Tag Archives: anti-vaccination

Chiropractors adjust vaccine truths

Posted in Anti-Vaccination Lobby, Big Placebo, Chiropractic, Health, Scam by

The World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) have a “journal”, available for free subscription. It doesn’t actually have any peer reviewed studies, but is more a collection of industry positive, competitor negative and hokery pokery articles that deny credibility. Such as Energy Medicine: Futuristic Healing with ancient roots, by Dana Ullman. We know Dana from Twitter as @homeopathicdana

Today I had an article brought to my attention by New Zealand skeptic and critic of anti-vaccination nonsense, @SkepticalSkotty. He’d had the article brought to his attention by a friend. Like many in the developed world outside Sth. Korea, where it’s illegal to practice the scam, the friend had given chiropractic credence. Quite understandable. Unless one’s in a clinical setting or prone to keep an eye on non evidence based trends, chiropractors are the other “doctors” who work on backs and necks and are subsidised by insurance companies and governments.

The September 2010 article Several nations banning flu shots for babies, provides unique insight into bias, deceptiveness and unprofessional standards. Supposedly having no position on vaccination I was intrigued at the effort to mislead readers into forming a negative view of both seasonal influenza and H1N1 vaccination. The article opens with an accurate observation of a QLD infant death following influenza vaccination, but almost immediately begins to blur the lines. Let’s do some housekeeping, remembering that fifteen children in QLD had an adverse reaction to the vaccine.

In WA where babies were given Fluvax – a combination H1N1 and seasonal ‘flu vaccine – febrile convulsions effected 60 and another 200 presented with higher than normal temperatures post vaccination. Well tolerated in teens and adults Fluvax was certainly not tolerated in babies and small children. One small child, Saba Button, fell into a coma and is now struggling with brain damage. It is the type of tragedy health authorities dread. Soon after the reactions WA suspended administering the vaccine to children under 5 and this was also taken up nationally. The TGA had made some noises toward CSL who manufactured Fluvax. However it wasn’t until FDA officials from the USA turned up investigate CSL’s standards of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) this year, that one could realistically defend Australian influenza vaccination regimes against quite justified criticism.

These two events were tragic and widespread fevers in vaccinated babies is a huge blow to public confidence. However suggesting that health authorities intend to suppress the truth at the expense of public health is a frequent unsubstantiated claim. Worse is the use of these tragedies by groups like the Australian Vaccination Network – the anti-vax darling of Australian chiropractors – to smear their critics. The day The Australian published Natasha Bita’s article on young Saba Button (May 28th), Meryl Dorey exploited this family to muster anti-vaccination support and to also make false claims about skeptics and Stop the AVN.

Meryl Dorey’s Yahoo! Twitter and Facebook libellous claims

Dorey published an “Action Alert” on Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo! claiming supporters of vaccination were “mobilising” and “organising their forces” to write letters of complaint to The Australian, and thus writing in support was vital. “They do NOT want newspapers or any media outlets to be covering this from a freeedom of choice point of view”, she lied on Yahoo!

Freedom of choice point of view? Since when are facts or a parent’s choice to speak to the media linked to whacky anti-vax lingo’? Dorey was seizing ownership of Saba’s tragedy and using it to engender disgust toward those who criticise her already extensive dossier of lies and deceit. Little wonder many believe she manufactures stories of personal threats.

Not only is this offensive to Saba, her parent’s and those maligned but one must surely question her grasp on reality, not to mention the ethical issues surrounding vaccination, to see a grown woman manipulate her members as pawns in her own delusional neocon’ fantasy. I wrote to Natasha Bita and her colleagues seeking confirmation and on June 21st she confirmed that whilst she had been on holidays no “complaints” had been received, or could be found.

Back to the WCA journal. They failed to stress the vaccine was “suspended” not banned or that other strains would be considered. Onto the second paragraph;

A short time later, Finland also suspended the H1N1 vaccines due to six reports of narcolepsy in children and teens immediately following vaccination. According to The Helsinki Times, “Medical reports suggest that over 750 of those who have been vaccinated have experienced harmful effects.”

Firstly, QLD ADR’s were due to seasonal influenza vaccine. WA’s ADR’s were due to a combination of seasonal and H1N1 vaccines. The vaccine used in Finland was GSK’s H1N1 vaccine Pandemrix. No Australians have been administered Pandemrix and Australia has had no reports of narcolepsy. This distinction wasn’t made by the WCA article. What about those “750 harmful effects” that they quoted. If we read the Helsinki Times piece we see that 2.5 million doses were given. That’s a 0.003% ADR rate. I do rush to add this is not to be dismissed as trivial, but does indicate the risk/benefit ratio. The WCA seems to think that’s an excessively high level for narcolepsy – falling asleep unexpectedly. More so, as we’ll see there are unique Finnish genetic components to this problem that are related to the vaccine.

Yet if we’re talking about removal of insurance coverage for cervical manipulation by chiropractors because of the risk of vertebral/carotid artery tears, stroke and traumatic death – as in the case of Jeremy Youngblood – then an incidence rate of up to 0.005% is a trivial matter. WCA were upset that this brought “…applause from critics who still maintain that chiropractic is linked to strokes”. Chiropractors maintain it’s “a myth”. I hope you got that. Vaccine induced narcolepsy due to genetic predisposition: bad. Higher risk of tearing of the vertebral artery and dying slowly, whilst well documented: is a myth. They write with mind blowing arrogance;

The World Chiropractic Alliance responded by sending the company a copy of its position paper on chiropractic and strokes, and a vast amount of scientifically documented information that dispels the notion that chiropractic is in any way linked to carotid and vertebral artery dissection. “The WCA has been distributing this information ever since the myth about chiropractic and stroke began, and we’ll continue to make sure we counter this campaign of misinformation,” stated WCA founder and CEO Terry A. Rondberg, DC.

