Sybil’s Multiple Personality Hoax

Posted in General, Health, Science by

The creator of Sybil more than likely suppressed a remembrance of how it began once they got into the thick of it. Once it became a financial success there was no turning back. In the final analysis Sybil is a phony multiple personality case at best.

Further more, this tendency to go over the top and not know where to stop with multiple personalities will continue to persist until we cease to be proud of those things we should be ashamed of.

Robert W. Rieber History of Psychiatry, X  (1999), 003-011

False memories and suggestibility. Extreme examples aside, I wonder at times if they aren’t related to confirmation bias and the rationalisation of cognitive dissonance.

Without intent we’re all suggestible at a certain level and almost certainly carry a few false or rather, completely erroneous memories – no matter how small. Certain illusionists and entertainers have strong links to skeptic groups and are at pains to forewarn of our brains’ suggestibility to stimuli. Psychology. Science. With knowledge and copious practice the better performers can perform “magic” 18 inches in front of us. Or more to the point inside our heads, using our own “software”.

Then there’s polarised views of the self and how it relates to the world. Why is it that some of us immediately know rubbish (and really bad rubbish at that) whilst other Conscious Living or Mind Body Spirit types wear their gullibility like a para-glider’s sail? Those of us that speak of the Conscious Lying or Mind Body Wallet expo’s don’t have anatomically different brains to those that believe. In fact what ever you make of psychics Myrtle Harvey and Ros Booth over at Dave The Happy Singer‘s blog is likely down to experience and environment.

To stop myself launching into studies on brain activity, neuropsychology and neuroscience I’d better mention Sybil. “Sybil” was the title of the 1973 book by magazine editor Flora Rheta Schreiber written about Shirley Mason. Shirley supposedly had 16 different distinct personalities. The dramatic story of how she got this way and how the narcosynthesis (drug induced hypnosis) loving, Sodium Pentathol (“truth serum”) injecting and self obsessed Dr. Cornelia Wilbur “helped” her is the theme of the book. The sensational aspect in treatment was that Mason was tortured hideously by her mother, was encouraged to believe so and hate accordingly.

However as you’re probably now realising, by the time Wilbur hooked up with Schreiber to write the book, what was actually documented in the treatment notes and on tape and what made it into print are two entirely different stories. The former fact, the latter fiction and omission of fact. Regarding the diagnosis itself a fascinating deconstruction [below] written by Robert W. Rieber, Ph.D in 1998 makes it clear that Wilbur was “planting the truth as she wanted it to be”. He writes:

I have been able to tell the story of how it is possible to manufacture a multiple personality. [….] As to the question of whether or not the Sybil case was an out and out fraud, that of course depends upon your personal definition of that term. No matter what you wish to call it, it was a conscious misrepresentation of the facts. The fine line between self-deception and deception of others is an important issue here. Unquestionably, Schreiber and Wilbur wanted to make Sybil a multiple personality case no matter what.

The New York Times write about a “confession” from Mason 15 years before the book was published:

… 1958, Mason walked into Wilbur’s office carrying a typed letter that ran to four pages. It began with Mason admitting that she was “none of the things I have pretended to be. “I am not going to tell you there isn’t anything wrong,” the letter continued. “But it is not what I have led you to believe. . . . I do not have any multiple personalities. . . . I do not even have a ‘double.’ . . . I am all of them. I have been essentially lying.”

We now know that sodium pentathol induces false memories and fantasies whilst under the influence. Wilbur would patently suggest scenarios to Mason whilst drugged then prompt her to “recall” the memory later. Wilbur also prescribed large doses of drugs that proved less than ideal. Secobarbital (Seconal) which is now only used for 10 days to two weeks due to dependence and Daprisal which proved so addictive as to be removed from the market and was associated with amphetamine induced psychosis. According to the NYT this transcript is stored amongst Schreiber’s papers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York City:

“What about Mama?” the psychiatrist asks her patient. “What’s Mama been doing to you, dear? . . . I know she gave you the enemas. And I know she filled your bladder up with cold water, and I know she used the flashlight on you, and I know she stuck the washcloth in your mouth, cotton in your nose so you couldn’t breathe. . . . What else did she do to you? It’s all right to talk about it now. . . . ”

“My mommy,” the patient says.

“Yes.”

“My mommy said that I was a bad little girl, and . . . she slapped me . . . with her knuckles. . . .”

“Mommy isn’t going to ever hurt you again,” the psychiatrist says at the close of the session. “Do you want to know something, Sweetie? I’m stronger than Mother.”

According to her baby book at the age of 7 Mason had a tonsillectomy in the home office of a doctor. She was brought there without being told why and told to put on a white treatment shirt and forced onto a table. Whilst struggling she was held down and the town pharmacist held a cloth soaked in ether over her nose. Mason felt like she was suffocating before she passed out. A flashlight was used to examine her throat and sliver bottles were nearby. Mason did tell Wilbur about the actual event years later. But under pentathol and during a time of Freudian psychology, Wilbur concluded this forceful treatment was not just rape but sexual torture.

Shirley Mason was indeed very unwell suffering from anorexia, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. She also reported unusual memory blackouts, at times coming to in places, suburbs or towns she had no memory of travelling to. Dr. Wilbur assumed these were fugue states during which a patient may lose touch with the self for hours or days and continue to act reasonably normally but as if someone else. Or rather the state would be forgotten and preceding events with it, giving the tempting illusion that one had “been” someone else.

The problem here was that Wilbur went looking for a fractured personality disorder. It was all downhill from there and introducing narcosynthesis in consonance with Wilbur’s urging was clinically disastrous. Mason had fantasies about being a doctor – perhaps a psychiatrist. More so, she had fantasies about Wilbur and developed a strong crush. The only child of Seventh Day Adventists Mason felt like Wilbur understood her like no other. Obsessed, in need, doped up and subject to drug induced hypnosis she latched onto the tether of Wilbur’s highly suggestible treatment.

There were signs earlier that Cornelia Wilbur, unashamedly fascinated with multiple personalities, was practicing very poor medicine. Shirley Mason visited Herbert Spiegel when Wilbur was absent. Speigel was an eminent hypnotherapist and psychiatrist. In the 1990’s he informed reporters of his concerns at the time that Mason would ask if she should “shift to the other personalities” as Dr. Wilbur liked her to do. Spiegel had clearly diagnosed Mason with hysteria. Which in truth was almost certainly the correct diagnosis for that era.

