The Australian Vaccination Network is starting to ramp up its political campaign in time for the election. Their tactic involves contacting political parties to find out who cares the least about public health so they can direct their members to vote in a way that’s likely to cause the most harm to the public.
Meryl Dorey their Head Cretin sent out the following:
To whom it may concern:
I am writing on behalf of the Australian Vaccination-skeptics Network, Inc. (AVN) and our tens of thousands of members and followers across Australia to ask for your assistance in helping us distribute information that may be helpful in their decision-making process regarding the up-coming July, 2016 election.
Well it wouldn’t be Dorey of the AVN if it wasn’t full of lies. The AVN is known to of had 234 members back in 2014 so the likelihood of them having “Tens of Thousands of members” is laughable, but lying is all anti-vaxxers know how to do.
There is a Facebook page called “Fans of the AVN” which currently has 11,137 likes, but likes are not members. Also the AVN officially disowned the page (rather than appologise) after they likened vaccination to rape. They have even informed NSW Fair Trading that they do not operate the page in question (Facebook ID: avn.living.wisdom). Therefore either Meryl Dorey is lying now when she claims to have “Tens of Thousands of members”, or she lied to government regulators back in 2014 in order to avoid complying with a court mandated directive.
Of course anyone who has been following this saga knows that she is infact lying both times. The AVN has always owned its official Facebook page, and the organisation almost certainly does not have more than a few hundred members at most. But while we are on the topic of Facebook likes I should point out that Stop the Australian Vaccination Network has 16,854 likes. So if Meryl Dorey wants to play this numbers game and have Facebook likes used as a metric to leverage political pressure I will happily write to these parties myself and inform them that more people are looking the shut anti-vaxxers down than be friends with them. Also this isn’t just limited to likes on Facebook since nearly the entire scientific (especially medical) community as well as the general public would also like the see the AVN go away.
Dorey continues:
Our members and supporters believe that a parent must always have the final say in health and other parenting issues when it comes to their own children. This single issue will be a game-changer for many of them.
To help them make an informed choice on July 2nd, could you please forward by return email your written policy in regards to both No Jab, No Pay / No Play legislation and the right of Australian citizens to make free and informed health choices for their families without financial penalty or discrimination.
If your party has no written policy on these issues, please forward a statement from the party leadership that speaks to your position on these vital issues.
No parent should be permitted to neglect their child’s health by refusing to vaccinate them. I’ve stated previously that you cannot refuse to feed children so why the fuck should anyone be allowed to refuse to vaccinate them?
Back in 2013 Civil Liberties Australia highlighted that vaccination is the Right of the Child, not the right of the parent. I wholeheartedly agree that “Vaccination is a Human Rights Issue” and it is the right of every member of the community that diseases such as whooping cough, polio, measles, Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella never be allowed to return.
Since the election is less than 2 months away, we would appreciate your response no later than close of business on Monday, May 23rd.
Your responses will be posted on our website at www.avn.org.au and will be shared widely on social media as well. Should you not respond, that will be noted too.
I’m not sure what the “Should you not respond, that will be noted too.” I assume this means target practice for the trolls, thugs and online stalkers that seem to make up a disturbing percentage of the anti-vaccination movement in Australia.
It’s worth noting that the anti-vaccination political party the AVN once backed seems to have been forgotten. I still remember the time it lost its domain name.