Kaiser Permanente, whom I now admire greatly wrote;

Chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine is associated with vertebral artery dissection and stroke. The incidence is estimated at 1.3-5 events per 100,000 manipulations. Given the paucity of data related to beneficial effects of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine and the real potential for catastrophic adverse events, it was decided to exclude chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine from coverage.

“Paucity of data related to beneficial effects of chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine and the real potential for catastrophic adverse events”. Damn that reads well. Are chiropractors going to suspend this potentially lethal practice? Hell no – they’ll call it a myth and back that claim with bad science. Are they worried about patient health or patient access to a manipulation that takes seconds? No, they’re upset that they can’t get the big bucks.

Think of how many people around the world would get a cervical manipulation on any one day. At a rate of up to 5 per 100,000 catastrophic injuries and stroke, for no benefit, not to mention all the minor cervical vertebral insults and/or soft tissue injuries you have my permission to feel a little ill dear reader. So, it’s compelling how selective this group of pseudoscientific profiteers can be when it comes to understanding not only risk/benefit ratios but the size of the risk vs the evidence for any benefit.

The WCA article also mentions narcolepsy in Sweden. That also was a rate of 0.003% – a figure they seem intent on not publishing. According to the WHO last April 21st;

The only pandemic influenza vaccine used in Finland and Sweden was Pandemrix, an adjuvanted influenza A (H1N1) 2009 monovalent vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

Narcolepsy is a condition that has a strong genetic linkage, being almost uniquely seen in persons who have the (HLA) DQB1*0602 genotype. Of the cases of narcolepsy tested so far in Finland (n=29), diagnosed during 2009-2010, all have that genotype. The National Institute for Health and Welfare of Finland considers it probable that the Pandemrix vaccine was a contributing factor to this observed increase, and has called for further investigation of other co-factors that may be associated with the increased risk. They consider it most likely that the vaccine increased the risk of narcolepsy in a joint effect in those genetically disposed with some other, still unknown, genetic and/or environmental factors. The final report from the Finnish National Narcolepsy Task Force is expected by 31 August 2011.

Apparently 30% of Finnish have this gene whist 15% of Europeans have it. This wasn’t dismissed as a genetic issue either. There is a nine fold risk in those vaccinated vs unvaccinated. So, GSK aren’t getting any special treatment. Nor does hysteria get to reign. As in Australia it is mainstream medical monitoring and national health responses that ultimately serve to protect the public. But it’ll be late August this year before final European reports are released.

The article goes on to quote a now missing article from the Bharat Chronicle;

The vaccines appear to be causing a pattern of neurological disorders affecting children and teens across the planet

Most facepalmingly, if you pop that sentence into your chosen search facility dear reader, you get over 2,000 hits ranging from Bible prophecy, to natural woo, to wellness, to infant chiropractic to… well you get the idea. Our WCA “journal” is running a junk piece that they probably scavenged from the depths of conspiracy central.

The piece finishes off claiming “Australian authorities” knew of the problem for “several weeks” but withheld the information whilst continuing to encourage vaccination. One assumes they’re referring to WA where ADR’s were reported for two weeks before Saba Button was injured which was around the time the number of ADR’s demanded state wide action. Far better for WCA to publish the insinuation that authorities remained silent about a free vaccine with perhaps the only motivation being to harm the public.

Then it’s back up to QLD for accusatory lies followed by some special pleading;

Health officials at first tried to convince the public that there was no “causal” relationship between the vaccine and the side effects but even the Australian coroner had to admit he couldn’t rule out that the flu shot was responsible for the death of two-year-old Brisbane toddler Ashley Jade Epapara.

Gosh. “Even” the coroner couldn’t rule it out. Appeal to authority also. The truth is no-one can rule it out or rule it in. Period.

Then back to WA with nonsense about attempting to “blame” a bad batch. In fact the possibility of a bad batch must be investigated just as the possibility of the vaccine ingredients and combination was investigated. “This is not a long-term safety issue with vaccines,” University of Western Australia School of Paediatrics and Child Health Associate Professor Peter Richmond told WA today, they add. Quite right. This is most certainly not a problem with vaccines as a long term safety issue. The only long term issue is the capitalisation by anti-vaccination groups.

All in all this is an appalling piece of junk writing that aims only to create the illusion of widespread – or “across the planet” – trends that somehow show vaccines are a health risk. They cant even manage to keep different Australian reports on two very different scenarios straight. Already this year in QLD influenza is back at six times the annual rate. Febrile convulsions and brain damage from vaccine preventable disease are constant realities. It is for this very reason the risk/benefit of vaccination is actually incredibly safe.

No doubt Australia had some serious issues with vaccine manufacture and management of ADR reporting in 2010. This is being dealt with by the proper authorities. The very last thing the present vaccine controversy needs is this band of chiropractic cowboys defending futile and dangerous treatments, whilst attacking sound evidence backed public health measures.

Ultimately there are not any nations “banning” flu shots for babies. Chiropractors have lied again.

Meryl Dorey: Free Speech champion who censors the truth

Posted in Big Placebo, Denialism, Health, Human Rights by

In recent posts referencing Brian Martin’s defence of the Australian Vaccination Network I’ve stressed that there is a marked disconnect between the many defences against demonstrable falsehoods raised by the AVN and Martin’s contention that;

The methods used by SAVN disturbed me. SAVN essentially rejects free speech critical of vaccination.

Martin advances a weighty defence of Meryl Dorey and the AVN based on unusual comments on a Facebook page. Comments well removed from vaccine efficacy and safety. A late comer to the debate he failed to comprehend the level of manipulation and censorship conducted by Meryl Dorey. Understandably in writing Debating Vaccination he zeroed in on material that sustained his argument. But he did so to the detriment of publishing a robust academic critique of the vaccine controversy.

