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Vaccination saves lives

By Chrys Stevenson - posted Thursday, 29 December 2011


I'm a down to earth kind of girl; not much given to looking heaven-ward for good advice. In fact, I'm the girl-least-likely to suggest you should gaze into the stratosphere in search of the answers to life's more vexing questions.

But, if you happen to be in the vicinity of the Woodford Folk Festival this afternoon and there's any chance you might be swayed by the rapid-fire, baffle-them-with-bullshit stylings of anti-vaccination virago, Meryl Dorey, I have a suggestion.

Stop for a moment and cast your eyes aloft ; for there, my friends, you will find the truth revealed:

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Vaccination Saves Lives

You'll have to be quick. Heavenly apparitions are, by nature, fleeting; even the Virgin Mary doesn't hang around at Medjugorje all day. But, this afternoon, during the two hours surrounding Ms Dorey's anti-vaccination diatribe, you'll hear a distant hum and then, miraculously – almost as if it was planned – a small aircraft will emerge from the clouds, towing a rather large banner that reads:

Vaccination Saves Lives

Some readers, sensitive to the subtle nuances of revelatory prose, may detect a hint of biting sarcasm in my tone. You're right. My contempt for a woman who makes her living scaring parents out of vaccinating their children is hard to contain.

Let's get some perspective here. Sure, Woodford is a festival that celebrates alternative ideas. You want to use a magic crystal instead of regular deodorant? Knock yourself out! But Dorey's alternative views are not benign. They endanger the lives of our most vulnerable citizens; infants, children, the elderly and people with medical conditions which compromise their immunity to disease. What's more Ms Dorey's dangerous doctrine is demonstrably false.

Increasingly, we live in a culture of fear and distrust. Don't trust the government; don't trust 'Big Pharma'; don't trust 'so-called' experts; don't trust the media – they're all out to get you. Ms Dorey exploits those fears to drive home the message emblazoned on the t-shirts she sells from her on-line store: Love them, protect them, never inject them.

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So, why should parents trust Meryl Dorey over qualified health care professionals and specialists? Is her advice on vaccination really more reliable than theirs? Certainly, she thinks so. According to Dorey:

… any parent who's read a book and a few articles about vaccination will know more about the subject than the average paediatrician. And not only will they know more than a paediatrician, they will know more than most immunologists…

I imagine noted Australian immunologist, Professor Ian Frazer, B.SC, M.B.B.S, M.D, is wondering why he bothered devoting his life to the study of medicine and immunology when, according to Ms Dorey, a weekend's reading could have brought him up to speed!

While Ms Dorey bills herself as Australia's leading expert on vaccination, The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission thinks differently. Their 12 month investigation into the content provided on Dorey's Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) website found it:

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

Worse, the HCCC found:

… there is evidence that the AVN misleads readers by using reliable and peer reviewed research but quoting selectively from it, often in contradiction to the conclusions or findings of the studies themselves.

Far from denying this chicanery, Ms Dorey had the audacity to defend this practice in her reply to the HCCC:

It is true that oftentimes, our information will contradict the conclusions or

summaries of the studies. This is because, as opposed to most doctors and

government officials, we actually read the studies and frequently, the summary and

conclusion [in Dorey's inexpert opinion]does not agree with the raw data itself.

Let's just pause to consider the enormity of this admission. This woman will sit in front of a microphone and bombard her listeners with so much statistical 'evidence' it's hard not to think, "Well, if that's what the science says, she must be right!"

But, if you actually had the journal articles she's 'quoting' from and had time to check what she's saying, you'd find it's not what they say at all! You're not hearing what scientists think about the research, you're hearing Ms Dorey's (totally unqualified) 'spin' on it.

Another concern is that Ms Dorey does not confine her 'studies' to mainstream 'peer-reviewed' medical and scientific journals. Instead, she draws, uncritically, from journals like the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPANDS). That sounds impressive, doesn't it? But JPANDS is actually a non-peer-reviewed, politically and religiously motivated propaganda rag for a tea party of far-right wing, fringe-dwelling, conspiracy theorist quacks. How is a lay-person, sitting in a tent at a folk festival, supposed to know the important sounding finding from this impressively titled journal holds no more medical credibility than the bad jokes that flew from their crackers at Christmas-time?

