and minimised others, and is one of our greatest public-health achievements,'' NSW Health's director of Health Protection added. Around one per cent of parents don't immunise their children, but in some pockets of Sydney's north shore and eastern suburbs, the rate of conscientious objectors is eight per cent, and as high as 21 per cent in the Byron Shire. `Ìf we don't maintain high rates of immunisation, we risk many of these deadly diseases reappearing,'' he said. Multiple cases of whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria and tetanus have been recorded on the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System this year. Tragically, an unimmunised 22-year-old from Brisbane died of diphtheria last month after contracting the disease from a traveller. There have been more than 40 cases of measles reported in NSW so far this year, and almost 5000 of whooping cough -- the most of any state. The whooping cough vaccine wears off after a decade and only 11 per cent of adults older than 18 have received a booster, according to the Adult Vaccination Survey of 2009. Seven babies have died from whooping cough in the past two years, including one on the north coast around Easter. Premier Barry O'Farrell, who on Friday had a whooping cough booster shot, said the state government needed to review strategies to combat conscientious objectors, but ultimately it was up to parents. ``We shouldn't be contracting to the state what parents need to take responsibility for,'' Mr O'Farrell said. ``We need to ensure we have the information out there to make sure the myths and misinformation on the internet are combated. It needs to be a constant effort because it does worry me there is a lack of immunisation. `Ìt's been a good seven years since my youngest was four and, like many of us, you make the assumption when you don't have young kids, you're not at risk.'' Google ``vaccines'' and one of the first sites to pop up is the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) that upholds the now-discredited and withdrawn Andrew Wakefield study into an alleged link between autism and the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine. Dr McAnulty said authorities had no control over what was published online, but Page 46 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
the science in favour of vaccination was overwhelming. The National Immunisation and Research Surveillance Centre's Professor Robert Booy said: `Ìmmunisation has brought a host of life-threatening infectious diseases under control to the point where experienced GPs can no longer recognise diseases, such as measles, because they rarely see them.'' One in 1000 children who contract measles will die, and one in 1000 will develop severe brain swelling. Professor Booy said the vaccine's side-effects were minimal by comparison. ``Some will develop a slight fever or a rash, and one in 100,000 will experience some brain swelling, but it's 100 times less risk than the risks of the disease itself.'' Many vaccines do contain live viruses and preservatives, such as mercury and formaldehyde, which are known neurotoxins, which some parents are concerned about. But Professor Booy said the risks from the mercury and formaldehyde levels were negligible. Sydney naturopath Fiona Kane, who volunteers with the AVN, said most naturopaths opposed vaccination. `Ì like the idea of vaccines -- I just have a lot of doubts about them and what's in them, mercury and aluminium. My problem is we're not allowed to question them.'' Sandra Rogers, Australian Traditional Medicine Society president, said the society did not take a position on the subject of vaccinations because it was so contentious. Vaccines for Hib and pneumococcal, causes of potentially fatal meningitis, were brought in 10 years ago. ``Those diseases used to affect 400-500 children a year, and each kill around 20 children -- it just doesn't happen anymore,'' Professor Booy said. ______________________________ >> ONLINESHOULD PARENTS BE FORCED TO IMMUNISE THEIR CHILDREN? thetelegraph.com.au FOR A cough nearly killed my sister SHANNON Jones decided at a young age she would vaccinate her children when her little sister, who was just three months in 1980, nearly died of whooping cough. `Ì was three and I brought it home from preschool and I'll never forget that Christmas when my sister stopped breathing,'' the 34-year-old Mount Colah mother said. `Ì've made all of my family -- my sister, brother, grandparents, everyone -- get booster shots fo r whooping cough if they want to hold my baby.'' All three of her daughters have been vaccinated. `Ì'm passionate about this. I don't understand how people cannot see the risk to a newborn, you can kill them with things like whooping cough,'' Ms Jones said. ``People who don't vaccinate are ill-informed and it's child abuse to their own child and mine. `Ì have stopped going to playgroup because there were so many unimmunised children there.'' The Tweed Heads family of Kailis Smith, a nine-week-old baby who died from whooping cough in March, urged parents who don't vaccinate their children to do so. `Ìt's a horrible, horrible disease,'' the baby's mum, Roslyn Smith, said. David McCaffery, whose daughter Dana died from whopping cough in 2009, pleaded with parents and carers to get booster shots to help protect babies. AGAINST I won't risk my boys, says mum PADSTOW mum Meredith Collins chose not to vaccinate her three sons for fear of harming them. `Ì was ostracised by the schools, preschools and several Medicare payments were withheld because I Page 47 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
have chosen not to vaccinate,'' she said. ``There's some really nasty stuff in vaccines and I had these pure little bodies and I didn't think it was necessary they should have horrible things like formaldehyde in them.'' She said sons Connor, 12, James, 10, and William, 8, rarely got sick and the vaccination push was due to a conspiracy between pharmaceutical companies and government. ``Doctors don't disclose that they get paid a kickback for giving the shots; if that's not a conspiracy, I don't know what is,'' she said of the General Practice Incentive Payment of $18.50 for each vaccination in a child who completes an immunisation schedule. Ms Collins denied her actions were selfish and put other children at risk. `Ìt's my choice and I'm not willing to risk my children and I'm not scared of the diseases because hygiene practices are better now,'' she said. Document SUNTEL0020110521e75m00067