Martin painfully selected material and apportioned “assumptions” and flaws in reasoning to those volunteers who defend the health of innocent children. What is striking is the sheer lack of evidence refuting anti-vaccination arguments. The debunked Wakefield claims of autism, his “erasure” from the medical registry and his fraudulent callous disregard, are absent from mentions of AVN complaints. The many “vaccine injuries” and pollutants in vaccines from anti-freeze to aborted foetal cells are not sustained. SIDS and “Shaken Maybe Syndrome” as caused by vaccines remain claims void of evidence. Indeed the plethora of ridiculous claims about “vaccine dangers” go unchallenged. “New Yorker Meryl Dorey” floods her members with USA dynamics begging for money to help hospital workers in NY. Her USA members can demand banning of Australian members who admit to vaccinating children. Yet AVN complainant Ken McLeod is dismissed by Martin for quoting international pertussis figures on vaccine efficacy on the basis it is not local.

Martin’s intent was to confirm, indeed prove his own assumption that the AVN are a “citizens group” raising a voice of dissent. As vice president of Whistleblower’s Australia he was lending them credibility. Credibility that he granted the AVN based on a one sided, biased and inaccurate account. As I’ve written before, Martin is certainly a victim of the AVN’s deception and dishonesty. Much of the material Martin used is from SAVN sources with all the scars and imperfections that this emotive argument elicits.

Deleting material that casts Stop AVN in a negative light is unthinkable to members grounded in science, integrity and skepticism. Members who delight in being proven wrong and welcome such as a test of academic maturity or a new doorway to what evidence reveals – a new challenge. In this light Martin had a banquet to select from in forming his “defence” of Australia’s most dangerous public health antagonists.

Dr. Martin did initially contact members of SAVN. However the die was cast and his status as an “enemy of reason” more than apparent. He seemed to be on a fishing expedition and follow up writings confirmed this. His conclusion was drawn up well before looking for evidence, and his work reflects this admirably. However, he never asked if his proposed assumptions were correct. He never asked for explanations or indeed for an account of debate. If he had he would have been afforded (as he has recently been) the viciousness of AVN abuse of SAVN members and children or babies alive and dead. Material they quickly delete from public view but which is kept by certain SAVN members.

Also he would have been afforded countless polite evidence based rebuttals or mere queries from AVN pages that led to the banning of members and deletion of the material. In this light he may have understood the frustration of those seeking to “debate” and perhaps seen the folly of his title “Debating Vaccination”. Or the censoring of input by Meryl Dorey to convey a false impression to readers. A rambling post followed by gushing appraisal and testimonials of same. Calm evidence based rebuttals are known as “typical skeptic nyah nyah” with claims comments aren’t published because they threaten violence – a lie so overdone and so likely of their own construct it is embarrassing;

I approve unfavourable posts – the only ones I don’t let through are those that are abusive, threaten violence or are the typical skeptic nyah-nyah – you’re wrong and we’re right – immature garbage. Your post does not fit into those parameters.

In fact, I recommend reading that thread. Rob pleasantly leads Meryl in and snaps the trap shut. Meryl responds with…. silence. So, I’m not launching into Dr. Martin here. I maintain the reasons for his flawed stance can be at least partially explained by the schemes of Meryl Dorey. Plain, simple censorship and obfuscation. This calculated manipulation is hard to prove in most arenas. Yet a visit to her site and a brief perusal of posted comments shows gaping holes in the sequence.

I replied to Meryl last night. Like most comments I seek to refute her central claim making up the blog post. It was not published. As always one screenshots material one suspects will be deleted. It is this very material Dr. Martin has not accessed in making up his mind on which side the suppression of free speech comes down. On this occasion less than a third of comments (to my knowledge) were published.

This remains the most frustrating and deceptive tactic on Ms. Dorey’s part. Whilst pleading that citizens, government departments, media and medical authorities actively suppress her right to free speech, she quite knowingly denies right of reply to others. This skews perception. Withholds facts and debate strategies. Leaves demonstrable (even if well meaning) falsehoods seemingly unchallenged.

Done properly, comment censorship can turn a demolished post argument into what looks like a post followed by glowing support and ridicule of any opposition. What’s inexcusable is Ms. Dorey’s exploitation of other parents pain and the misleading of her own members and supporters. From Scientology links and promotion of CCHR to theft of donations, most members are distracted by cries of persecution and oppression.

There’s an emotive issue afoot. Meryl is milking the deaths of two children in Bajna and Akhepura villages of Nagaur district in India. They were injected with tainted vaccines. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are a massive problem in developing nations. Mishandled and diluted vaccines riddled with pollutants do emerge. This is what killed these children – not vaccine ingredients. You decide on the morale and the intelligence of a “vaccine expert” who capitalises on this.

Nonetheless, Dorey persists on exploiting the apparent vaccine injury of young Ella from Iceland. Eventually her mother comments. Again, vaccine ingredients are not the confirmed variable but possible genetic predisposition. Sadly, anti-vaccine lobbyists seize upon these cases as proof positive vaccines will do this to anyone. These cases are rare but certainly make up many of the vaccine injury compensation payouts. The comment included (with language difficulty);

Ella’s dad is now also in contact with a genetic specialist in NIH in USA to see if there was a genetic factor involved (just for our curiousity) and it is thought that one of Ella’s gene is mutated or damaged, one of her gene that builds protein in her imunesystem .

Correctly, the mechanism of the injury is questioned by medically trained personnel and scientists. The replies aren’t terribly helpful and even become quite bizarre. I do wonder what the bulk of the unpublished comments presented. Talk about shouting down and suppression of free speech. I do hope Dr. Martin takes the time to digest this conduct.

But what of my comment? Why did Meryl not publish it? I actually said it is an abuse of the international right to health that Australia has no vaccine injury compensation programme. Surely Meryl can’t disagree. Perhaps it was the facts and challenges I included. What is unusual is that I hadn’t read the comments on Ella not the predisposition admitted by her mother. I feel for this family and I am appalled that Australia has no compensation scheme for similar injuries. I also call Dorey’s bluff on vaccine injury.

