Author Archives: Dan Buzzard

Anti-vaxxers seek political party.

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.

Chris Savage on the loose in New Zealand.

Former Queensland Police Officer turned public health menace Chris Savage is now on the loose in New Zealand after fleeing from Indonesia earlier this year. The notorious anti-vaccination campaigner who calls himself a “Jedi Doctor” is now being investigated in three different countries for practising medicine without a license.

Health authorities in New Zealand have warned people not to take medical advise from Chris Savage.

Hawkes Bay Health Issues Warning Over Savage

The referral to the police is especially interesting, does this mean we can finally see this public health menace held to account for his actions? I certainly hope so. Especially now that one of Mr Savage’s victims has been hospitalised.

Health authorities were alerted to a self-styled “therapist” operating in Hawke’s Bay after a man he treated was admitted to hospital.

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board issued a warning on Wednesday about Chris Savage, a prominent Australian anti-vaccine activist who also describes himself on social media as an “oxygen therapist to detox efficiently”.

The DHB said it had been told Savage was offering medical treatments in the Napier area, and advised the public not to follow any medical or treatment advice he gave, because he was not registered with the New Zealand Medical Council. –Stuff.co.nz

This is certainly one kook worth keeping an eye on. Like many anti-vaxxers it looks like Chris Savage is determined to cause as much harm to the public as possible, no doubt we will be learning a lot more about him in the future. We already know how he feels about medical professionals.

Site Upgrades

I’ve just finished moving this blog and its 5+ years of posts over to a new service provider. In addition to a new service provider this blog has also been migrated to new new Content Management System (CMS), namely WordPress. The move to WordPress will provide the much needed flexibility for this blog/site to be expanded in the future. The security of the site has also been significantly upgraded in the process.

While great care was taken to avoid breaking things (especially the URL Structure) during the move it was inevitable that not everything would transition perfectly. As a result of the formatting style I previously used some of the embedded images used in blog posts aren’t aligned with the text correctly and a few “click to enlarge” images not longer function when clicked. I have checked all of the posts and all the content is here, some of it is just displayed oddly. These loose ends will be tied up over the next few weeks.

Hiatus

Judging by the emails I continue to receive it seems my absence from the Internet over the past 6 months has not gone un-noticed. It’s true that both this blog and my twitter have been very quiet over the past year and especially the previous 6 months.

Unfortunately I’ve had very little free time to maintain this site recently due to unrelated activities that have simply consumed most of my free time.

This should all change soon. I’m currently considering expanding this blog to include things outside of Pseudo-science. While this blog has never had a definitive topic, pseudo-science became the default as picking fights with frauds and charlatans was the thing that occupied most of my free-time 5 years ago. It’s still a hobby but spending less time on it these days means I have less things to write about.

So expanding the scope of the blog seems like the most sensible solution rather than keeping it quiet. At the moment I’m still deciding if this site should host two blogs, one for skepticism/pseudo-science (current blog) and one for other interests or just keep the one blog and separate posts by category (I already do this for ease of navigation). Which ever way it goes I’ll be keeping it all in the one website/domain, nothing that’s currently here will be going away.

Gaye Demanuele the serial-killer Midwife

Gaye Demanuele is a homeopath and midwife who killed two babies and a mother in three separate home birthing incidents.

The Melbourne midwife involved in a home birth where a mother died was present at two other home births that resulted in the deaths of two babies.

The three deaths occurred within an 18-month period between July 2011 and October 2012.

Home birth advocate Gaye Demanuele was the senior of two registered midwives at Caroline Lovell’s fatal home birth in January 2012 that is the subject of a current coronial inquiry. –The Age

The coroners report into the death of Caroline Lovell revealed that Ms Demanuele even ignored Ms Lovells peas for an ambulance and callously let her victim “bleed out” instead.

Failed to manage the third stage in an appropriate manner in that she left Caroline and for the most part X, sitting in the pool for not less than one hour without testing her for pulse, blood pressure or physically examining her for the possibility of PPH. 

Failed to call Ambulance Victoria when Caroline first fell unconscious and had to be lifted from the pool.