Wilbur spent her career with hysterical patients, often jabbing them full of sodium pentathol and using suggestion to manage symptoms. It is unlikely she did not know of Mason’s proper diagnosis. Rieber (below) points out the prospects of a book on MPD outweighed Spiegel’s attempts to reason with Wilbur and Schreiber. Robert Rieber breaks the tape recordings into ten distinct sections from Wilbur’s “diagnosis” to inventing the “crimes” of her mother to sustaining Mason’s hatred toward her mother to projection of guilt on Wilbur’s part. It’s a great read.

Alarm bells also rang in skeptical quarters. Prior to the book’s publication less than 80 cases world wide of “something resembling MPD” were documented. Following this, several thousand diagnoses followed in areas where the book was being read and in the demographics reading the book.

The hard work has been done by investigative journalist Debbie Nathan, author of Sybil Exposed, who who is interviewed in the video below. She has trawled through the documents kept in Schreiber’s papers to put together the truth. It wasn’t until it was discovered in 1998 that Mason was deceased, that her identity was revealed.

One must wonder. What ever became in the meantime of this very ill woman treated by an ambitious and unethical doctor, who failed completely to care for her patient?

ABC 7:30 Report

A Trinity of Affinity History of Psychiatry, X  (1999), 003-011

SensaSlim Shonky Shows Up TGA

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Big Placebo, Health, Legal, Scam by

By now you most probably know that SensaSlim won the Choice Shonky for “making snake oil look good”. Or rather, “SensaSlim (and friends)”.

Delightfully the TGA receive an honorary Shonky for their mind blowing apathy and inbred inability to delist the rubbish. Choice report:

The TGA, who deserve an honorary Shonky for their role in this, have had ample reason and opportunity to delist the product, ensuring it can no longer be sold in Australia, but have declined to do so. Even after the TGA’s advertising Complaints Resolution Panel recommended its delisting due to non-compliance with regulations, they have sat tight and done nothing.

Of course the TGA who can, according to the TGA simply do no wrong, rejected this award in the same hilarious manner they reject any responsibility for regular TGA failures. Reported in The Australian, “Unproven slimming spray wins a shonky”:

The TGA revoked Sensaslim’s approval to make such claims, but it has not delisted the product for sale, as suggested by its panel, earning it an “honorary Shonky”. A spokesperson says the Shonky is unwarranted: “The TGA continues to take regulatory action against SensaSlim Solutions to remove it from the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods.”

The spray continues to be sold by several Australian internet pharmacies. This prompted [Ken] Harvey to write to the Pharmacy Board of Australia this week, alerting it to possible “breaches by pharmacists” of legislation prohibiting them from misleading advertising.

Which is exactly why the spray should have already been delisted. People are still being ripped off. More on the failing effectiveness if not relevance of the TGA can be read here at Australian Skeptics.

Just recently on October 27th the Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing, Catherine King, hinted at regulatory change. Speaking at the Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia’s (CHC) National Conference King agreed that the Auditor General’s report into the TGA this year highlighted concerns. Pharmacy Daily report:

These issues, including poor compliance rates, resulted in recommendations for improving the process of regulation for complementary medicines and the handling of advertising complaints. Specific recommendations listed in the report, including: the timely completion by TGA of key guidance material for complementary medicines; improving the integrity of the self-assessment process for listing complementary therapies whilst limiting the use of inappropriate claims and indications, have been accepted by the TGA and are now in the planning stages for implementation.

King also said planning is now occurring for further report recommendations including making information available to the public on each listed complementary medication; improving the quality of the regulatory framework through the use of risk profiles; and the development of documented procedures for handling advertising complaints including timelines for completing investigations.

An informal working group had also identified that the current system doesn’t “sufficiently encourage compliance”. Indeed. It cannot be understated how appalling the TGA behaved in setting in train some of it’s regulatory powers, such as seeking original and stated evidence from sponsors of ARTG products, only upon discovering the Auditor General was to investigate. Put simply, the TGA can at any time ask for the evidence of any ARTG listed “alternative to medicine” product and act accordingly. Put rather more simply, they don’t.

Despite having several months to discern whether SensaSlim (and a plethora of other scam products) meet requirements Pharmacy News reported last week on the TGA dodging any criticism surrounding Sensaslim. Not happy about it’s honorary Shonky for apathy in the face of urgency, it was noted that:

… a TGA spokesperson insisted it was reviewing whether the product met the requirements for listing on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG). “It is nonsense to say that the TGA has taken no action in relation to SensaSlim,” the spokesperson said. “The TGA continues to take regulatory action against SensaSlim Solutions to remove it from the ARTG.

As for the SensaSlim Scam itself, well the European and American markets – always the primary target – are now copping it. The same flashy websites once active in Australia, with exactly the same claims are misleading consumers on those continents. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency cannot act to have the misleading advertising removed unless:

  • The site is hosted in the UK
  • The profits are banked in the UK
  • The product is distributed from the UK
  • And is a medicinal product

Profits from sales of SensaSlim go via PayPal into the bank account of Peter Foster’s QLD girlfriend Liana Emberg. Liana is understandably keeping quiet. Emberg was one of seven SensaSlim scam scally wags who had their bank accounts frozen by the ACCC.

Somehow I doubt poor Liana is losing out.

Check out all 2011 Shonky Awards here (SensaSlim 2:40)

Footscray City Primary well rid of Steiner “education”

Posted in Education, Religion by

Every word and gesture in my teaching as a whole will be permeated with religious fervour…
Such things show us that instruction and education must not come from accumulated knowledge…
What we have educated in children very naturally in a priestly way – what is really a religious devotion – we must now be able to reawaken at a higher soul level during the second stage of life…

Rudolph Steiner The essentials of education pp. 65-69

I can scarcely agree with Jewell Topsfield writing in The Maribyrnong Weekly expressing concern that parents “… at Footscray City Primary have been left reeling…” after the Education Department moved on Thursday to sack the school council and dump the First Class cult driven Steiner (or Waldorf) “education” program. But then maybe I shouldn’t be surprised because Topsfield inexplicably misleads her readers with:

… the Steiner stream, [which] emphasises learning by play rather than formal classes in the early years of school.

Ah, the “early years of school”. And who could fault “play rather than formal classes”? But is that really what’s going on in Steiner’s secretive descendent program? In brief Steinerism (Anthroposophy cult) propagates the belief that human evolution marched on with survivors from a doomed and fictitious Atlantis who inexplicably made it to other continents.