On radio back in May she claimed “hundreds possibly thousands of families” had been compensated by the USA Vaccine Injury Compensation Court. Indeed, even the horrid folk at Age of Autism admit to 21 VICP cases and 62 phone interviews. So, I ask Meryl how 21 became “hundreds, possibly thousands”. My first link is to The Encephalitis Society who offer a compelling document on MMR and disease injury. My second to Wakefield’s monovalent vaccine patent – an issue stridently denied by Dorey. It’s not really framed as a good comment. I guess I wasn’t in a happy frame of mind.

On page 23 of Debating Vaccination Dr. Martin writes;

How should scientific research be done? In the 1940s, sociologist Robert Merton enunciated four norms of science: universalism, communalism, disinterestedness and organised scepticism. What these mean is that science should operate on the same principles in different societies, scientists should freely share their findings, scientists should not be committed to particular positions, and the system of science should encourage critical examination of all viewpoints.

Clearly Meryl Dorey and The AVN have little regard for such an approach to reciprocation. Attempts to discuss scientific data or reach a compromise are attacked as biased, brainwashed or malignant. Mature discourse is impossible and clearly the censorship continues unabated.

Suppression of free speech is something Meryl Dorey excels at, not those who challenge her for evidence.

Australian Vaccination Network: Essential Facts

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Denialism, Health, Scam by

Balancing the fiction and propaganda of The Australian Vaccination Network against reality.

This video looks at some essential facts about the conduct, deception, insouciance and legal problems of Meryl Dorey and The Australian Vaccination Network. It covers quite a bit of ground from 2009 to the present. A serious message with a dash of dark humour in exposing the absurdity of their operation.

Through the anti-vaccination looking glass: responding to Brian Martin Pt. 2

Posted in Anti-Vaccination Lobby, Health, Scam by

Caught in the vaccination wars: Responding to Brian Martin Pt. 1 is a lengthy reflection of Dr. Brian Martin’s writings and input from Stop the AVN [SAVN] members on the same.

I’m very grateful to Dr. Martin for his time and pleasant tone in corresponding – an all to rare event in an advocacy role that sees one labelled a fascist, enemy of free speech, pharmacy shill and worse. As I pointed out I felt it was somewhat regretful that focus had fallen on my comments that Meryl Dorey and members of the AVN were indeed conspiracy theorists.

Nonetheless, we left off with Dr. Martin fairly suggesting impressive evidence was needed to prove this comment which had been prominent on the SAVN’s old Facebook page. I can’t prove the entire comment, nor have any idea where it came from. What I can and am going to do is present enough evidence to remove the word “mind”, leaving the rest of the comment intact;

They [AVN] believe that vaccines are part of a global conspiracy to implant mind control chips into every man, woman and child and that the ‘illuminati’ plan a mass cull of humans.

Yes anti-vaccination conspiracies do include vaccine induced mind control chips and culling, but as yet I have not found “mind control” itself in AVN writings. Of course, if one believes the many conspiracies below it’s arguable your mind is itself, controlled by extension.

Despite my view that this was time wasting and likely to cast all criticism of the AVN as sensational and irrelevant, I did provide Dr. Martin with many references to these actual conspiracies both on April 26th and in more depth on July 20th. Brian had revised part 2 of his piece and asked if I wished to comment for correction, on July 18th;

Hi Paul,

I’ve revised Part 2 of “Caught in the vaccination wars”: see http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/11savn/Mercury-comments.html

If you have any comments before I make it live, let me know.

Regards,

Brian

My July 20th email listed 7 proven conspiracy links that I asked Dr. Martin to refer to as possible reason for the above comment. He didn’t reply. On July 22nd I emailed Dr. Martin again. It’s reproduced in full below;

Brian,

Are you able to confirm as yet that you will be adding the many links to conspiracy theories demonstrated by Meryl Dorey and AVN members?

Most particular being Ms. Dorey’s admission that they do subscribe to these theories in response to a “chemtrail” conspiracy (seen at the time as a means to human culling), but stressing it does their argument no good at all to use them. Also that later an AVN member posted the same article Dorey herself had on her blog, which specifically refers to the Illuminati and global control.

I realise you seek to zero in on “mind control chips”, the “Illuminati” and the provision of the former by the latter in “vaccines”. My strident contention however, is that the AVN and Dorey have at many times demonstrated comfort with conspiracies. I would suggest if dismissing the description on SAVN’s Facebook page deserves so much attention then it should accompany a point by point listing of what conspiracies the AVN do subscribe to.

At the same time, an argument as to why this is not damaging to the integrity of any “whistleblowers” credibility would seem required. At the very least your final draft must fairly include the listed conspiracies – including:

– Publication of material on use of the H1N1 vaccine, the Illuminati and the proposed “global fascist dictatorship of total human control.” It must be noted that Ms. Dorey often uses the term “fascism” to describe science advocates and public health aims in conducting her “business”.

– The action alert that included four (and more) conspiracies, particularly that Baxter had possibly released the H1N1 virus and would also be the company to profit from consequent vaccination which is seemingly highlighted by their filing for a patent for this vaccine. That Baxter very likely have intentionally “released” a vaccine tainted with avian influenza. That this batch was referred to as “doses” even though it was a laboratory preparation destined for further testing. These issues were to be stressed to politicians in email correspondence. The wording of these facsimile emails strongly suggests intention on the part of Baxter. A fifth conspiracy that it is not “too much to expect” Baxter again released tainted vaccines – “excactly the same thing” – is proposed even though no reports of this exist. They also incorrectly claim H1N1 was unknown at the time of patent filing. This is not accurate as strains of H1 viruses have been studied for decades.

– Dorey has not once objected to AVN members posting conspiracy material related to the Illuminati. Rather she has urged obfuscation, and from this it is expected she would publically deny any such beliefs.

– A vocal AVN member entertains the notion that our planet is under the control of beings unlike us and suggests the search for a hepatitis C vaccine should remove any doubt about this.

