Category Archives: Anti-Vaccination Network

The anti-vaccination movement in Australia Is spearheaded by the Australian Vaccination(-sceptics) Network. An organisation that has repeatedly run afoul of government health authorities for its attempts to undermine public health.

The AVN and its members routinely engage in campaigns of harassment, stalking and abuse against parents, doctors, nurses, medical researchers and anyone else who speaks out in support of science based medicine.

I have been documenting their abhorrent campaign against public health since 2010 and all posts relating to Anti-vaccination are listed here under the category/topic “Anti-Vaccination Network”.

Former Queensland Police Officer calls for murder of medical workers.

Chris Savage is a prominent anti-vaccination campaigner and former sergeant in the Queensland Police Force prior to being thrown out for reasons Qld Police have not disclosed. I will however speculate that they probably didn’t want someone who thinks it’s ok to randomly shoot people at your own leisure.

Of course this is not the first time Anti-vaccination campaigner have praised murder as a legitimate tactic. Back in Febuary United States based anti-vaxxers openly praised the murder of medical personnel.

In September of last year a leading anti-vaccination campaign tried to convince a woman to kill her own husband via deliberate dissemination of false medical advise.

Way back in 2011 calls to “String the Bastards Up” where made by anti-vaxxers advocating the lynching of medical personnel. Then there is the unforgettable Frankie Vazquez who issues both bomb threats, death threats and more.

So while we are used to anti-vaxxers engaging in threatening and criminal activity it is not often that we have Former Police Offices engaged in such activities. Chris Savage actively promotes himself as a former police sergeant to garner credibility within anti-vax circles.

I will be interested to see what Queensland Police have to say about this. They kicked him out, but he still uses their brand/reputation to promote himself.

De-anonymised Luke O'Hehir of Elegant Logic loses the plot.

For sometime now an Internet Troll by the name of Luke E Lawless has been hassling skeptical blogger Peter Tierney aka Reasonable Hank, winner of last years Skeptic Of The Year Award. 

Message sent to Peter; from Luke.

Like much of the harassment that members of this community face it was done behind the veil of anonymity as Luke E Lawless is clearly a fake name, this is also confirmed by the fact that this individuals identity has since been revealed. Due to a comment he made on Peters Blog.

Normally an IP address alone is not enough to identify an individual and most people have nothing to be concerned about. However the anonymous Luke E Lawless certainly wasn’t happy and immediately accuses Peter of promoting criminal activity. 

So concerned was Luke E Lawless that he found a question on Stack Exchange about IP Addresses and posted it to his Facebook wall in order to reassure himself that everything would be alright.

Actually when a person engages in a campaign of harassment getting their IP address is often the first stage in identifying the culprit. People like Luke O’Hehir owner of Elegant Logic in Melbourne who believe  they can engage in abusive behavior behind the veil of anonymity will always slip up eventually and allow us to build their profile.

Luke O’Hehir was de-anonymised using more traditional investigative methods but a court order against his Internet Service Provider would also have worked to identify him via his IP Address. It wasn’t used this time but yes, once we have your IP we can potentially identify you with it.

Since being identified Luke O’Hehir has been posting even more batshit crazy things to Peter. Here’s a classic.

This is the old “I have a lawyer and you better believe it” tactic. It’s a beyond pathetic attempt to curb criticism. I have yet to meet a Lawyer who uses Facebook to communicate with clients. Luke O’Hehir is simply upset that he was caught.

Equally funny (and Pathetic) is the “I have a cop” tactic.

Keep going Luke O’Hehir. As someone who presents themselves as an IT Professional you seem to have a poor understanding of both the Internet and the law. I look forward to the headline “De-anonymised Internet Troll sues harassment victim for whambulance fees.” 

Anti-vaxxers never ending stalking and threats.

One of the drawbacks to combating anti-vaccination campaigners is the never ending barrage of abuse and harassment that you are subjected to. Sometimes these attacks simply come in the form of verbal (actually typed) abuse over Twitter or Facebook, which is easy enough to ignore/block but some times harassment takes a more direct approach.

Back in 2012 myself and Peter Bowditch were subjected to lawsuits designed to shut us up and intimidate anyone else who might criticise the Australian Vaccination Network, a hard line anti-vaccination “charity”. The president of the AVN, Meryl Dorey dragged the court proceeding out for close to a year. Such vexatious litigation is nothing short of harassment. Of course we did win our cases in the end, but it still occupied a huge amount of time.