Failed to call Ambulance Victoria when Caroline later begged for that to be done, maintaining this position for a period of not less than 10 minutes until Caroline further declined into a state of collapse with the 000 call finally made at 10.27.55 and, 

Failed to provide Ambulance Victoria officers, and later the Austin Hospital ED, with an accurate medical history.

 –Coroners Report

Gaye Demanuele REFUSED to call an ambulance despite being “begged for that to be done”. There is no grey area here, a deliberate refusal to render medical assistance when a person is in dire need of such is murder. If that wasn’t horrific enough Gaye Demanuele has killed before, and after Ms Lovells death.

As revealed by The Age newspaper an earlier death took place in 2011 where a newborn baby died after Ms Demanuele refused to call an ambulance. 

More information about the 2011 death emerged in statements from the baby boy’s parents that were tendered to court by Slater and Gordon lawyer Michael Magazanik on Wednesday.

The mother, who cannot be named, said in her statement that Ms Demanuele ignored her requests for an ambulance during the labour.

“She told me an ambulance would be expensive as I would not be regarded as a medical emergency,” she said.

–TheAge

So having already killed a child Gaye Demanuele then decided to take the same course of action against Caroline Lovell who also died as a result of her pleas for an Ambulance being ignored. Are we spotting a pattern here?

Fairfax Media has also learned that in March 2012, just two months after Ms Lovell’s death, Ms Demanuele was present at another home birth in western Victoria. The baby, also a boy, was born with severe brain damage as a result of a lack of oxygen and died seven months later. –The Age 

A normal person might be affected by all this, however this is a midwife without remorse. A sociopath so unaffected by their actions that she plans to continue murdering women and children providing homebirths.

It is also noted that prior to this inquest and in the face of action taken by the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency, which action might have resulted in Gaye’s deregistration as a midwife as well as the unfavourable publicity associated with such a process, that Gaye took it upon herself to arrange for her own immediate deregistration. The fact that she testified that she is now seeking employment as an unregistered midwife in her own words, to offer assistance to the mother, who catches the baby with her own hands, is a
matter of concern that should be immediately addressed. –Coroners Report

Gaye Demanuele is a serial killer. She apparently has no remorse about these deaths as evidenced first by her actions in causing them and secondly by her determination to continue doing it. The coroner addresses the seriousness of this situation by referring the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Pursuant to Sections 49(1) and 69(2) of the Coroners Act 2008, 1 recommend that the Director of Public Prosecutions examines the evidence collected in this investigation and takes such action against Gaye Demanuele, as he may deem to be appropriate.

Hopefully this discusting person can be thrown behind bars. It’s the only thing thats going to stop her.

Chris Savage on the run from Indonesian Authorities

Prominent anti-vaccination campaigner and former Queensland Police officer  Christopher William Savage has fled Indonesia after practicing medicine on children in Ubud, Bali without a license.

Mr Savage has been giving intravenous infusions of Magnesium and a chemical called DMSO or dimethyl sulfoxide to children. An activity that he confesses he would not be allowed to do in Australia.

A FORMER Queensland police officer has returned to Australia from Bali after local authorities began investigating him over allegations he was offering medical treatments to help cure children of autism and a host of other diseases without any medical training.

And Indonesian authorities have a blunt message for him — if he returns they will investigate him for allegedly violating local health laws and, if proven, he could be jailed and black-listed from returning.

………….

Medical professionals have told News Corp Australia that there is no known situation where Magnesium and DMSO would be given together to a patient intravenously and that IV magnesium is only used in clinical settings for things like chronic asthma, pre-eclampsia and life-threatening heart arrhythmia.

Dr Rachel Heap, an intensive care doctor from northern New South Wales, says that too much magnesium in the body slows the heart rate and lowers the blood pressure and in extreme circumstances causes heart attacks.

“Intravenous magnesium is known as one of the high-risk medications,” Dr Heap said.

“There is absolutely no justification for intravenous magnesium outside of a hospital setting,”

–News.com.au

Worth noting that this is the same Chris Savage who advocates for the murder of medical professionals.

Perhaps Mr Savage thought he could get away with exploiting children in a country with less developed medical regulations. Fortunately health authorities in Indonesia are on the lookout for western crooks like Savage seeking a safe harbour in their country.