Generations survived through Persian, Greek and Egyptian civilisations – or epochs – eventually into Germanic tribes which, maintaining their Atlantean heritage culminated in the early 20th century with the Aryan civilisation as the pinnacle of human evolution. Those that survived with Atlantean heritage have largely spiritual forces of body and soul that must be “reawakened”, or developed “in the right way”. It is here that Steinerism as a belief system, a religion, and Steiner Education become inseparably entwined.

In one of his Practical Advice to Teachers lectures Steiner offered:

The subjects you teach will not be treated in the way they have been dealt with hitherto. You will … have to use them as a means with which to develop the soul and bodily forces of the individual in the right way.

Steiner teachers don’t so much reject other races, as pity their clumsy inferiority. Asians whilst ancient and wise are vitiated and cannot invent anything. African races are improperly formed, youthful and childlike. How this goes down in history or biology class – or the “narrow homogenised way of teaching” – as one Steiner parent suggested I can only guess.

Childhood development must follow an analogue of evolution as it’s viewed by Steinerism. That this is done by teaching only further blends the mystical aspects with the purported educational aspects. Steiner Cult teachings divide childhood development into 0-7, 7-14 and 14-21 years.

Thus the “early years of school”, as Topsfield so innocently puts it, is also the “second stage of life”. Whereupon the little darlings should be “able to reawaken at a higher soul level religious devotion” that cult members have drilled into them “in a priestly way”. Of course this is no run-o-the-mill reawakening. Each of these stages is under the influence of either the animal, vegetable or mineral Kingdom. Directed by the Principles of thinking, feeling and willing. Controlled by one of three body parts – head, chest and limbs.

But please spare a thought for the cultists cum teachers who must juggle this with the three Aspects of the human being – body, spirit and soul – which are further sliced by thrice into astral, etheric and physical bodies. Just as well they are experts in the art of Spiritual Science. Or rather Steiner Spiritual Science. I don’t want to get out of tri-sequence here.

On top of this they must accept that conventional science is rubbish, homeopathy is real, diabetes is treated with bee stings because, “anthroposophically logically” honeybees like sugar, the body has energy channels and fields (akin to chi, meridians and chakra) that are treatable through more pseudoscience. They are influenced by karma which comes into being by Lucifers’ effects upon their astral body. Lucifer then evokes Ahriman who effects from without, “working upon and in us by means of all that confronts us externally”. Reincarnation is real.

With all this on their mind, teachers appear to forget to inform parents of Steiner’s key revelations that he could encounter a super-sensible reality. This super sensible chap was behind ordinary objects in the world but as “a so to speak divine being” could give Steiner knowledge acquired about these everyday objects. This knowledge was, most fortuitously, secrets of their activities and existence previously revealed to the super-sensible reality. Steiner seemed to take this in his stride and later ascended through etheric and astral consciousness, eventually arriving at the karmic level.

When he ascended to the karmic level Steiner must have had a better view than from Eureka Skydeck

The karmic level must be even better than the Eureka Skydeck because from up there Steiner saw an amazing spiritual panoramic view including all recorded spiritual events in the history of the whole wide world. He probably couldn’t believe his luck, and it turned out this history had a name. The Akashic Records. Akashic is Sanskrit for “Sky” or “aether”. Through these records he could access the known history of the earth. Not his “known history” but the real known history. There were some other nifty tidbits in there as well it turned out, gleaned from clairvoyance. If anything trumps scientific fact, it’s clairvoyance.

With clairvoyance “Anthroposophists can scientifically investigate mysteries in both the spiritual and physical realms” – and this is scientifically proven, not an article of faith according to Steiner teachers. Steiner knew that islands “swim in the sea”, that the Earth (nor Venus and Mercury for that matter) does not orbit the sun, but “follows it” whilst Mars, Jupiter and Saturn precede it and clearly the heart does not pump blood like scientists say, but attracts it. Sleep is “exhaling the astral body… awakening is inhaling it”, the earth is a living being and much, much more. This can be discerned through “powerful clairvoyance”.

For Spiritual Anthroposophists (fellow cultists), evolution began on the fictitious continent of Lemuria which was situated where the Indian Ocean stubbornly seems to be today. Evolution was a highly spiritual process overseen by the likes of Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel and positively assisted by other spirit beings. The Christian Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost “is a reality deeply bound up with the whole evolution of the cosmos”, Steiner wrote in 1922. On Lemuria and Atlantis, Lucifer and Ahriman respectively were the bad guys who held back evolution. Spiritual evolution.

For the mythologists out there you’ll recognise Ahriman as a principle evil doer in the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. According to Steiner in An Outline Of Occult Science:

These two figures — Lucifer and Ahriman — must be clearly distinguished from each other. For Lucifer is a Being who detached himself from the spiritual hosts of heaven after the separation of the sun, whereas Ahriman had already broken away before the separation of the sun and is an embodiment of quite different powers.

The site Overlords of Chaos – that New World Order extravaganza – has much the same in the second paragraph on the Ahrimanic Deception, the Atlantean epoch and destruction of Atlantis and some “insight” into mans ability to manipulate the forces of air and water on Lemuria. What these deviations from Steiner’s teachings and work show us is that Steiner did not break entirely new ground.

Rather, Steiner mixed junk science with ancient mythology that actually went very well with the Aryan supremacy theories of the early 1900’s and the German Nationalist Socialist movement of the 1920’s. Although I rush to add there is no link to Nazism. Steiner’s views on Aryan supremacy were spiritual, not material and benign not malevolent. His schools were closed down by the Nazi party. At the time many Anthroposophists in Germany headed to Switzerland. Dornach, Switzerland was the location of 26 of Steiner’s 38 fabled Esoteric Lessons, allowing entrance into his First Class Cult. Hitler did persecute Theosophists, Freemasons, and Rosicrucians also, arguably as surety against threats to Nazi rule.

Steiner was accused by Hitler of being a tool of the Jews. Other sources claim he was murdered by the Thule Society. Nonetheless, there were secret lodges and occult societies aplenty in Germany in the early 1920’s. The secrecy of Steiner’s First Class Cult happenings is demonstrably impervious even today, though online texts exist (sorry about the eye zap). But persecution and quaint secrecy relate exclusively to the past. Today the realities of multiculturalism have had an eroding impact on attendee genealogy, if not Steiner philosophy.