More recently a person whom I presume is an AVN supporter has been regularly spamming and stalking this blog. Today they began issuing what I can only interpret as a threat. Given the history of anti-vaxxer behaviour.

Clearly this person located in Perth, Western Australia thinks they are anonymous. So far they have used the following IP Addresses:

May 24 6:55 PM 106.68.217.66 106-68-217-66.dyn.iinet.net.au
May 23 8:07 PM 124.148.233.247 124-148-233-247.dyn.iinet.net.au
May 15 7:46 PM 124.148.64.228 124-148-64-228.dyn.iinet.net.au
May 14 2:24 PM 58.7.73.220 58-7-73-220.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 25 7:33PM 124.148.230.218 124-148-230-218.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 25 3:13pm 106.68.22.127 106-68-22-127.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 25 10:05am 58.7.132.151 58-7-132-151.dyn.iinet.net.au
April 23 10:47am 58.7.76.53 58-7-76-53.dyn.iinet.net.au

The following is known about their system.

They are using Firefox running on Ubuntu Linux and have a VNC client installed on port 5900. Ports 1863 and 5190 are open but I don’t know what for. Their gateway is a Linksys WRV200 wireless broadband router and their network may contain a HP 4200 PSA (Print Server Appliance) model J4117A.

If anyone else has issues or information about this person I can be contacted at: Dan@danscomp.net this isn’t a normal drive-by internet spammer. This appears to be an individual with a score to settle, and I will identify them.

Update on Friday, May 29, 2015 at 8:20PM

It seems this person has returned to my blog on the 28th at 07:26:03 PM only to read this post and shit their pants. Because at 11:47:24 PM that very same day they returned except this time they used the Tor network to try and mask their location.

Here’s some professional advice “Tor will not save you!” if you think for one minute that you can come here to post threats and then hide behind an anonymous proxy server, THINK AGAIN!

Anti-vax organisation moves to non-existent office

Today I received an email from the Australian Vaccination Network that contained the usual anti-vax propaganda, but I did notice one small change. The postal address of the organisation has changed to Lumley House, Level 14, 309 Kent St, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia.

A quick Google search reveals that this address belongs to a company offering “Virtual Offices” to any shonk and crook who might need an impressive looking mailing address to impress a mark. Unlike a PO Box the “Virtual Office” is designed to create the impression that you have an office located in the Sydney CBD. It is purely a tool of deception, one that only questionable businesses tend to use. 

Not only have the anti-vaxxers gotten themselves a bogus office, but they are paying a minimum of $60 a month. When a regular PO Box in Sydney CBD would cost $180 per year. This seems like a lot of money for a so called “Volunteer run organisation”. I suspect they are going to register the “Virtual Office” as their place of business, which is one thing you can’t do with a PO Box because legally your place of business needs to exist.

In addition to the deceptive address they have also handed control of the domain AVN.org.au over to Greg Payne whom I believe is married to one of the AVNs board members.

Meryl Dorey (founder) and Tasha David (president) clearly think they can minimise the legal repercussions if they spread the liability around. I think someone has been watching too many movies.

Somebody think of the Acronyms

The Australian Vaccination Network repeatedly lies about the ownership of it’s official Facebook page by claiming that the page is owned by their fans. In order to further push this lie they have now renamed the official Facebook page from “Australian Vaccination Network” to “Fans of the AVN” but they can’t change the username of the page, which is still avn.living.wisdom 

So there is no denying that this is the same page owned by the same cretins. But their choice of name is an interesting one. Because there is more than one organisation going by the acronym A.V.N.

In the absence of “The Australian Vaccination Network” the only AVN on Facebook is Adult Video News, a trade magazine for the porn industry. That’s them in the 3rd and 4th search result on Facebook appearing just below Fans of The AVN.

Adult Video Network

I would like to congratulate Meryl Dorey and her Fans of the AVN and await the inevitable confusion and hilarity that is bound to follow from this poorly planned re-branding of a Facebook page. Thinking is something anti-vaxxers never do well, but sometimes they’re good for a laugh.

Anti-vaxxers refuse to apologise for comparing vaccination to rape.

Last week I wrote about the Australian Vaccination Network repeating their comparison between vaccination and rape. Over the past week they have been been taken to task for it by the Australian media.