Fake medicine still doesn't work.

Homeopathic sugar pills that frauds and crooks like to fleece members of the public with have once again been proven to have zero effect on treating anything but an overweight wallet.

Last year the National Health and Medical Research Council released a statement regarding the efficacy of Homeopathic Treatments.

Based on the assessment of the evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy, NHMRC concludes that there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective.

Homeopathy should not be used to treat health conditions that are chronic, serious, or could become serious. People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness. People who are considering whether to use homeopathy should first get advice from a registered health practitioner.* Those who use homeopathy should tell their health practitioner and should keep taking any prescribed treatments.

National Health and Medical Research Council expects that the Australian public will be offered treatments and therapies based on the best available evidence. –NHMRC-Statement_on-homeopathy

Unsurprisingly the people who profit from this scam are once again upset at being called out by medical experts. 

The Australian Homoeopathic Association (AHA) accused NHMRC of a bias that influenced its findings and approach. It also claimed that NHMRC was influenced by anti-complementary medicine campaigners. –International Business Times

After five years of writing this blog (yes, it’s been more quiet lately) nothing should come as a surprise any more. At this point I’ve seen every excuse possible from frauds and pseudo-scientists, and a great deal of their tactics used to target people who call them out as the frauds they are. Quite a few of those tactics have been used in my direction as well. But the one thing that does surprise me still is how powerless government authorities are when dealing with scammers.

They assessed 176 individual clinical trials focused on 68 different conditions, and had two conclusions. Firstly, that there is no evidence that homeopathy works better than placebo and, secondly, that patients may harm themselves if they use homeopathy instead of effective therapies.

….

Given the overwhelming evidence against homeopathy it now seems like the time to act. There is no reason any longer for anyone to believe in homeopathy. Pretending there is room for a legitimate debate is merely misleading the public. –Edzard Ernst, the Independant

How many times must Homeopathy be revealed as a total sham before the frauds who sell it are dealt with? Selling fake medicine has the potential to cause real harm. Especially when the homeopath has the potentian to end up killing their patient. (Click Here)

France knows how to deal with anti-vaxxers.

An anti-vaccination couple in France have been charged and convicted of neglecting their child’s health by refusing to vaccinate.

MARC and Samia Larere thought they were doing the right thing by their children, aged three and 15 months, when they refused to vaccinate them against polio, tetanus and diphtheria.

In a sentence handed down in a criminal court on Thursday, the pair received a two-month suspended jail sentence. They have been given time to appeal, but it could’ve been much worse.

They were originally charged with neglecting their children’s health, an offence that could’ve landed them two years in prison and a hefty fine. –News.com.au

Since you aren’t allowed to neglect children by refusing to feed them it stands to reason that a person should not be permitted to neglect a child by refusing important medications. I can only hope that one day Australia will follow the French example by punishing anti-vaxxers for being negligent douchebags.

Nurofen busted for swindling consumers then lies about it.

A drug company that intentionally swindles the public by selling a common over the counter drug in different packages to fool consumers has been dealt with by the Federal Court. For years the UK based company Reckitt Benckiser has been selling the drug Ibuprofen Lysine under the brand name Nurofen.

Same drug different box. 

Although Nurofen is available in many different packages each with a different price tag. Every one of them contains exactly the same drug. If you don’t believe me just read the boxes at your local supermarket. The only difference between these Nurofen products is the box and price tag. The Period Pain and Migrane Pain tend to be the more expensive boxes because Reckitt Benckiser know that consumers with those pains will be more eager to treat them quickly and so will pay the price without question.

An Australian court has ordered products in the Nurofen pain relief range off the shelves, saying the UK-based manufacturer misled consumers.

The court said products marketed to treat specific pains, such as migraines, were identical to one another.

Research also found the products were sold for almost double the price of Nurofen’s standard product. –BBC News

Instead of behaving honourably Nurofen spokeswoman Montse Pena tells the most ridiculous lie in a failed attempt to justify the companies actions..

Nurofen spokeswoman Montse Pena said the company had not set out to mislead consumers.