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Opinion "Like almost every child-rearing decision, vaccination is about weighing up risks and benefits TORY SHEPHERD 760 words 31 May 2011 The Advertiser ADVTSR 1 - State 18 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved ONE day the Government may need to stage an intervention in Sydney's plushest suburbs, Byron Bay's glorious expanse, and the genteel landscape of the Adelaide Hills. These are the places where some children's lives are at risk because parents have entirely lost trust in governments, and are turning to some dodgy alternative sources of health information. Studies by the federal health department, CSIRO and the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance have shown that while overall Australia's uptake of vaccination is good - mostly around 90 per cent for children - in certain regions the levels of conscientious objectors have soared, resulting in clusters of deadly diseases. Just over 1 per cent of Australians are conscientious objectors but in some areas it's up to one in five 20 per cent. New South Wales Health figures show there are 300 per cent more cases of whooping cough in areas with low vaccination rates. That's a bitch of a disease, by the way, one that can and has killed babies. Babies too young to be fully immunised themselves. NCIRS deputy director Rob Menzies said in a recent news report that highly educated people doing their own research were most likely to reject advice to immunise. ``(A lot) of people are likely to find wacky anti-vaccination sites where a lot of the information is distorted,'' he said. NSW paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall added this: ``We're appalled at how many kids are getting whooping cough because the chardonnay set and the alternatives don't vaccinate their children''. He added that his current advice was to ``cocoon'' newborns; keeping them out of the community and thus out of danger. The vaccination debate always hits as the flu season kicks in, as it's doing now. There will be the usual complaints from people who had the flu jab and then get a cold that obviously the needle didn't work. And plenty of people will remember with foreboding what happened last year, when CSL's product Fluvax - a really bad batch of vaccine - triggered febrile convulsions in one in 100 children who receive d it. The story of Fluvax, and those affected by it, and by swine flu, was explored in a great piece in the latest Weekend Australian magazine. The feature by Natasha Bita wades into the murky waters of childhood immunisation and rightly comes up with many answers, but no single, overarching solution. That is because vaccination, like almost every child-rearing decision, is a matter of weighing up risks and benefits. Conscientious objectors are failing in that decision-making process; in their minds the risks are exaggerated, the benefits forgotten. So we have these pockets where parents are doing the equivalent of locking their children indoors to Page 49 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
protect them from paedophiles, because they misunderstand the relevant risks. The negative press from the Fluvax case has spread across to other types of vaccinations, ones in which side-effects are rare and the health benefits striking. If more people start to reject vaccination, and the Government fails to make up the numbers by making sure there are no other obstacles to vaccination, the worst-case scenario is increasing numbers of children dying, being brain damaged or irreversibly damaged from diseases such as whooping cough or measles. Of course the Government will not `ìntervene''. Governments have to do something much more difficult than that; and that's to earn the trust of the sceptical ``chardonnay sets'' and `àlternatives''. That these highly educated people think the Australian Vaccination Network and its ilk are a better source of information than the authorities is a fairly embarrassing indictment on our dear leaders. shepherdt@thepunch.com.au VACCINE- PREVENTABLE DISEASES * There have been 331 notified cases of influenza in SA so far this year, compared with 59 at the same time last year and 109 the year before that. * So far there have been no official cases of measles in SA this year; meanwhile, Europe is experiencing a breakout. * There have been five notified cases of mumps, in contrast to none last year and 10 in the year before that. * SA has had 1433 notified cases of whooping cough, fewer than the 2077 recorded at the same time last year, but more than most of the years before that. * There have been 787 notifications of the varicella virus, which includes chicken pox. This is higher than the past five years. Source: SA Health Document ADVTSR0020110530e75v0001m