I am willing to concede that, in one particular area, Meryl is a world-class expert. Anyone attending her presentations at Woodford will marvel at her virtuosity in the art of the Gish Gallop, a debating technique perfected by creationist and professional debater, Duane Gish. According to Rational Wiki:

"The Gish Gallop is an informal name for a debating technique that involves drowning the opponent in such a torrent of half-truths, lies, and straw-man arguments that the opponent cannot possibly answer every falsehood that has been raised."

Lies? Isn't that a little harsh. In fact, isn't that defamatory? Perhaps. But then again, maybe not.

Perhaps I'm going soft, but I'm willing to entertain the possibility that someone who has no training in medicine, science, immunology or statistics could innocently make mistakes in presenting data on these complex subjects. In fact I can sympathise – apparently I was wrong, once. Let's be fair. A mistake or a misunderstanding, while unfortunate, is not a lie.

But, when someone categorically refuses to admit a mistake (even when provided with irrefutable evidence) and then repeats the same misinformation over and over again, it's hard to characterise it as anything but blatant dishonesty.

Ms Dorey was originally scheduled to make a solo (i.e. unchallenged) appearance at Woodford, speaking on the (alleged) links between vaccination and autism. Ultimately, a public outcry, combined with pressure from sponsors, including the Queensland government, persuaded the organisers to give reason a fighting chance. At the eleventh hour, they rejigged the event into a panel discussion between Dorey and Professor Andreas Suhrbier, an expert in immunovirology.

The fact is, spurious appeals to free speech notwithstanding, Dorey should never have been asked to speak at all – and certainly not on that subject. Any alleged links between autism and vaccination have long since been thoroughly researched and discredited.

In 2004, an exhaustive review of 200 epidemiological and biological studies by a panel of independent, expert physicians from the highly respected, non-governmental Institute of Medicine, reached the unanimous conclusion that there is:

  • no evidence of a causal relationship between either the MMR vaccine or thimerosal and autism
  • no evidence of vaccine-induced autism in 'some small subset' of children
  • and no demonstration of potential biological mechanisms.

If this was not enough, in 2011 the final nail in the coffin of the autism/vaccination farce was hammered home. A long since discredited articlewhich appeared to give some credence to the anti-vaxxers' claims was definitively exposed as an elaborate fraud. The paper's main author, Andrew Wakefield, was proven to have misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of his study, and to have deliberately falsified data with the aim of reaping considerable financial benefit. In May 2011, Wakefield was stripped of his medical licence.

Undeterred, Ms Dorey is completely unmoved by this avalanche of evidence and continues to flog this very dead horse for fun and profit.

One has to ask: at what point does 'sticking to your guns' become 'sticking your head in the sand'; at what point does failing to understand become refusing to understand; and at what point does an honest misunderstanding become an outright lie?

The sad thing is that the parents who swallow Ms Dorey's tripe are genuinely trying to do what's best for their kids. Instead, they're putting their lives in danger.

I know there's little chance that I'll persuade the hard-core conspiracy theorists whose search for 'the truth' has them so bamboozled they don't know which way's up. But, for those undecided parents who might hear Ms Dorey at Woodford or elsewhere, please consider whether you really want to stake your child's life on the highly unlikely chance Ms Dorey knows more about vaccinations than the overwhelming majority of the world's doctors and scientists. Think locally. Are you going to listen to the GP who lives and works in your local community - maybe even has kids attending your kids' school - or to someone on the internet you've never met?

And, if you're really stuck for an answer, step outside, look up and maybe (even if only in your imagination), you'll hear a distant hum and see a small plane towing a large banner with the very best advice you're ever likely to receive from a heavenly source:

VACCINATION SAVES LIVES

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About the Author

Chrys Stevenson is a writer and historian. A founding member of Atheist Nexus and the Sunshine Coast Atheists, Chrys is also a member of the Australian Skeptics. Chrys writes the atheist/sceptical blog Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear and contributed a chapter on the history of atheism in Australia to the recently released The Australian Book of Atheism edited by Warren Bonett.

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