Sydney Morning Herald: Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network compares vaccines to rape.

News.com.au: Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network compares vaccines to rape in Facebook post.

9News: Anti-vax group slammed for comparing vaccines to rape.

Herald Sun: Opinion: Comparing vaccination to rape is ‘revolting’

Daily Mail UK: Anti-vaccination group slammed after they compare immunisation of children to rape before claiming their advert is ‘just honest’

The Guardian: Campaign comparing vaccination to rape ‘repulsive’, health minister says.

The Independent: Anti-vaccination group defends advert comparing immunising children to rape

Of course rather than apologising for making the post the AVN simply denies having made it.

This is clearly an outright lie because the image was posted by the user/pagename avn.living.wisdom and the post stating “We do not own the page it was posted on” is the same page that posted the offending article. You can’t claim not to own the page page/account that you are currently posting to. That would be like me writing a blog post to explain that I don’t own this website. It’s just in my name, and under my management.

Of course the lying and back peddling doesn’t end there. The lie has also been repeated by Meryl Dorey who despite no longer being the official president; is still pulling all the strings.

 

Seriously, if you’re going to claim not to own the page you could at least refrain from doing so under an administrator account on the same page. As for the claim “I agree that the image was very much in-your-face and should not have been posted here”. That’s a stark difference from a few years ago.

So what happened? In the past the anti-vaccination lobby would never have backed down in the face of a media shit storm. This time they go running for shelter and claim not to own their official Facebook page. They are of course no less vile than they were a few years ago, but their resolve seems to be severely weakened in the past year. This is surely I sign that we are gradually winning our campaign to prevent them from spreading fear, lies and hate onto the community.

Of course after five years (and a lawsuit) I’m not not in the least bit surprised that they have chosen to blame an anonymous individual who just happens to have administrator access, rather than simply apologise for making the post in the first place.

Anti-vaccine campaigners obsession with rape.

Back in 2011 MerylDorey, then president of the Australian Vaccination Network made her now infamous Facebook post likening vaccination to rape.

After being repeatedly condemned by the media and society in general it would be expected that even the most moronic half-wit would have learned their lesson about making such absurd comparisons. However anti-vaccination campaigners it seems are not quite as intelligent as moronic half-wits because even after years of condemnation they are still making such comments.

Just a few hours ago the Australian Vaccination Network made the comparison again. Because some people never learn.

 However, unlike fours year ago the AVN is now coming under fire from within.

Even confirmed anti-vaxxers don’t want anything to do with it.

With Facebook posts such as this the AVN is quickly alienating the few remaining friends it still has.

Anti-vaxxers co-ordinate Denial of Service Attack against Federal Government

If you’ve seen the news lately then you’ll know that the Abbot government has recently announced plans to strip anti-vaxxers of welfare payments for refusing to vaccinate their children.

Australian parents will lose thousands of dollars of childcare and welfare benefits if they refuse to vaccinate their kids.
The “no jab, no pay” plan, announced by the federal government today, has bipartisan support. Thousands of families could lose payments, with the government estimating about 39,000 children under seven have not received immunisation because their parents are vaccine objectors. But Social Service Minister Scott Morrison said it’s not fair for taxpayers to subsidise parents who choose not to immunise. –The Australian

Australian welfare payments have certain conditions that must be met before you can claim a hand out from the taxpayer. For example the Disability Support Pension is only available for people who have a disability. Student welfare payments, called AusStudy in Australia can only be claimed by people undertaking a “full-time study load” who do not earn money via paid employment. While people claiming the New Start job seekers allowance must be looking for work.

 

Other welfare payments such as The Family Tax Benefit part A and the Child Care Benefit. Also have requirements that need to be met before a person is eligible to claim the benefit. In this case it is a requirement to immunise your children to be eligible for payment. However there was a loophole that allowed parents who neglect to vaccinate their children to still claim welfare payments despite not meeting the eligibility requirements. However there was an exemption in place that allowed people to claim “Conscientious Objection” to vaccination that would allow them to claim welfare payments despite failing to meet the immunisation requirements.

 

For years, anti-vaxxers have claimed “Conscientious Objection” to life saving medicine in order to claim a welfare payment they do not meet the requirements for. This is welfare fraud, albeit a legal one. The government has now closed this loophole to prevent tax payers money being spent on people who wish to endanger the community.