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Features Pity you can't be immunised against deceptive snake oil salesmen Jo Thornely 501 words 15 June 2011 Daily Telegraph DAITEL 1 - State 26 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved AS ANYBODY who's ever tried to feed a cat a worming tablet would know -- if you want to deliver something that's hard to swallow, you'd better dress it up in one hell of a tasty package. If you need people to be convinced of your cause, it helps to have a charismatic representative. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, it's a fine line between charisma and Captain of the HMAS Whack-A-Doodle. Take Scientology, for example. Here's a religion that has extra-terrestrial beings, silent childbirth and a relatively casual attitude towards mental illness as part of its basic manifesto. No problem! Just get some celebrities on board to let people know that Scientology is mega-awesome and they'll come in wallet-waving droves! That is, as long as people don't mind the occasionally-raving Tom Cruise spruiking their wares; a man I wouldn't trust to sell me oxygen without unnecessary hyperbole. Mind you, an organisation can often get an impressive number of followers even if their spokespeople are clearly a nut cluster short of a chocolate box. Recent outbreaks of measles and rising levels of whooping cough in Australia and overseas show that groups advocating that parents do not vaccinate their children have some charismatic spokespeople of their own. Of course, every time we see these spokespeople on television, we're reminded that they, too, walk the tightrope between ``personality'' and ``pixies at the bottom of the garden''. Anti-vaccination groups have a big job to do. In the face of centuries of evidence, relentless peerreviewed research and the well-buttressed church of common sense, their job is to convince parents that exposing their children to harmful diseases is preferable to the astronomically less risky practice of vaccination. Despite spokespeople such as ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield (who falsified test results to link the MMR vaccine and autism) being struck off the medical register, his research debunked; despite people like Viera Scheibner, shrill anti-vaccination crusader, claiming that babies who die from Shaken Baby Syndrome were killed by vaccines instead; despite anti-vaccination activists like the Australian Vaccination Network's Meryl Dorey being investigated by the Health Care Complaints Commission. Parents who believe these influential but ultimately unhelpful figureheads are not necessarily at fault. If other non-rational belief structures can attract followers and make people question reasonable modes of thinking, it's unsurprising that anti-vaxers can, too. The idea of sticking a needle into your child is an understandably emotional one, and emotion-based arguments against it must be tempting. But decisions based upon emotion are hardly ever the best -- as an example, look at any haircut I've had straight after a break-up. Anyone, no matter how vivacious, strident or sympathetic, who tells you that the risks of vaccination outweigh the risks of the diseases being prevented is not using their brain. Document DAITEL0020110614e76f0001c
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Features Anti-vaccine zeal akin to my belief in Santa Claus Jo Thornely 536 words 10 January 2011 Daily Telegraph DAITEL 1 - State 21 English Copyright 2011 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved IF THE completely unproven link between the MMR vaccine and autism can still be believed by hundreds of thousands of people despite there being no evidence to support it then, based on the same arguments used by figureheads of the anti-vaccination movement, I'm proposing a movement dedicated to belief in the existence of Santa Claus. Thirteen years ago, Dr Andrew Wakefield (since de-registered) co-authored a paper published in medical journal The Lancet (since retracted) suggesting a link between the MMR vaccine, autism and inflammatory bowel disease. A couple of decades ago, I authored a paper that suggested the existence of Santa, and the paper, addressed to the North Pole, was co-authored by two experts on the subject . . . my parents. Wakefield claims that his study has been replicated a number of times in a fistful of different countries, despite those alleged replications being neither independent or indeed replicative. My own paper, from memory requesting a doll and a picture book, has been replicated by millions of people throughout the Western world, in many cases successfully. Granted, those people are mostly under the age of 10 at the time of authorship, and the level of success is measured by the subsequent appearance of dolls, books or gaming consoles. But if anti-vaccination supporters are allowed to occasionally perform accuracy-origami, then I'm sure I can, too. Despite arguments to the contrary by people like ex-Doctor Wakefield, the Australian Vaccination Network's Meryl Dorey and thoroughly credible autism `àctivist'' Jenny McCarthy, there has been no study, properly conducted, that proves a causative link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Whereas I have solid, cast-iron proof that Santa exists. I've seen him drastically overdressed for the weather at my local shopping centre a big bunch of times and somebody ate those biscuits I left out. Also, I've seen pictures of him in children's books issued by highly reputable publishing companies, which beats anything the anti-vaccination kids have coughed up. Supporters of vaccination in positions of relevant authority or influence such as doctors or journalists, who are often by default pooh-poohers of those who still peddle the MMR/autism link, have been accused by anti-vaxers of being in the pocket of large pharmaceutical companies. Without proof, of course, because that's pretty much how they roll. Similarly, there are Scrooges who suggest that Santa Claus' popularity and perceived existence only persists to serve the interests of toy companies and, to a lesser extent, the carrot and biscuit industries. These are usually people who believe, as an alternative to the clearly real Santa Claus, in another fictional gent with a far less impressive beard. So let's just call that one moot. I'm standing by my Santa-Claus-Is-Real claim, based on the fact that there's far, far more evidence that he exists than there is evidence of a vaccine/autism link. Anyway, Santa is well known for being really, really nice to children. People who recommend that parents don't vaccinate their children against painful and deadly diseases? Not so much. Document DAITEL0020110109e71a00013 Page 52 of 53 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Anti-vaccination talk starts war of words Minister jabs at festival activist Folk festival's invited speaker needles AMA

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