– Any presentation of vaccines used with or for other reasons or purposes than what parents need to know to make a sound risk benefit decision that deviates from accurately presenting AEFI data is demonstrating that the AVN have a different agenda to what is publically presented.

– Meryl Dorey has never publically dismissed any of the conspiracy theories presented by the AVN and herself. Her only comment, as noted above, is to acknowledge they are damaging to the cause. This at the least must cause concern about AVN hidden agendas.

As I stressed before, I feel this is an unfortunate diversion. Nonetheless, the volume of conspiracy material far outweighs calling to examination the specifics of one statement.

Ms. Dorey is notably back peddling since the law and public scrutiny caught up with her, in the hope of presenting a more rational image.

All the best

Regards,

Paul Gallagher

Regrettably, Brian did not reply. That’s understandable and acceptable. He sought for me to address items related to his interpretation of a certain video. He didn’t ask me to prove Meryl Dorey and her pals are in fact, batshit crazy.

It seems he was intent, as is his right, on maintaining that SAVN had unfairly accused the AVN of adhering to the stated conspiracy theory above. He’d listed some assumptions he felt I’d made and appeared to doggedly want my explanation for them. Read them here in purple. I wasn’t thrilled about having a straw man built based on assumptions Dr. Martin believed I’d made nor asking me to jump through hoops by “explaining” how I’d made them.

I was arguing well, here’s a bunch of conspiracies and attempts to hide involvement that I feel outweigh your need for exact evidence. More so, I feel this is a black mark against the integrity of anyone who purports to speak for Australian families and maintains they are not anti-vaccine. So, what was my evidence? What had I sent to Dr. Martin?

Meryl Dorey and at least two of her members published material from what was the biggest show in conspiracy land at the time. I quote from their referred source “Flu is not the biggest danger – it’s the vaccine”, by David Icke. [Bold mine]:

What Bürgermeister describes in her FBI submission is a summary of what I have been trying to get across in my books and talks for nearly two decades. A cabal of interbreeding families is seeking to impose a global fascist dictatorship of total human control.

Their vehicle is a secret society network structured like a transnational corporation. The operational headquarters is in Europe, in places like Rome, London, Paris, Brussels and Berlin. I refer to this as ‘the Spider’ and it dictates to the global web.

There are subsidiary networks of secret societies in every country that answer to the ‘Spider’. Their job is to control their country’s politics, banking, business, military, media, medicine, and so on, and introduce in their sphere of influence the global agenda dictated by the ‘Spider’. Those on the inner levels of this structure are collectively known as the ‘Illuminati’.

That was July 21st, 2009. Four days later, Dorey published her own version of an Australian episode of “forced vaccination”, in Living Wisdom. Entitled Action Alert: compulsory H1N1 (swine flu) vaccination just around the corner, it is an assortment of five separate conspiracies involving Baxter Pharmaceuticals – and a plea to members to write to “politicians”. She provided two facsimile letters which I highly recommend you read. The article began;

It is happening just as we said it would. First, we said that a worldwide pandemic would be declared and that has happened. Because of the pandemic, we said that the government would use its emergency powers to enforce vaccination. That hasn’t happened here in Australia yet but in the US and the UK, all the talk is about getting EVERYONE vaccinated against swine flu and normal human flu this coming (Northern) winter….

… We need to take action now to let our elected representatives and the media know what we feel about any form of forced medication….

The facsimile letters essentially claim it is 50% likely that Baxter “intentionally” contaminated the vaccine. AVN members were asked to relay to politicians that only 2 conclusions could be drawn:

Baxter were incredibly careless with their procedures causing an accidental contamination which then, incredibly, was allowed to get out into millions of doses of vaccine before anyone noticed; or

The contamination was intentional and it was only a matter of luck and good due diligence on the part of the Czech officials that this was caught before anyone received the contaminated vaccine lots.

It’s not the David Icke conspiracy rant in total but does have all the elements. “Declared pandemic, we said this would happen… government’s emergency powers… enforce vaccination…intentional contamination”. The second point unambiguously suggests a deliberate attempt to infect humans with a potentially lethal virus – for profit.

Essentially this “action alert” contains 5 conspiracies. H1N1 is being used for mandatory vaccination. That H1N1 was purposely released by Baxter. That Baxter intended to harm and kill with a tainted vaccine. That Baxter filed for vaccine patent prior to H1N1 outbreak they may have intentionally caused by releasing the virus. A fifth conspiracy that it is not “too much to expect” Baxter again released tainted vaccines.

Is it too much to expect that the company which sent out contaminated flu vaccines in February could not have done exactly the same thing several months later in May?

Then on July 26th Dorey reproduced Ickes article.

The next day, July 27th, AVN member Sheri Nakken publishes on the AVN email group this article about an aerosol precursor spray released into the air via chemtrail. This precursor will be activated via the H1N1 vaccine – leading to a spread of the H1N1 virus. It references Jane Burgermeister the Austrian journalist who served a “bioterrorism” suit on world leaders, the CIA, Obama, WHO members and more. At this time there were claims of widespread death and genocide complete with conspiracy videos and videos of plastic coffin stockpiles circulating on the internet.

AVN member Janine Roberts responds at 10:35am writing “we do not need to raise very dubious genocide charges just to criticise vaccines”. Genocide? Okay, genocide. Dorey also responds the same day at 10:48am writing, “…. it does our argument no good at all to bring in conspiracy theories, which though we may subscribe to them are unprovable“.

Bingo! We subscribe to them, they’re unprovable thus does our argument no good to “bring in conspiracy theories”. And not just any conspiracy. A chemtrail dispensed aerosol that is inhaled by humans ready to be “activated” by the H1N1 vaccine and thus, according to an AVN member, lead to genocide. By 12:23pm another AVN member uploads a copy of Ickes article in full. Dorey makes no attempt to comment on this.