Spiritual teachings include the belief that Lucifer caused a volcanic destruction of Lemuria ending the Lemurian epoch. The strongest survived and settled on fabled Atlantis. Here they developed a superior and intuitive grasp of the environment and speech. As hinted at above, their nemesis here was Ahriman who sought to lure them toward the material from the spiritual and intuitive. Still today criticism of a material understanding of the world or education remains and plays a major role as to why parents have little say in their childs’ education. Put bluntly, Steiner education is about stomping out critical thought before it takes hold.

As Roger Rawlings writes in My Experience As A Waldorf Student, about a discussion with his Steiner teacher:

Once he asked me whether he should fire the school’s Latin teacher, and he quickly added “Don’t think about it with your brain”—I should give an instinctive response, not a considered reply. (Which raises the question, what organ should be used for thinking, if not the brain?)

Whilst Steiner’s notions on the linguistic meaning of speech are insightful, valid and at times fascinating, the religious and mystical overtones of his teaching are inescapable. From his first Practical Advice For Teachers lecture:

We could ask why these things are as yet not included in science, even though they offer real practical help. The reason is that we are still working out what is necessary for the fifth post-Atlantean age, especially in terms of education. If you accept that speech in this sense indicates something inward in the vowels and something external in the consonants, you will find it very easy to create images for the consonants.

You will no longer need the pictures I will give you in the next few lectures; you will be able to make your own and establish an inner connection with the children. This is much better than merely adopting an outer image. In this way we recognize speech as a relationship between the human being and the cosmos. On our own as human beings, we would merely remain astonished, but our relationship with the cosmos invokes sounds from our astonishment.

Speaking of making sounds from astonishment. During Atlantean times man could command the creative forces of plant (vegetable), animal and mineral kingdoms, which is mirrored in Steiner Education of children – perhaps your children – today. It was Ahriman the second distinct incarnation of evil, who gradually misled some inhabitants of Atlantis to misuse the power of Earth and Water which led to the divine powers of Nature flooding Atlantis in a particularly nasty storm. So it was that the Atlantean epoch ended and the Persian, Egyptian, Indian, Hebrew, etc epochs followed, right up until the Germanic epoch.

Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy is a religion in every way and should not be tolerated in a serious education system. Fixation with the numbers three and seven is plainly religious. Avoiding the wearing of dark colours is a Steiner religious expression relating to dark forces and the dark side of humanity. The “play” we hear of in place of “lessons” is nothing of the sort. It is designed to avoid structure, reasoning, choice, calculating cause and effect, or indeed any materially oriented activity.

Rather it’s a primitive “play” to reinforce the supposed intuitive correlates to the latent Atlantean self and thus “reawaken” the Atlantean powers as dictated by this religious cult. The most famous are the watery paint blobs kids churn out. Designed to expunge the thought, care and even correction needed to apply straight lines and geometric thinking that children develop with traditional drawing, painting helps to tap into the “forces” of body and soul.

As you may have noticed selling an evidence base for this hanky panky is a big ask. Showing a bit of flare even Scientologists must admire, Melbourne’s Rudolf Steiner School dodges Australian Government guidelines. Although controversial, all schools are to make publically available the performance of their students. This includes the percentage of students meeting reading, writing, spelling and numeracy skills for years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Amongst a cornucopia of feelgood cuddly wuddly spiritual warmth, the Rudolf Steiner School response (item 6) is:

As 98% of parents chose to remove their children from participation in these tests, it did not allow for a large enough sample to be indicative of the School’s Performance. Therefore results are not available.

So what’s the score? Given all the above, Victorians can be grateful for the Education Department action in removing what I confidently predict (without any Steiner clairvoyance) was a school council heavily weighted in favour of psuedoscience and religion dressed up as education. Simple cult observance.

Children are fairly robust and can sort silly parental views from the real world with remarkable skill. Still, that there is such a strong and vibrant abuse of our education guidelines, thus Victorian children, played out in Steiner annexes and at the main campus in Warranwood is concerning. Perhaps the Department should extend its reach.

Clearly Steiner education is designed to propagate religious beliefs. Parents are given no say in their childrens’ “education” under the Steiner banner. Steiner School curricula cannot possibly comply with Government regulations. The inherent racism in Steiner’s teachings are manifest. We need to accept that Waldorf schools hide the truth of their extreme religion from education authorities and prospective recruits alike. In respect of the previous point Steiner Education is to be regarded as a cult.

Yet more specifically is the High Court definition of a religion given in Victoria October 27, 1983 during the Scientology case. Church of New Faith vs Commissioner of Pay-Roll Tax:

We would therefore hold that, for the purposes of the law, the criteria of religion are twofold: first, belief in a supernatural Being, Thing or Principle; and second, the acceptance of canons of conduct in order to give effect to that belief… Those criteria may vary in their comparative importance, and there may be a different intensity of belief or of acceptance of canons of conduct among religions or among the adherents to a religion. The tenets of a religion may give primacy to one particular belief or to one particular canon of conduct. [….]

According to this legal definition Steiner Education, which follows on from and is presented strictly as relevant to a system of belief as outlined above, is clearly a religion.

Steiner education is anti-science and certainly anti-critical thought. Anthroposophy itself offers a non evidence based, completely ineffective alternative to medicine. The inherent dangers of these practices and the thinking it nurtures are well documented. To allow expansion of such illusory beliefs and high risk conduct under the watch of any Education Department, state or federal, is patently irresponsible.

More so, the volume of work produced by Rudolph Steiner goes far beyond belief and ritual to a universal and “cosmic” world view that at it’s heart is demonstrably void of any grounding in reality whatsoever. It is fantasy. Our education system should teach fantasy as fantasy, not permit our corridors of learning to be used for the telling of fables palmed off as fact. The growth of this new age cult belief in adults is at variance to, and an unwelcome intrusion upon, the natural development and educational needs of children.

Any parent who spends some time understanding the purpose of Steiner Education would no doubt, to borrow Jewell Topsfield’s phrase, be left reeling.

Meryl Dorey caught out lying (again) by her own words

Posted in Anti-Vaccination Lobby, AVN, Health, Legal, Meryl Dorey by

After yesterday’s hysteria from Meryl Dorey about “rabid anti-vaccine safety (cough) press”, to describe accurate reporting about her antivaccination lobbying, AVN fans must be much happier with a piece from Lismore’s Northern Star.

It goes very easy on the illegal money raising tricks and public health damage we know and love from the Australian Vaccination Network. However, in a nice surprise it confirms a scandalous grab for money from businesses to help the AVN in it’s civil action against the HCCC. The piece, Vaccine group aims to win out West includes:

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.

