Australian Vaccination Network wins Bent Spoon

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My apologies - just correcting the email addresses for the northern star - they are opinions@... and mel.mcmillan@... - I left the .au off before - sorry!******************************************************************************The following article was in today's Northern Star Newspaper (this is my local paper - I was interviewed yesterday and sent the reporter the government graphs showing the increase in whooping cough vaccination along with the increase in the disease - everything I said and sent was totally ignored). I have written a response. If you would like to write in as well, that would be fantastic. Please send copies of your letter to me at meryl@.... This is my local area and it is important to me and to my family that the truth be told here at least, if not anywhere else. Following is the article - after that is my reply. The journalist is Mel McMillan - mel.macmillan@...; the editor's email is opinions@...*************************************************************************************Anti-vaccine network wins dubious awardSkeptics hand out the Bent Spoonby Mel McMillanThe Australian Skeptics' Bent Spoon Award has this year gone to Australian Vaccination Network president, Meryl Dorey, of Bangalow.Mrs Dorey was awarded the spoon at the annual Australian Skeptics National Convention at the University of Queensland on Saturday."Winning the award from the Skeptics means we are on the right track," Mrs Dorey said yesterday.The Skeptics said she earned the award through her 'scare-mongering and misinformation' about childhood vaccination.Mrs Dorey and the network were responsible for low vaccination rates in Northern NSW and the subseqent loss of her immunity, the level required to reduce outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease, the Skeptics said.While Mrs Dorey was not invited to the awards ceremony, the parents of the Lennox Head baby Dana McCaffery, who died from whooping cough last year at four-weeks-old were.Toni and McCaffery were honoured with the Skeptics inaugural Thornett Award.The award, named after well-known sceptic Fred Thornett who died this year, was for the 'promotion of reason'."We implore people when they want information that they access reputable sources," Mrs McCaffery said.In giving the McCaffery family the award, Skeptics chief executive Tim Mendham said the organisation had been moved by the family's efforts to raise awareness about vaccination."The decision was unanimous." Mr Mendham said.Earlier this year, a member of the Skeptics, Tim McLeod, filed a complaint against Mrs Dorey and the network with the Health Care Complaints Commission. However, it is unclear whether the commission will investigate the complaint because Mrs Dorey and the Network are not health care providers.Yesterday, the commission said the matter was confidential.**********************************************************************************************************Below is my reply:Attention: The editorDear Sir:I submit the following letter in response to an article in today's paper, Anti-vaccine network wins dubious award. The Northern Star is my local paper. It is the media outlet that speaks to the people that I live with and work with every day. When this paper virtually accuses me of being responsible for the deaths of children and ignores the referenced information that I submitted to your reporter well in advance of publication showing that these accusations are incorrect, I feel that I have the right to insist on replying in full. Please do not edit or shorten this letter and please do print it as is including the references. If you feel that changes are needed, please contact me first on 02 6687 1699 or 0414 872 032 to discuss this matter.Kind regards,Meryl Dorey********************************************************************The Northern Star reported in Monday's paper, that I and my 'anti-vaccine' group had just won a dubious award from the Australian Skeptics. The assertion of the Skeptics and the inference from the article was that I and the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) were responsible for a lowering of the vaccination rate leading to the deaths of children from this disease.The AVN is a health consumer lobby group and vaccine safety watchdog. We intend that our information provide a balance to the overwhelmingly pro-vaccine material available from drug companies, the medical community, government and the media.It is both laughable and frustrating to think that our small, volunteer-run, unfunded organisation can affect vaccination rates in Australia. Government information shows that the percentage of children who are fully vaccinated against whooping cough went from 71% to 95.1% in the last 30 years. Over that time frame, the incidence of the disease has increased 40 times. This is a fact. Don't take my word for it - check it out yourself at http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4813.0.55.001#4.%20RESULTS%20-%20VACCINATION%20COVERAGE, http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/Publishing.nsf/Content/cda-cdi3203l.htm and http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/Rpt_3.cfm.Why is it that the Northern Star and other media outlets around Australia continually say that we have a declining rate of vaccination when you have all been provided with government statistics to prove that this is not true? While the AVN is being blamed for the increase in whooping cough and, by inference, Dana McCaffery's death, the real reason, whatever it is, for the increase in whooping cough is going uninvestigated. Blaming the AVN for this increase is totally illogical and deflects attention from the fact that we are seeing these increases in the disease despite the fact that more of us are vaccinated then ever. At what percentage complete vaccination will I still be blamed? If our current 95% vaccination rate (the level supposedly needed for herd immunity) is not enough - what is? 99%? 99.9%? When 25 years ago, 71% vaccination delivered us 1/40th the rate of disease we are seeing today, there has to be something else involved. Many doctors will say that it is adults spreading the disease. Yet an adult whooping cough vaccination was only introduced 5 years ago. Prior to that, there were no adults vaccinated and we had much lower levels of disease.Organisations like the AVN lobbied the federal government to remove the potent neuro-toxin, mercury, from most childhood vaccines - doctors didn't do this, nor did the Skeptics. The AVN prevented the government from taking away financial entitlements from those who could not or would not vaccinate their children as is their legal right. And the AVN continues to lobby for everyone's right to make free and informed health choices for their children and themselves.Shooting the messenger won't help. It is time to stop ignoring the elephant in the room. Vaccine safety is everyone's concern and scientific investigation into the effectiveness of this procedure must be carried out with great speed and transparency. Vilifying those in the community whose informed choices have led them down another path must never be allowed - least of all by the media whose role is to report and inform in a fair and objective manner.Meryl Dorey,National PresidentThe Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.Investigate before you vaccinateEditor,Living Wisdom MagazineFamily, Health, EnvironmentPO Box 177BANGALOW NSW 2479AUSTRALIAhttp://www.avn.org.auhttp://www.living-wisdom.comPhone: 02 6687 1699 - FAX 02 6687 2032skype: ivmmag