Over the 25th, 26th and 27th of July 2009 Dorey made no attempt to refute involvement in conspiracy theories. But still we cannot fully prove the above comment to be factual. We can however offer more from Meryl Dorey and senior AVN members. AVN online health educator, Sheri Nakken in Jan. 2010 claimed, “you should not be having anymore doubts” that beings unlike ourselves have taken control on this planet… for “eons”. Why dear reader? Well, there’s increased research into a hepatitis C vaccine, why else? Poor Sheri’s post is below, or in high resolution;

Still however, with regard to forced microchipping, we only have this original controversial image sent to Dr. Martin. Dr. Martin is concerned that the video Dorey regards as “excellent” does not mention the Illuminati nor a mass cull of humans. I’m… quite simply shocked that he cannot see this video for what it is. Plain, rank, paranoid conspiracy cut and edited to present misleading information. Help yourself – Mandatory vaccination and forced microchipping. Here’s a typically themed if rather forceful comment;

When they come for me they had better come prepared to fight. Sheer numbers will get me in the end but I will take some of them with me. Better to die a quick death standing on my feet than a slow, sickly and painful death kneeling before the elitist and socialist scum who rule our society today.

So with the greatest of respect to Dr. Martin, Doreys posting of that “excellent video” must be seen as well beyond offering “informed choice”. This arguably, alone debunks her claim of not being a conspiracy theorist, and by extension refutes Martin’s claim of Dorey being a well meaning dissenter. It helps us grasp why Martin Walker from Age of Autism wrote Health Fascism In Australia, blaming Dorey’s woes on international “sinister skeptics” linked to Big Pharma.

We still however, need more. We need Meryl Dorey caught red handed raving about conspiracies. Government conspiracies. Microchips delivered by vaccination into your unsuspecting children at birth so their every detail is monitored. Remember the Australia card controversy? The card we still don’t have? Well if we search the Wayback macine archive we find that on January 8th, 2001 – a decade ago – Meryl Dorey wrote, Australia’s Big Brother Card: Coming your way! It included claims of microchips injected at birth via vaccine that will track people and also be used to deduct money for purchases via direct scanning. There is a much higher resolution here.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20010406083421/avn.org.au/big.htm

So we can now review the comment highlighting in red what can be substantiated by the Australian Vaccination Network and Meryl Dorey in their own words.

They [AVN] believe that vaccines are part of a global conspiracy to implant mind control chips into every man, woman and child and that the ‘illuminati’ plan a mass cull of humans.

I realise hairs can be split that AVN beliefs are not Dorey’s beliefs and vice versa. Though I would stress for someone who spends hours devoted to censoring and deleting commentary she doesn’t agree with, Dorey has proven by inaction her comfort with this madness. Mind you if we included the Baxter rant in full we could expand on this sentence.

In conclusion it does seem a rather silly business. I conclude far more weighty issues need to be thrashed out, not least that the AVN is not a citizens group but a group of criminals who remain a malignant threat to Australian public health. Yet, Dr. Martin set me an unspoken challenge suggesting that “a survey of AVN members” would be a suitable approach. Anyone familiar with the AVN can see the folly in such an idea. Fortunately, as always the evidence speaks for itself.

Most damning is Meryl Dorey’s admission that they do subscribe to conspiracy theories but must obfuscate this to maintain a veneer of credibility.

Meryl Dorey has once again been found out and caught lying. Despite protesting that she has no interest in conspiracies and it’s a cruel plot to undermine her integrity, she is damned by her own words and actions.

It would seem I am indeed in Dr. Brian Martin’s debt.

Caught in the vaccination wars: responding to Dr. Brian Martin Pt.1

Posted in Anti-Vaccination Lobby, Denialism, Health, Scam by

I happened to notice that a tweet from Meryl Dorey of The Australian Vaccination Network at around 9 am today, led to her Facebook post on Caught in the vaccination wars (Part 2);

Caught in the vaccination wars Part 2, by Dr. Brian Martin to which she refers, is here. It is the second follow up to Debating Vaccination, in which he argues in defence of AVN anti-vaccination lobbyists. Or rather, as the title suggests that vaccine efficacy and safety is a matter for honest debate. Roughly, arguments presented are that attacks on vaccination are usefully observed as “a scientific controversy”, genuine cause for “public debate… differing values”, that vaccine induced autism, autoimmune disorders, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and under-reported reactions are legitimate accusations from critics. Meryl Dorey is a legitimate “dissenter” acting for the public good. In addition criticism of Ms. Dorey and The AVN is an attack on rights and is conducted unfairly or unethically.

The concern for supporters of evidence based medicine is that Meryl Dorey’s documented risk to public health, breaches of charity fundraising laws, misappropriation of member donations, long standing copyright breaches, sending hate mail to grieving parents and the many falsehoods she has engaged in, seemed justified to Dr. Martin – or at least insignificant. Added to this is that Debating Vaccination supported Dorey’s diversionary tactic that she had supposedly done none of these things but faced an orchestrated campaign to silence her right to free speech. This was doubly frustrating given Dorey’s documented censorship by deletion, refusal to publish evidence based comment replies and banning of her own group members who dared question or expose her mistakes.

At the time a catchy video appeared that was dismissive of Martin’s pro-AVN stance and was no doubt buoyed by his many other works: The suppression of dissent in science, Polio vaccines and the origins of AIDS, The burden of proof and the origin of AIDS and similar works on the “debate” surrounding water flouridation. Dr. Martin also listed “derogatory comments” directed at him in part one of Caught in the vaccination wars. He was quite right to point this out but one suspects he is not familiar with Ms. Dorey or has a predetermined agenda to follow. I don’t mean to be alarmist but when you engage in activity that ultimately leads to infant and childhood morbidity and mortality, crushing heartbreak for families and the resurgence of vaccine preventable disease, people will become angry.

It was felt that, had he spent a fraction of the time reviewing the egregious behaviour of Dorey rather than highlighting an unhelpful Stop the AVN (SAVN) comment about Dorey’s subscription to and publication of David Icke, the Illuminati, deliberate public infection with H1N1 by Baxter and her decade long belief in microchipping by vaccines [Source], a more robust discussion would ensue. Public opinion of Dr. Martin wasn’t helped in that Dorey exploited his work as proof of malignant suppression of herself, abandoning any pretence of answering to her crimes.