Pro bono eh? Well that immediately calls into question the fate of pledges called for by Meryl Dorey in August 2010. There has been no public announcement from the AVN that donations are not needed. Nor has there been any clear and concise deliberation on the fate of monies donated to and collected by the AVN. This was the case with the raising of almost $12,000 to place a fictitious advertisement in a magazine, and also with the raising of another $12,000 to assist a family “on the run from Hepatitis B vaccination”. Money the family never saw but a story – a lie – which Meryl Dorey still tells to this day along with falsely claiming to have helped a family in QLD.

The AVN has helped not one family in this way. Of course these scams are dwarfed by the money raised through lying to members about placing material in Bounty Bags, given to new mothers. Money was raised but no material produced. So the OLGR has very good reason to revoke the charity licence of a fraudster. You can read up on the court action to date, and how Dorey’s own arrogance actually brought about far worse condemnation from the HCCC than the initial request for transparency on antivaccination status.

Which brings us back to an outrageous email to members in August, 2010. It’s a bumper edition of lies, conspiracies and demonstrable deceit, interspersed with delusions of grandeur. Under the heading Urgent Update – what is happening with the AVN? Dorey goes on a long winded rant of persecution, promises and piffle. Including [bold mine]:

After discussions with our legal advisers, we have been told that there is one chance for us to overcome the push to shut us down – and it is far from 100% even if we are successful.

In speaking with many other organisations and seeking out the best possible legal advice, we have discovered that this is not the first time the HCCC has stepped outside of its jurisdiction to persecute a non-profit organisation. There is another group who was in our situation less than a decade ago. They fought against the HCCC  – all the way to the Supreme Court. And they won! It cost them $150,000 – but they got every cent back and more because the court found that the HCCC had acted outside of its jurisdiction when they tried to prosecute this organisation.

As I said, we will not seek donations from our members – so please don’t worry about donating as an individual. If you have a business however, and are in a position to donate a larger amount – say $10,000 to $20,000 – and this donation can be given as sponsorship so it will be tax-deductible, then we want to know about it.

We are not asking you to give us your money at this point in time. Like we did when we had our large fund-raiser earlier this year, we are only asking for pledges. If we get enough pledges to get this action going (and we need a minimum of $100,000 – $150,000), then we will go for it. We will NOT give up if we are given the means to fight. I’m in this until the bitter end if businesses will support me, as is the rest of our incredibly dedicated committee.

“Push to shut us down”? Paranoid much or just misleading readers? All the HCCC asked for was an admission that the group is anti-vaccine and that their advice is not to be taken as medical advice. Today we have a bit more clarity through which to view this piece. On day one in court it was immediately established that Dorey was most certainly within HCCC jurisdiction. Most curious however is this “other group” who fought against the HCCC.

In Meryl Dorey’s trouble with the truth part 3 – Lies and Fraud on page 55, Ken McLeod highlights Dorey’s three comparisons to the HCCC supposedly stepping “outside of it’s jurisdiction to persecute…”. Quoting Peter Bowditch it’s shown that the Walker Inquiry was not “into the HCCC” as claimed by Dorey. The investigation into Graeme Reeves had nothing to do with “those in the natural health area” and Reeves was in fact deregistered. That finally leaves this mysterious group who defeated the HCCC in the Supreme Court NSW getting back their money “and more”. McLeod writes:

I and some lawyers have gone through the Supreme Court Case Law database, and there is no mention of such a case. So, this claim is pure invention.

Which is certainly Meryl Dorey’s form. Fiction. Now that she has publically admitted to pro bono defence one would hope in the interests of transparency that a full disclosure of any pledges given, collected or declined will be made as equally public. Yet this email yields quite a lot more fiction. For example:

And we are certainly not giving up. We have a lot of work to do and an awful lot of plans that are nearing fruition. For instance, we are planning on sending a delegation to Canberra for the next sitting of Parliament (when we actually have a government in place, that is) to request the following changes to Federal legislation:

1- A requirement for all health practitioners to report vaccine reactions to the TGA when these reactions are reported to them by parents.2- A requirement to reveal the vaccination status of those who contract ‘vaccine preventable’ illnesses.3- The funding of a study using the already-available information from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register’s (ACIR’s) database which currently tracks who is vaccinated and who is not.

Completely false. The AVN has to my knowledge not lobbied Parliament beyond urging members to write letters or lying to senators about unprovable vaccine reactions. Certainly the notion of “sending a delegation to Canberra for the next sitting of Parliament”, is close to hilarious. But there’s more:

In addition, we have made contact (finally!) with labs and researchers overseas who are willing to work with us on testing the currently-licensed Australian vaccines for the presence of heavy metals and other ingredients such as vegetable oils. If these results come back as we expect they will, this information may well blow the currently-held beliefs in the safety of modern vaccines out of the water.

Again false. The AVN has no contact with overseas researchers or labs and no-one is willing to work with them to test anything but the vacuum of truth to similar claims. The money needed to pursue such a venture is extraordinary and this lie is designed as a gap filler for the very same money raising scam they have pulled since the early 1990’s. The so-called independent testing has been imminent for almost two decades and it’s high time Dorey abandoned this pie in the sky waffling. I’ll gladly accept any input to prove this wrong.

Dorey also floats off into some quite bizarre musings:

You may not be aware of this, but the persecution of the AVN has started a tidal wave which is reaching out to all other natural therapies and therapists. Many of these organisations have not wanted to be involved with our group though many of their individual members have been long-time supporters. Let’s face it – this is a very controversial issue and as you can see by what’s happened with me and the rest of the AVN – when you raise your profile as being a pro-information advocate, you are likely to get knocked down in a very ugly way.

So for 17 years, natural therapy organisations have used our resources and directed patients to us for help and support, but in general, they, and many therapists have not taken a stand on this issue.

A tidal wave of persecution? Rubbish. The Wellness Industry is thriving in Australia and in no small part thanks to the paper tiger stand of regulatory authorities. All kicked off because Mother AVN is in trouble? Well that scarcely explains Cure All homeopath, Fran Sheffield snubbing her nose at the TGA and Complaints Resolution Panel (CRP) after a complaint was upheld on November 26th, 2009 as reported here by ABC Lateline.

For 17 years the AVN has had “patients” directed to them for help and support by natural therapists? I doubt it. The position of the Australian Natural Therapies Association is in support of conventional vaccination. As the CRP reported in upholding a complaint against false claims made about the efficacy of homeopathic immunisation – a favourite of the AVN:

The Executive Director of the Australian Natural Therapies Association has stated that no properly qualified natural therapist would recommend homoeopathic ‘immunisation’ as an alternative to conventional immunisation.