“The Nurofen specific-pain range was launched with an intention to help consumers navigate their pain relief options, particularly within the grocery environment where there is no healthcare professional to assist decision making,” she said. –Sydney Morning Herald

If this were true as opposed to a blatant lie it does not explain why a single packaging doesn’t simply list the “specific-pain” that Nurofen can alleviate. After all there are only four of them. Nor does this sorry excuse explain the price different between the identical products in different boxes.

Didn’t mean to mislead? More like “didn’t mean to be called out”.

Environmentalists need to embrace Nuclear.

Without a doubt one of the most frustrating pseudo-science movements in modern society is the Environmentalist movement. People who oppose Nuclear Power have no place calling themselves “environmentalists” and groups like Greenpeace who peddle nothing but psedo-science fear mongering are best placed in the same basket as Anti-vaccination, Flatearthers and 9/11 Truthers.

Not only do nuclear reactors produce zero carbon emissions during their operation making them one of the cleanest energy sources we’ve ever had. The nuclear power industry also has an unmatched safety record with fewer deaths per Trillion KilloWatt Hours than all other sources.

Energy Source Mortality Rate % of Energy
Coal  170000 50
Natural Gas 4000 20
Biofuel/Biomass 24000 24000
Solar (rooftop)˙ 440 1
Wind  150 1
Hydro 1400 15
Nuclear 90 17

Source: Forbes – How Deadly Is Your Kilowatt? We Rank The Killer Energy Sources

It’s easy to see on the pie chart just how bad coal is, but this numbers this large it’s hard to see Nuclear, Solar and Wind. So here it is again without coal.


However this has already been argued to death by the scientific community it is a scientific fact that Nuclear Energy is both clean and extremely safe. Arguing against the use of nuclear power is akin to arguing against vaccination because you believe they contain government microchips.

Now in Paris the worlds leading scientists have come out in overwhelming favor of nuclear power. 

COP21: World must embrace nuclear power to save planet from climate change, claim leading scientists

The world has no little or no chance of escaping dangerous climate change if political leaders and environmental groups fail to embrace nuclear power as a source of low-carbon energy, leading scientists have told the climate conference in Paris.

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power offer too little, too late, and the anti-nuclear stance of some countries and almost all environmentalists will only drive many nations towards burning more coal, oil and gas, they warned. –The Independent

 

The Battle to Save the Planet May Come Down to Nuclear Advocates vs. Environmentalists

PARIS—How frustrated would you be if you had a practical solution for a climate crisis that threatens to ravage the planet and unleash social conflict that will make World War II look like child’s play, but nobody would listen?
Meet the lonely advocates for nuclear power. Here at the Paris climate summit, where the 50,000 attendees, split roughly into half official representatives and half activists, the politics have split pretty much down the middle, too. You have the government folks who are dragging their heels, and you’ve got the climate activists who are focused on using the crisis, Shock Doctrine style, to make the world a better place. The holy word of the activists has become “renewables”—never mind that renewables are still only two percent of the international energy needs and can’t possibly scale up fast enough to solve the problem. –Esquire.com

 

Academics at Paris talks make plea for nuclear power.

Four leading climate scientists called for a major expansion of nuclear power as an essential measure to avoid dangerous man-made climate change over the next century. Speaking at the COP21 climate conference in Paris yesterday, James Hansen, Tom Wigley, Ken Caldeira and Kerry Emanuel urged world leaders to ensure that nuclear power is deployed alongside renewables. –World Nuclear News

 

Nuclear Power Must Make a Comeback for Climate’s Sake

James Hansen, former NASA climate scientist, and three other prominent climate scientists are calling for an enlarged focus on nuclear energy in the ongoing Paris climate negotiations.

“Nuclear, especially next-generation nuclear, has tremendous potential to be part of the solution to climate change,” Hansen said during a panel discussion yesterday. “The dangers of fossil fuels are staring us in the face. So for us to say we won’t use all the tools [such as nuclear energy] to solve the problem is crazy.” –Scientific American

The science is in and has been for decades. Will the environmentalists finally allow us to address this issue, or will they continue to hold us back with their brainless fear mongering? I think it’ll be the latter, but if enough rational people can be convinced not to listen to green fear mongering we could still win this and potentially save the planet.