Whilst Brian Martin still holds to these views, and has as we shall see been quite selective in the material he chose to publish, I do want to stress that his input is valued. He is of course demonstrably wrong, but unlike Ms. Dorey one can exchange views and differences of opinion with Dr. Martin. He will admit when and where his argument is imperfect and point out the flaws he sees in opposing arguments. More so, it is highly likely Martin is as much a victim of Dorey’s deception as are her members and those who seek to refute her. Which brings us to her latest misrepresentation of his work.

Typically in reviewing Dorey’s publications we find immediate falsehoods. Brian Martin isn’t identifying as a victim saying he was “attacked by members of SAVN”. Nor is it true that attempts “to get him fired” occurred. Dr. Martin contacted one SAVN member directly, prior to publishing Debating Vaccination. Another member had complained about the nature of Dr. Martin’s work. This person, whose contact details are not public, realised these details had been actually passed to Dr. Martin without permission. This one SAVN member complained arguing that this was inappropriate. Yet Dorey writes;

As a result of this article, Dr Martin came under attack by the same group of people. They actually contacted his boss at the University and tried to get him fired! Luckily, the University values free speech and the rights of citizens in democratic nations more than this group apparently does.

During a lengthy Skype conversation the SAVN member gave their side of the story about, and I quote – “veiled intimidation and harassment” – via the tone of emails he sent to the member who had complained. The SAVN member had taken offence at some rather unprofessional observations of Dr. Martins. I can’t comment on the professionalism or otherwise other than to say the quoted material wasn’t indicative of SAVN content. It has now been expunged from its initial resting place, suggesting that someone at the University or Martin himself respected the complaint.

Sadly, the complainants details were revealed to Dr. Martin. Yes, that’s correct. Martin responded to the complainant alluding that in his experience complaining to superiors was typical of suppression tactics. Further complaints were made to the university about what was deemed “harassment” from Martin, using the universities email domain and eventually the complainant was reassured Dr. Martin would not be contacting her again.

Dr. Martin concludes that it’s reasonable to infer he could have been fired. Which begs the question: why intimidate of even directly approach a member of the public who already feels you’re behaving unprofessionally. In this case, Dr. Martin has only himself to blame. In representing the University of Woolongong, he is rightly subject to scrutiny. Such scrutiny and justified complaints about defending Meryl Dorey’s enterprise are not suppression tactics. If it can be inferred that job loss from an account of ones conduct is realistic, then that conduct must be called into question.

Dorey omits of course, that Dr. Martin now accepts that her claim of SAVN members sending her pornography as intimidation is unsubstantiated. He writes that he previously should have written that this conduct was “separate from SAVN”. Secondly, in view of accusations from Dorey that the SAVN threaten her, and her telling refusal to provide evidence of this Dr. Martin was provided with extensive evidence and screenshots (one example) of AVN attacks on grieving parents, SAVN members and cyber-stalking via false identities. He wrote;

What I can say is that I oppose the use of personal abuse by supporters or critics of vaccination, and I have sympathy for all those who are subject to it. Not only is abuse in poor taste but I think in many cases it is counterproductive.

This is a significant blow to Meryl Dorey, perhaps explaining why she lied about the content of Dr. Martin’s article, and uses the fabrication to yet again argue that her opponents are out to suppress free speech “and the rights of citizens in democratic nations”. In a nutshell Dr. Martin is defending his own argument, not Dorey’s. This is the second article by Martin since Debating Vaccination and nary a syllable has been voiced in defence of Dorey. She seemingly wants to bask in his integrity and gain credibility by dent of libelling key members of SAVN, by extension of Martins work. She is clearly desperate.

On June 26th Brian Martin published Shouting down our freedom to choose, in the Illawarra Mercury. He defends his, albeit mistaken, belief that SAVN tries to suppress free speech critical of vaccination. He confuses the input on Facebook from thousands of Australian’s disgusted with Meryl Dorey with an imagined stated intention of SAVN. He wrongly claims “dozens of complaints” have been lodged. Essentially, Dr. Brian Martin is quite mistaken about the key activists of SAVN, and the wider involvement from citizens, skeptics, science advocates and health oriented media identities across Australia, much less the independent activity of government health agencies.

In defence of so many mistakes on the part of Brian Martin I would suggest that he completely fails to see the impact of social media. Struggling to comprehend global and national networking, online activism and an entire new language that has grown to describe it he has been easily misled by Dorey’s neoconservative “the enemy is upon us” protest. Perhaps the most significant flaw in this article from the Illawarra Mercury is that it paints the AVN as benign citizen campaigners.

The criminal activity, business name or copyright theft and exploitation of members is not mentioned. The lies and cleverly crafted false stories of “vaccine reactions” are not included. It omits Dorey’s never ending threat that mandatory vaccination “for your family” is imminent or that claims of toxic and foetus cell filled vaccines that cause cancer, autism, immune disorders, death… has damaged public confidence. Likening a judges decision to back a father’s right to vaccinate his daughter to “Rape with full penetration” is absent, as is demanding to see the laboratory confirmation of a deceased infants COD from pertussis.

He forgot taking a neonate from maternity to avoid hepatitis B vaccination, hiding from police and DOCS then leaving the parents to face jail sentences – only later prevented by DOCS. Her defence of child murderers and use of the term “Shaken Maybe Syndrome” (because vaccines really kill babies) went unnoticed. The bogus 1998 threat to sue Michael Wooldridge for his role with Immunise Australia, refusal to cooperate with the HCCC, breaches of charitable status uncovered by the NSW OLGR, the rise in vaccine preventable disease, permanent disabilities, brain damage and death and on and on and on… all missing. No, this was no group meeting to discuss a noisy freeway, dredging the bay or the importance of ducks crossing a new bicycle path.