Unsurprisingly the Australian Vaccination Network, an extremist anti-vaccination lobby group that is no stranger to committing criminal acts. Is now encouraging members to partake in a “Phone Jam” whereby they attempt to flood the phone lines of Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison.

The idea was first posted on No Vaccines Australia with the stated intention of clogging up the phone lines.

However attempting to “Clog up the phone lines” is a crime in Australia as it is in effect a Denial of Service Attack.

477.3  Unauthorised impairment of electronic communication

(1)  A person is guilty of an offence if:

(a)  the person causes any unauthorised impairment of electronic communication to or from a computer; and

(b)  the person knows that the impairment is unauthorised; and

(c)  one or both of the following applies:

(i)  the electronic communication is sent to or from the computer by means of a carriage service;

(ii)  the electronic communication is sent to or from a Commonwealth computer.

 

Penalty:  10 years imprisonment.

-Criminal Code Act 1995, Part 10.7—Computer offences, Australia

For some reason anti-vaxxers,especially The Australian Vaccination Network like to think they are above the law and free to engage in harassment and abuse as they see fit. So far the Australian Vaccination Network has tried the following (and rapidly growing) list of tactics.

 

This is only a small list of abhorrent or at the very least, questionable behaviour that I have documented on this site over the past 5 years. I know there is a significantly enormous amount of bad behaviour that I haven’t written about yet. Mainly because I haven’t had the time to write a whole encyclopaedia.

Anti-vaxxers continue their Facebook censorship campaign.

Let’s be clear about this. Censorship is the tool of the coward and so it comes as no surprise that anti-vaccination campaigners always attempt to suppress criticism rather than address it. Their most popular tactic is to abuse the Facebook reporting feature to get their critics kicked off Facebook.

There is a group on Facebook called Anti Vax Wall of Shame (AVWOS) which mocks and ridicules the absurd claims of anti-vaxxers on Facebook in public groups. So rather than simply ignoring AVWOS, or better yet refrain from saying stupid things in public. The anti-vaxxers have decided to play their trump card; Facebook censorship.

The plan is to bombard Facebook with complaints until Anti-vax Wall of Shame is removed. The anti-vaxxers have learned how to exploit Facebook’s automated tools and have a well established history of using it to silence anyone they don’t like. Of course if the plan doesn’t work they have a conspiracy theory all lined up ready to go.

When questioned by other members about freedom of speech they just repeat one of their favorite lies about critics.

You’re asking for proof from anti vaxxers? Good luck with that.

I really hope this is true because it will certainly be a lot of fun. The last anti-vaxxer to accuse me of hacking was ordered by the court to pay my legal costs. It should come as no surprise that lunatic conspiracy theorists don’t tend to fare so well in court.

Anti-vaxxers also oppose the use of virus scanners. For the love of all viruses.

Flooding Facebook with false complaints for the purpose of punishing your critics is harassment. This is a deliberate orchestrated campaign to have people banned from Facebook for daring to post screenshots that have been taken from a public group.

This is not the first time anti-vaxxers have resorted to these tactics and probably won’t be the last. It all started back in 2012. See: Why does Meryl Dorey fear free speech?

US Anti-vaxxers praise the murder of Polio workers.

Gunmen opened fire on a team of polio vaccinators in Pakistan’s restive southwest on Wednesday, killing four of them and forcing authorities to halt an immunisation drive, officials said.

The incident happened on the eastern outskirts of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province. –News.net

 Anti-vaxxers have reacted to this news of murder with delight and celebration. On a Facebook group called Vaccine Resistance Movement. 

Henry Carling of South Bend, Indiana writes: Sad but think how many children were saved. No worse than bombing an abortion clinic.

 

 Lou Ine writes: too bad bill gates wasn’t there

 

Michael Kohloff of Riverside, California writes: I can’t really fault them. Self Defense.

 

Haven DeLay writes: Can you blame these people in India for being angry? I think not. Bill should make a visit to India. Bet they would just love to see him there. I just have no sympathy for child poisoners.

 

Rose Love from Reno, Nevada writes: Epic Karma!! If someone came in and killed, sterilized or paralyzed 47,500 of my children and friends and families children I might be tempted to do the same.

Murder is Epic?

Could the anti-vaccination movement become any more unhinged? My prediction; yes.