Australian Vaccination-risks Network
As Australia's most controversial anti-vaccination organisation,[8] it has lobbied against a variety of vaccination-related programs, downplayed the danger of childhood diseases such as measles and pertussis, championed the cause of alleged vaccination victims, and promoted the use of ineffective alternatives such as homeopathy.
[18] The group has been described by the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) as a provider of “misleading, inaccurate, and deceptive” vaccination information,[16] and has been heavily criticised by doctors and other experts on immunisation.
[20][21][22] It has also been criticised for harassing the parents of a victim of vaccine-preventable disease,[23] and for promoting the false idea that shaken baby syndrome is actually vaccine injury.
[24] On 14 October 2010, the organisation's right to raise funds was stripped from it by the New South Wales Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing, stating that its appeals had "not been conducted in good faith for charitable purposes".
[33] In 2010 the group's tax-exempt status was revoked by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing after an audit of the organisation finding that AVN fundraising appeals had not been conducted in good faith for charitable purposes, had been improperly administered and were not in the public interest.
[38] In addition to its website and associated blog AVN published a quarterly magazine called Informed Voice, later renamed Living Wisdom and offered as a digital publication.
[48] The North Coast Assistant Public Health Director warned "Pockets of unvaccinated people in the region was the cause for the rise and fall in whooping cough cases... because we do not have herd immunity to the illness on the Northern Rivers".
[41] In response to medical and scientific research that shows few side effects to most vaccines, Dorey argues that doctors are very hesitant to report adverse reactions and thus the data is highly skewed.
[47] These claims are false: while minor side effects such as soreness, swelling, and fever are not uncommon, no large scale scientific study has found evidence of more serious reactions[50] and the purported link to autism is refuted.
[51] Former president Meryl Dorey claimed that most doctors are not fully informed about vaccination research and that the medical community as a whole relies on "selective evidence" to back its argument.
While admitting that infection rates dropped dramatically in the twentieth century, they argue that the change is due in large part to improved hygiene and living conditions.
In a media release the University of Wollongong stated vaccination "should be freely debated" and that the 20,000-word paper was "intended to assist readers - especially members of the AVN itself", in ways to respond to criticism and better understand scientific controversy.
[84] Dorey further argued that the government began the practice in order to meet World Health Organization mandates on vaccination percentages and thus was more interested in playing a numbers game rather than doing what was right for the nation's children.
[84] The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission criticised the AVN for casting medical practitioners in a negative light as "unethical and untrustworthy without providing any cogent reasons or evidence for making such an assertion".
[90][91] In July AVN said that they were instigating a Federal Court injunction against the campaign, to try to force it to change the information booklet and to simplify the forms required to obtain an exemption.
[42][99][100] During an online debate covering meningococcal vaccination in 2005, Australian infectious disease specialist Peter McIntyre[64] warned parents "not to be fooled by the limited and biased information from [the] AVN website.
[106][113] Former AVN president Meryl Dorey wrote another blog disputing the McCafferys' version of events, the treatments and effects Dana suffered and the diagnosis of pertussis.
[106] In a subsequent television interview for ABC Lateline, Dorey admitted she had accused the McCafferys of "turning their daughter into a martyr because she supposedly died of whooping cough".
The decision by the Library to allow the AVN to use their premises was widely criticised by the medical community and politicians, with the president of the Australian Medical Association saying he "was worried the use of the venue could give the group credibility"[121] and the Shadow Arts Minister, John Hyde, saying "Why should a group that endangers the lives of WA children be allowed to speak and promote their cause at a taxpayer-funded venue dedicated to learning?
"[121] Two days after the event, Fiona Stanley AC was interviewed by Perth Radio about the seminar, describing the views presented by the AVN as "bizarre", and "so misinformed that it is scary".
Community pressure intensified resulting in Andreas Suhrbier, head of the immunovirology laboratory at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, to appear and field questions from the audience.
[130][131] The policy officially came into effect in January 2016 and reportedly "sparked a rush on vaccines as parents fear missing out" on Family Tax Benefit Part A supplement and childcare subsidies.
[133] In March 2016 the AVN announced its intention to legally challenge the Federal 'no jab no pay' laws,[134] with the return of spokesperson Meryl Dorey stating "[w]hat the government is doing is unconstitutional, immoral and illegal, and they need to be shown the error of their ways".
[135] In one announcement AVN falsely stated that Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the National Centre for Immunisation Research & Surveillance also opposed the 'No Jab No Pay' legislation.
[14] In April 2015 the AVN Facebook page drew international attention for publishing a simulated rape photo ad with text saying that vaccinations are "forced penetration"[160] and asking "do you really 'need' control over your own body?
[160] In March 2007, the AVN made certain erroneous comments on their website, including claims that the Australian Medical Association(AMA) received funding from pharmaceutical companies and actively censored information provided to its members.
[166] In September 2010, the AVN was accused of numerous copyright breaches relating to their sale of information packs containing photocopies of selected parts of old medical journal articles, newspaper reports and cartoons.
[168] Senator Di Natale condemned the organisation,[169] stating in a press release: In a response to a parliamentary question about the AVN's statements regarding the MMR vaccine, in September 2012 the NSW Minister for Health and Minister for Medical Research said: During the NSW parliamentary debate on the Health Legislation Amendment Bill 2013, the ALP's Andrew McDonald (Shadow Health Minister at the time) warned that the AVN's name and website were "designed to mislead unsuspecting community members to believe that a balanced view about immunisation is being presented" and that "When provoked, Australian Vaccination Network's fellow travellers can and do behave reprehensibly,"[172] while a Liberal state parliamentarian, Matt Kean, described the AVN as "a group of flat-earthers and wing-nuts who believe that vaccination is unnecessary.
[175] Anthony John Roberts, the state's Minister for Fair Trading, said that "It is incredibly irresponsible for an avowedly anti-vaccination group to advertise itself as a balanced source of information on vaccination.
[176] In December 2011 the Queensland Minister for Health, Geoffrey Wilson, issued a media statement criticising the AVN with the following comment, "For the small number of people who might be entertained by what Ms Dorey has to say, Woodford Folk Festival has a place for everyone.