Despite claiming yesterday “I always say to people to go to their doctor and get information”, it seems to be a problem as the email continues under, “What has the result of this been?“:

The National Registration Board of the CAA is trying to put through a policy which will require that Chiropractors not be allowed to discuss vaccination with their patients. Instead, they will be required to direct parents to a GP for answers to any questions they may have.

There is a bloc in the WA Parliament that is trying to get homeopathy outlawed due to one woman’s choice to use homeopathic remedies to treat her cancer – a treatment which ultimately failed – but that was her choice. The 100 Australians who die every day on chemotherapy are not considered in this equation – but one woman who dies whilst using a natural therapy is a reason to destroy a 200-year old evidence-based therapy that is in competition with allopathy.

And every day now, there are more and more supplement manufacturers, suppliers of herbal medicines, Chinese herbal medicine producers and others who provide healthy, natural products, who are being targeted, not allowed to advertise their products or services and shut down by the TGA and their minions. The AVN has always been there for these groups – we and our members have supported you. Now, it’s time to see if you have the intestinal fortitude to stand tall and support not only the AVN’s but your own continued survival.

Stop, Stop, Stop! Dorey goes on to ask for $1,000 from any of these businesses she has “always been there for”. Those that must have the “intestinal fortitude” to hand over money to help out the AVN and thus, save themselves. The size of this woman’s ego and delusional narcissism is breath taking.

Dorey is actually claiming that her unnecessary fighting of the HCCC request to have a sign posted on her website and a public warning they issued, which she herself began civil action over is:

  • Persecution
  • An orchestrated push to shut them down
  • Media, advocacy and government plotting
  • Reason for other businesses to pledge large amounts of money
  • The beginning of the end for the Wellness Industry
  • The catalyst for the CAA Regulation Board to prevent chiropractors discussing vaccination
  • The reason WA parliamentarians are concerned at the lack of regulation of homeopathy as evidenced by Penelope Dingle’s death
  • Increased targetting of natural product and therapy providers who are being “shut down by the TGA and their minions”
  • Reason for small providers to hand over money to Dorey for “your own continued survival”
  • And quite a bit more besides…

Fortunately most decisions are made with neurons surrounded by the skull not the intestine, no matter how fortified. The crucial point here is this cost is a cost Dorey alone brought upon herself. She could have done what most other suspect and shonky providers do and simply ignore the request. The HCCC can realistically do nothing beyond the public health warning.

Far from shutting people down, “the TGA and their minions” are simply ignored. Fran Sheffield of Homeopathy Plus responded to a CRP request to post a retraction of false advertising claims that homeopathy could prevent diptheria, smallpox, polio, influenza, measles, pertussis, rubella, mumps, meningococcal disease, etc with:

“Well obviously I’m disagreeing with them and that’s why the retraction hasn’t gone up”

The real question is why has Dorey chosen to self sabotage and why does she assume it’s the responsibility of everyone else to solve this for her? Her terrifying claims about the TGA are close to insulting. Fran Sheffield is not alone. 80 of 82 complaints pertaining to the Advertising Code this year were upheld by the TGA. The two that weren’t were from competing companies.

As written in the recent Auditor Generals performance audit into the regulation of complementary medicine:

The size of penalties attached to criminal offences may also mean that it is seen as not in the public interest to proceed. This view is consistent with legal advice provided to the Advertising Unit about specific breaches.

The TGA has also observed that “prosecution is currently the only available option where administrative requests fail to achieve compliance”. There have never been any cases that have been referred for prosecution action and accepted. As a consequence, the prospect of using prosecution action against non‐compliant behaviour, and as a deterrent, seems limited.

In 2010 a DoHA review found 90% of products reviewed were found to be non-compliant with regulatory requirements. The infamous 31 products selected at random yielded 68 breaches;

  • 20 medicines had labelling issues such as non‐compliance with labelling requirements and/or breaches which may mislead consumers.
  • 12 included incomplete and/or inappropriate information on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG).
  • 22 were found to have manufacturing and/or quality issues.
  • 14 did not have adequate evidence to substantiate claims made about the medicines.

No-one is being “shut down” by Australia’s appalling feather touch of the TGA. More so, Meryl Dorey’s claimed position as being the head domino is some cascade of Wellness Industry persecution is demonstrably false and a product of her own ego, cunning and imagination. It’s high time Meryl Dorey stopped crying persecution and took responsibility for her own conduct.

The real victims are the innocent children, babies and parents who suffer from the consequences of decreasing vaccination.

The Rabid Truth and Meryl Dorey’s Failed Vaccine Myth

Posted in Anti-Vaccination Lobby, AVN, Denialism, Health, Judy Wilyman, Meryl Dorey by

Meryl Dorey has chucked a wobbly over an article written by Medical Editor for The West Australian, Cathy O’Leary.

Entitled Anti-vaccine lobby back in W.A.the piece is factual and balanced. Which at this point in Dorey’s career heralds disaster for the flat earthers. Today the truth includes a little analogy about vaccination being rape with full penetration and losing charity status for withholding transparency about non medical and antivax information. Schadenfreude aside, what did Cathy write?

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 and will hold others in Jurien Bay and Geraldton next 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 instead.

The NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing also stripped the group, based at Bangalow near Byron Bay, of its charity status after health authorities found its information was biased and said its website should state that its claims were not medical advice.

Spokeswoman Meryl Dorey attracted criticism this year when she likened a court order for a child to be vaccinated to rape. She wrote on the group’s Facebook site it was “assault without consent and with full penetration” but was forced to apologise after some of her own supporters found the comments offensive. [….]

Dorey summoned her flying monkeys on Facebook and set them to work:

More rabid anti-vaccine safety press from… I would think that the hundreds of families whose children have been hospitalised because of a dangerous flu vaccine might have something to say… Please comment on this page and write a letter to….

Wait, wait, wait. “Hundreds of families whose children have been hospitalised”? Really? This didn’t sound right. I was at the meetup of Vaccine Myths on Tuesday morning and can’t remember seeing any Myth or Lie by the name of Hundreds of hospitalisations or anything remotely similar. I’d been handed a card from head myth, Sir Vaccines Cause Autism. Could he help? I hesitantly dialled the number. A very pleasant voice with a British accent answered.

“Sir Vaccines Cause Autism speaking. How may I be of service?”