Still, Dr. Martin has a right to voice his views. This article led to further involvement of myself and others due to his final paragraph;

I wrote a careful response to the comments by SAVN members, documenting their methods, and posted it on my website. This seems to have worked a charm: no SAVN member has challenged my account.

This wasn’t correct in the eyes of many. I wrote a comment;

Brian,

Here is my email of April 23rd clearly refuting your claim “I wrote a careful response to the comments by SAVN members, documenting their methods, and posted it on my website. This seems to have worked a charm: **no SAVN member has challenged my account.**”

Part 1:

Not only did I challenge your account – I provided evidence refuting it.

http://i.imgur.com/JAA30.png

Part 2:

Links to 3 articles: later removed temporarily by false DMCA claims by Ms. Dorey (I have her submissions).

http://i.imgur.com/HoCxc.png

And you claim Ms. Dorey is subject to attacks on free speech?!

I also wrote in another comment;

The UDHR Article 30 states no one article may be exploited to suppress any other article. Hence free speech in this case goes further than the right to speak in dissent. It challenges the international right to health, of which the UN has a Special Rapporteur.

We all have a right to freely voice our own opinion. I find my defence of free speech stops at the border of freely voicing our “own facts”.

In fairness to Dr. Martin he still doesn’t fully accept that anyone challenged his account. He has written that more accurate wording would be, “no SAVN member sent me abusive comments”. In fairness to SAVN that’s shifting the goal posts. Regarding myself he wrote;

Paul Gallagher posted this claim: “Not only did I challenge your account – I provided evidence refuting it.” He provided a link to http://i.imgur.com/JAA30.png

I failed to see how this link to an article about microchipping and cancer related to my account, much less refuted it. I emailed Paul asking him to explain.

You can compare that to my actual comment/s above. You may wonder what the second link points to. Regrettably, despite the fact I point to four items in the email Dr. Martin uses only the first image – selectively leaving out the second and larger part of my email. The evidence he omitted has been published on this site here as 1.) How the AVN misleads Aussies on pertussis vaccination and 2.) How Meryl Dorey plagiarised and edited a WHO graph on pertussis.

The third document I provided a link to clearly demonstrates how Meryl Dorey misled the HCCC over pertussis in The Netherlands and Denmark. So I still maintain that yes, I both did challenge, and provided evidence refuting his account published here in clear dissonance to his conclusion. The original email of April 26th – that led me to comment – is extensive and contains 14 hyperlink references, 8 of which are of Meryl Dorey’s own writings. How Dr. Martin could have missed this challenge is beyond me.

Nonetheless Dr. Martin did email me and quite delightfully asked if I wished to offer any corrections before he published Part 2. I pointed out that he had shifted goal posts again, now writing that he “had received no substantive corrections”. I also offered many thoughts to Dr. Martin hoping they would be acknowledged. The full email is embedded below. Now that he has published his article I can see he has selectively quoted the email text. As we see above, he writes “I emailed Paul asking him to explain”. Then;

He replied on 6 July saying “the screenshot I sent you plainly shows Meryl Dorey’s post”, and then quoted its text:

This is an excellent video about the dangers of mandatory vaccination and microchipping. I had never heard of the link between microchips and cancers before. This is something we all need to be aware of!

He continued by saying that the screenshot provided

a video offered by Dorey entitled ‘Mandatory Vaccination and Forced Microchipping’. More so, Dorey states she hasn’t heard of microchips and cancer before – not microchips and vaccination.
By now, it must be clear I have refuted … Ms. Dorey’s denial that she believes in a conspiracy.

The sections quoted by Dr. Martin as my explanation are highlighted in red;

I was a tad cranky. It was becomming clear that Brian was going to maximise my reference to Dorey’s conspiracy – a topic I consider extremely time wasting. This was most unfortunate as we can all see the screenshot of Meryl Dorey’s comfort with vaccines and microchipping is not the only point made. Nonetheless, Brian wanted proof positive, “for example a survey of AVN members”, about a certain comment that was prominent on the SAVN Facebook page. It is of course, entirely correct to challenge accusations of conspiracy leanings. Brian Martin is correct in that the comment below cannot be fully substantiated. I have no idea who the author is;

They [AVN] believe that vaccines are part of a global conspiracy to implant mind control chips into every man, woman and child and that the ‘illuminati’ plan a mass cull of humans.

I was of the mind that it was ambitious but could reasonably be inferred. Having ridden the 2009 H1N1 insanity from Jane Burgermeister’s enforced human cull via vaccine, to claims of mind control chips in vaccines, and knowing the AVN were  conspiracy devotees I felt he was being deliberately pedantic in order to avoid more pressing matters. One I had raised was that if Meryl Dorey publically denied being “anti-vaccination” where did this leave his role as a defender of her as a dissident? Nonetheless, my disdain for conspiracies was, as we shall see in the next post, about to be put to the test with more and more requests to provide evidence to justify that single comment.

As I mentioned above, the email I had initially sent Dr. Martin on April 26th precipitating my comment was far more extensive, and had already gone over this ground. It included links to much of Dorey’s legal transgressions and I provided Dr. Martin screenshots and links to AVN material supporting David Icke, the “human cull” but most importantly a post by Meryl Dorey arguing that whilst the AVN subscribe to conspiracy theories it was unwise to be seen publically to do so. I identified Dorey’s habit of denial and censorship.

I had requested that future writings of his include these observations as a possible reason for the comment he had made much of in Part One of Caught in the vaccination wars. I also asked for a brief deconstruction of Ms. Dorey’s conduct, that I had documented such that he could show it “as anything but unconscionable”.

Sadly, whilst it is his right to choose, Dr. Martin has not seen fit to offer either transparency.

In the next post I’ll introduce the evidence for Meryl Dorey and the AVN’s cornucopia of conspiracy theories which were sent to Dr. Martin with a further request he list them as “possible reasons” Dorey was linked to the only game in conspiracy city over 2009: The Human Cull via H1N1.