I believe that Meryl Dorey, a former President of the Australian Vaccination Network and now co-leader, is using this network, and antivaccination lobby group to put peoples lives at risk by telling them not to vaccinate, and that vaccines kill and cause things like autism. For years, people were safe in the knowledge that vaccines could be used to protect themselves and their kids from diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough etc. Then appears Ms Dorey in the early 1990s. She starts up a group called the Vaccination Awareness Network in 1994, which would be presumed to be about giving factual information about vaccines and the risk of disease vs the risks of vaccines. Nothing could be further from the truth. She was primarily using the group to derail the vaccine debate (what debate?) with her stories of her 'vaccine damaged' child from reactions to the DPT and MMR vaccines. All her claims were alleged, and none of them could be proved. The AVN has lobbied over the years to have vaccines taken off the market, labelling them as 'poisonous', containing 'heavy metals' such as mercury, aluminium and other metals, human foetal tissue and other nasties. Vaccines in themselves only contain atteuated (inactive) strains of viruses or bacteria, and there is only ethyl-mercury in one vaccine (thimerasol) which is a preservative used in the flu vaccine. Most of the claims made by the AVN about autism being linked to vaccines are based on a fraudulent and debunked paper from ex-Dr Andrew Wakefield, who was stripped by the British GMC in 2010 after they found his study to non-replicable, and his conflict of interest in trying to sue the makers of the MMR to get money for his single dose vaccine (equivalent lawsuit $500,000) put the study into serious doubt. Plus the kids involved in the study were found to have had pre-existing autism, as autism is genetic in nature.

Now, Ms Dorey has through her group, been posting propaganda and misinformation of a dangerous nature on her AVN site, has been threatening people with court action via AVOs when she thinks they are 'harassing her', bans people from her page thus denying the right to answer any criticsm that she may make, and libels certain people who may take an opposition viewpoint to her. She has libelled several people in a group called Stop the Australian (anti)Vaccination Network, she is claiming non-profit-organisation status for her organisation, even though they were stripped of the right to fund-raise back in 2010, she calls people who vaccinate 'baby killers', 'drug-pushers', 'pharma-shills', and claims the pharmaceutical industry is run by the government in a conspiracy to 'thin the herds' by vaccinating them with poisons. She also encourages her members to make up fake profiles to stalk and 'troll' people's groups and profiles to dig dirt on them so she can make up a case that 'provaxers' are the most evil people on the planet.

Anyway, at the moment, the vaccination rate in the town where she lives (Bangalow in the Northern Rivers area of NSW) now has the lowest immunization rate of anywhere in Australia, primarily due to MsDorey and the AVN. Had they been up to date with vaccination, the recent measles outbreak may never have occured. Their rate has dropped to 50% approx, and for vaccination to be truly effective, what is known as 'herd immunity' needs to be at a level of >90%. Thus, the direct consequence of this drop in immunity is the spread of a life threatening disease. Measles has complications which can lead to blindness, SSPE, deafness, encephalitis, and death in some cases (Mr Colfer-Williams of Swansea in Apr 2013 died of pneumonia related to measles complications).

So I believe it is in the best interests of this countryu that this person be deported back to the States, and even if she is a citizen, her citizenship should be revoked. She is a threat to public safety, her views are tantamount to posing a bio hazard threat on public health, and her stance I beilieve is not welcome when people are trying to get the best information they can, and yet she is only giving them misinformation and telling them the hjealth care professionals are trying to kill people. When all is said and done, if you wanted advice, would you go to a FB group of people with no medical knowledge and no degrees or medical training and ask about vaccinations? Of course not - you would go to a proper doctor or healthcare specialist who has done the years of training and has the ability to treat illness and give factual information. The Hippocratic Oath says 'Do No Harm', and the doctors swear by this. Meryl Dorey is not a doctor, and thus does not use this oath.

Signed

Rod Craven