Nervously I ventured, “Er… Vaccines Cause Autism, you probably don’t remember me but I met you…”.

“Nonsense! Paul isn’t it? I’ve a rather thrifty ear for voices, old chap. My what a pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect to hear from you until my next incarnation. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I just wanted to check up on the likelihood of a certain porky pie Meryl’s spreading on Facebook about…”,

“About the hundreds of hospitalisations following adverse reactions to the flu vaccine in April 2010, yes old boy?”, he sighed. “Hmmmm, you’re not the first to call. Not the first at all. It’s an absolute disgrace Paul and Dorey is making us all look ridiculous. There’s no-one here by that name at all. Firstly, there appears to have been a total of 23 hospitalisations, reported in WA Today. Twenty Three! Then the ABC reported that 45 children were taken to hospital. This doesn’t mean all were admitted, but I’m happy to go with 45. More to the point it was reported that there were just over 60 children in total who had an adverse reaction across the entire state. My office has received no applications for any new Mythology titles referring to WA and there’s no way we’d approve any new Lies or Myths without prior telling, reporting, retelling and debate…. Just a minute… Oh, Vaccines Contain Mercury says Hello dear fellow, and that he wants to launch a coup. He’s very keen to pass that on.”

“Give him my regards”, I replied. “I noticed he doesn’t trust Meryl. Smart chap. What’s this about approval… do you have an actual process?”

“Of course dear boy, of course. We don’t approve any Myth or Lie – no matter how small – unless they’ve been printed in the media as or within a story or opinion piece, brought up in debates at least 100 times, repeated in social media, online forums or talk-back radio, used in logical fallacies almost daily and make good sense to Mike Adams. Only then do we forward the application to Castle Cockamaymee where the committee meets to discuss the merits of the Myth. We do background checks to make sure there’s no truth at all and all Myths undergo a Working with Idiots check. Occasionally we make some exceptions for material on whale.to. Of course there’s a six month probationary period. Then we consider our Myths fully qualified.

“In fact we have a new Lie on this trip. My Uncle Went Into Hospital For Cancer Treatment And Died Perfectly Healthy or just “Uncle“, as we call him. Meryl has tried him a few times. Very funny chap, very funny. We get a lot of laughs. In cases like this, when Lies can’t even trust the liar, the committee looks into the background of identical Lies being told by others, the size of the Burning Stupid it gives off, and the amount of hilarity generated in evidence based circles. We also calculate the probability of future use and growth based on other factors, such as (in this case) the rise of Mythical Natural Cancer Treatments, use of the Lie by identities like Peter Dingle, distrust of conventional medicine, support from other lies like Medicines Are Toxic and the history of the Lie spontaneously arising in unrelated areas. Of course, Dorey’s Lies are quite pathetic and we’ve never approved a single one Ipso Facto. Perish the thought. Uncle made it through because he has a robust presence across the globe already. In effect Dorey – as always – was simply using him. Does that help at all old bean?”

“That’s tremendous”, I replied. “So I presume all’s going well with the trip apart from this?”

“Well, we can only try”, he answered. “Stiff upper lip and all. We may well have never ever existed, but we do have standards. This type of behaviour is typical from Dorey and it’s exactly what some of the lads predicted. It reflects badly on all of us and shows how little respect Meryl Dorey has for a good, well constructed, fully qualified Myth. Counter-intuitively, we thrive on Burning Stupidity and Dorey’s full of it. We all feel terrific! Our P.R. guys are working flat out, so only time will tell. Anyway dear chap I’m rather busy. There’s a confused looking mother nearby so I’ll need to pop over and completely terrify her. Man I love this job, what? I’ll email over a link to the W.A. Today and ABC pieces from April 23rd 2010. Just a minute… Oh, Vaccines Contain Mercury now says to say Goodbye. Hope I’ve been of some help”.

“Awesome, Sir Vaccines Cause Autism. That’s been very helpful. Hope to catch up again”, I replied. “And congratulations on the Knighthood”, I added.

“Oh, jolly good thank you. Always glad to help Paul, And remember… Vaccines really do cause autism. Bwahahahaha”.

With that he was gone. Shortly after his email arrived, with the promised links to the articles. Flu vaccination ban goes national after fever, convulsions in children:

Seasonal flu vaccinations across Australia for children under five have been suspended after 23 children in Western Australia were admitted to hospital with convulsions following their injections. One child, aged 1, remains in a coma in a Perth hospital. [….] More than 60 children around the state may have had adverse reactions to the vaccine, including fevers, vomiting and febrile convulsions – a type of fit brought on by a high fever. [….]

He [WA’s chief public health officer Tarun Weeramanthri] said that since this year’s vaccine program started a month ago, 23 children under the age of 10 had presented to Princess Margaret Hospital with convulsions related to vaccinations they had received less than 12 hours before.

Another 40 convulsion cases had been detected in the past month in children at other metropolitan hospitals and in Bunbury. Doctors are now working to determine how many of those children received the flu vaccine. Aside from the convulsions, affected children were suffering fever and vomiting within 12 hours of their flu shots.

The ABC reported on the same day:

The Western Australian Government has suspended all flu vaccinations for children under five while it investigates a spike in admissions to Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth. The Health Minister, Kim Hames, says 45 children have been taken to hospital suffering high temperatures and febrile convulsions after receiving the vaccination.

Well there it was. In black and white. Dorey’s lie wasn’t even a real lie. It was just a Doreyism. A possible maximum of 45 hospitalisations morphed into “hundreds”. Much like the 21 Vaccine Injury Compensation Program cases for encephalitis and similar injuries magically became “hundreds, possibly thousands” of cases of autism when talking on KOFM radio, last May. I wonder what else Cathy O’Leary had reported:

“I always say to people to go to their doctor and get information but get the other side as well so they can make a real decision about whether to vaccinate,” [Meryl Dorey] said.

Well that’s complete bollocks right there. Dorey never tells people any such thing about visiting doctors. Oh well, I hope people at least take that advice. It certainly isn’t hard to see why The Mythical Realm demand such high standards of their Vaccine Myths.

Australian Medical Association WA president Dave Mountain said the group was trying to whip up anti-vaccine hysteria again. “They are zealots who pick and choose bits of information to make it look like they’re presenting real evidence,” he said.

This led to parents refusing to get children and themselves vaccinated, which affected everyone, particularly the most vulnerable who benefited from herd immunity and, in that respect, they were a danger.

That’s about the size of it. The AVN is certainly a danger. That Dorey claims to have scammed up $1350 for a night of fear mongering is pretty galling. Such as claiming there were “hundreds” of hospitalised children in Perth following the Fluvax debacle. Or as WA’s AMA president Dave Mountain said, “They are zealots who pick and choose bits of information to make it look like they’re presenting real evidence.”

Of course some of Dorey’s servants obeyed her command to harass The West Australian for the quality journalism that may very well have saved children’s lives. Everything written is simply factual but Dorey, outside of her censorship comfort zone, needed her minions to attack the source, not the evidence. I understand AVN members wrote to The West Australian unjustly accusing it of seeking to achieve unquestioning support for vaccination and of purposely misrepresenting members of the AVN. It was suggested certain information, perhaps Ms. Dorey’s claim of vaccination being “rape with full penetration” was only there to encourage readers toward an unfavourable view of the AVN.

The hypocrisy here is breath taking. Dorey told AVN members she’d been contacted by Cathy O’Leary and told her of attendance numbers and how attendees were not being told AVN propaganda “of the downsides” of vaccines by their doctors. Remembering that the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission found the AVN “quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous”, it’s not surprising doctors aren’t lying to their patients. Yet Dorey had another falsehood up her sleeve.

Eye witness reports suggested a handful of people attended at Floreat. Dorey herself described the turn out as “smallish”. Still The West Australian was duped by Meryl Dorey and reported:

About 90 people, mostly parents of young children, had attended a forum in Floreat on Tuesday night

Strangely no AVN member complained about that error. Perhaps the only actual error in the story. The Big Pharma conspiracy was raised by one supporter suggesting that The West Australian sought to profit from pharmaceutical companies. AVN member and antivax PhD candidate Judy Wilyman was particularly misguided. Writing to the editor of The West Australian, but mistakenly emailing a copy to just under 100 recipients and thus the internet itself, this letter took on a life of it’s own.

I have a terrible memory but remember spotting it on a website, or public email list or one of those ever changing Facebook threads. Either way it’s here now and that’s all that really matters. I guess I could paraphrase her PhD supervisor Dr. Brian Martin regarding the privacy of a third party when he emailed me in August. “Was it marked confidential?”.

Wilyman launches into conspiracy thinking and blame, giving responsibility for truth a wide berth. It included:

The West Australian has stooped to a new low in investigative journalism… Perpetuating misinformation to achieve the desired response from its readers (unquestioning support for vaccination) is irresponsible reporting. [….] …the name of the AVN is the Australian Vaccination Network and the message this organization is promoting is freedom of choice in vaccination. The editor has purposely misrepresented the parents and health professionals who are members of this organization.

In addition, the article includes unnecessary information that has been used to influence the opinion of readers. [….] Unlike the West Australian, the primary interest of consumers is children’s health and not the profits that can be made from the sponsors of newspapers such as pharmaceutical companies. [….]

Why is the media unable to report accurately about the consumer groups who are asking valid questions about vaccination – a medical procedure. If this is an evidence-based policy and if the government is presenting all the known science on its website, it would not be necessary for parents to form organizations to inform themselves of the science that is not being presented to support this policy.

In the interests of democracy it is time for the West Australian to demonstrate some quality journalism and find out why an increasing number of educated parents are not choosing to vaccinate.

Investigative journalism? Science? Anyway… So The West Australian is in on the Big Pharma Myth? The answer to Brian Martin‘s student’s last query is clear. These groups deal in pseudoscience and deception, placing the health of our community and the lives of children at risk. Only last year Wilyman referred to media reporting of three infant fatalities from influenza as designed to “coerce” readers into vaccination, and that the media “run fear campaigns”. Speaking of “science” she quoted from a hundred year old text and referred to much older material, then rattled off the standard vaccination myths. The ones that science has debunked time and again.

Wilyman told her audience at the State Library in Perth last year.

We’re being educated by the media who have pharmaceutical interests

Really? This is what it comes down to time and again. There’s no evidence to refute vaccine efficacy or their success in changing our quality and length of life. So it must be a plot. Judy Wilyman works hard to mislead Australians. Consider the misleading poster below on Coercive and Mandatory Immunisation. Despite the sub-heading How Ethical is The Policy? and Wilyman’s accusations above including “Perpetuating misinformation to achieve the desired response”, “unnecessary information that has been used to influence the opinion of readers” and intentional misrepresentation the reality is far different. Without vaccination of health care workers patients would be at risk, workers would be at risk and institutions would be at risk of law suits from those who catch a vaccine preventable disease.

Judy Wilyman’s abuse of Murdoch University Logo

Ethics? Judy Wilyman did not have the permission of Murdoch University to use their logo. Then writing an Investigate before you vaccinate brochure for the AVN once again used the good name of Murdoch University. Little wonder she is now at Wollongong University supported by AVN advocate and defender, Brian Martin. Finally despite the support above, travelling interstate and presenting antivaccination material with, writing for and being an active supporter of the AVN, Wilyman publically distances herself from the AVN, denying membership. Perhaps this is true but in reality Judy Wilyman does more to support the AVN than any “member” in history.

As the NSW HCCC found quite justly after investigating The Australian Vaccination Network:

The Commission’s investigation established that the AVN:

  • provides information that is solely anti-vaccination
  • contains information that is incorrect and misleading
  • quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.

On this basis, the Commission recommended to the AVN that it should include a statement in a prominent position on its website to the following effect:

  • The AVN’s purpose is to provide information against vaccination, in order to balance what it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere.
  • The information provided by the AVN should not be read as medical advice.
  • The decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.

The Commission recognises that it is important for there to be debate on the issue of vaccination. However, the AVN provides information that is inaccurate and misleading.

There is no “educated”, informed or as Wilyman claims, “freedom of choice”. Parents are making the mistake not to vaccinate because they are misled by the lies and myths told by antivaccination lobbyists. As the HCCC also stated in the Public Warning, the lies peddled by the AVN such as that presented in W.A. and advanced by Wilyman herself:

…may result in members of the public making improperly informed decisions about whether or not to vaccinate, and therefore poses a risk to public health and safety.

So, the AVN ilk were true to form. Information that is factual and documented was deemed conspiratorial, misleading and wrong. Information that is false was considered fine by AVN supporters. The conspiracy and persecution twaddle is designed to justify why these dangerous risks to public health and innocent children behave as though above the law.

For all her Flying Monkey urging to comment, Dorey’s Facebook command appeared to be quite unsuccessful.

That’s some comfort.