TRACEY HORDERN meets Meryl Dorey, the driven activist behind the controversial Australian Vaccination Network STAR

BRIEFS Check facts on vaccine Anti-vaccination group accused of harassing parents Lobby group under siege AVN alleges hate campaign Anti-vaccine group defiant AVN stripped of charitable status Mother's crusade began the night her baby stopped breathing AVN asked to defend charity status Injection data row Fundraising ban needles plans of vaccination campaigners Vaccination row sparks anger at use of library AVN seeks legal advice Vaccination group needles opponents Vaccination group says it's being censored Anti-jab lobbyists censored in WA Vaccine opponent risks charity status Anti-vaccine group accused of harassing parents Vaccination network in the spotlight Vaccine activists labelled a threat Vaccination group shut Anti-immunisers needled A shot in the arm Health Commission steps up its warning against vaccine group AVN investigated after complaints 3 5 6 7 10 11 12 13 15 17 19 20 21 23 24 26 27 28 30 32 33 35 36 37 38 40

AVN cops flak from watchdog Anti-vaccination group loses status AVN's charity status revoked Failure to post website disclaimer a breach of Act Copyright breaches land group in trouble Parents opt out of childhood jabs Warning issued about anti-vaccination group FED:Outrage over campaign after baby's death Medical council slams doctor who linked vaccine to autism The sharp end of the vaccination debate Good health sparks vaccine row Mum to dozens is Mother of the Year Blue over vaccinations RE Russel (SMS, Observer, Wednesay 25). Vaccination to save loved ones Letters Roxon failed to deliver immunisation awareness: parents Known Unknowns: Influenza Memorial erected for backpacker The anti-vaccination lobby believes it is fighting for personal freedom but is it selfishly putting children's lives at risk? Sticking Point

41 43 44 45 46 47 48 50 52 57 59 60 61 63 67 69 71 76

77

e e t

e r

y l

o r

e y ,

h e

d r

v e n

a c t

v i

s t

b e h i

n d

h e

c o n t

o v e r

s i

a l

u s t

a l

a n

a c c i

n a t

o n

e t

o r

TRACEY HORDERN meets Meryl Dorey, the driven activist behind the controversial Australian Vaccination Network 1,200 words 18 September 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 39 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Two mothers with opposite views but the same quest for information Meeting Meryl Dorey, the anti-vaccine campaigner and founder of the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) comes with conditions. I can only meet Dorey in neutral territory journalists are not welcome at her home, which doubles as AVN's headquarters. Vaccination is a controversial, and sometimes litigious, subject. When I meet Dorey at a popular Bangalow caf, she looks more like an affable schoolteacher than a rabid campaigner. Dorey greets me with her soft American accent and a genuine smile. With humour, Dorey describes her background including a career as a Wall Street broker that ended with the loss of her job in the 1987 stock market crash. From there, Dorey travelled across America where she met her husband, Ballina-born Ken Dorey, a farmer and a volunteer rainforest regenerator. It is through her marriage that Dorey came to the Northern Rivers. According to Dorey, she was an average conservative housewife I was mainstream, I'm a farmer's wife. Then, the event that was set to change her life occurred. According to Dorey, her eldest son had an adverse reaction to his first routine vaccination. When he was two months old, I took him to a doctor for his DTP (diphtheria, typhoid and pertussis) and oral polio vaccines. I never questioned it it was just something that parents did if (they) cared about their children, she says. The events that followed set in motion an obsession to which Dorey has dedicated much of her life. He started screaming within an hour or two after his vaccinations and continued screaming, for about five or six hours straight. Dorey believes that her son developed sleep apnoea in reaction to the vaccines and asserts that he continues to be affected by his reaction to the drugs. He's a fantastic kid, but he's not as well as he should be, she says. For Dorey, it was the lack of available information that spurred her to establish the Australia Vaccination Network What I found was that I had to really search for information, it wasn't available and that's not fair, she says. Dorey has championed her campaign for the past 16 years, often in the face of enormous opposition. There have been well-covered stoushes with ABC-TV's Lateline and a growing call to shut down her network, culminating with the AVN being found guilty of providing misleading information on immunisation in Australia. The AVN was later ordered by the Health Care Complaints Commission to include disclaimers on their website. More recently, there have been death threats aimed directly at Dorey. Some of the worst, she repeats to me, including: You deserve to die by fire'. According to Dorey, threats have been published on the internet with her home address. I just think there needs to be some thought about why people threaten violence if they don't agree with someone. But still Dorey refuses to stop. She explains her tenacity: I was going to going to start an organisation to support parents that were trying to find information, because it wasn't right that parents had to dig and there is so much work to get the information. I put it to Dorey that here in the Northern Rivers it is well known that we have a comparatively low rate of pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination uptake and a correspondingly high incidence of the disease, and could she explain that? Pressed, Dorey avoids the statement, claiming she cannot find that Page 3 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

information. Dana McCaffery, the daughter of Lennox Head couple, Toni and David McCaffery, was only four weeks old when she died in March 2009 from whooping cough. The death was not only tragic, but was a watershed event for the voices of all sides of the vaccination debate. According to Toni McCaffery, Our greatest heartbreak is that we did not get one warning and yet this area has the highest rate of notification [of whooping cough] in the state. We don't know how Dana got it. I had taken our other daughter to preschool and Dana was with me. As it turns out our son's school was rife with it. It wasn't till after Dana died, we realised it [whooping cough] was everywhere we had been! We didn't get a chance to protect her. Lismore-based paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall, who treated Dana McCaffery, responds: From my professional point of view, that's myself, and my colleagues, we are the ones that are coming into contact with the repercussions. Meryl doesn't have to deal with them she lives in a bubble. Meryl is removed from the consequences and we are the ones that bear the brunt of her actions, not her that's why she carries no cred with us. I decided to put some of Dorey's arguments, transcribed verbatim from our interview, directly to Dr Ingall. Dorey stated that when Dana died, The blame was being laid at the doorstep of people who hadn't vaccinated. But the fact is, she was one month old, she was too young to have been vaccinated, she had two older siblings and I'm not sure whether or not they got whooping cough, but the fact is there was no link between Dana McCaffery's death and exposure to an unvaccinated child. Dr Ingall responded with, It is adults who are infected with pertussis who give it to children and infants. An infected adult has coughed on Dana at some point, perhaps at the local daycare centre, and she has contracted pertussis in this way. Dana was unlucky to be born in the Northern Rivers, as it increased her risk of being infected. Dorey questions: Could Dana McCaffery have fallen victim to a more dangerous strain of pertussis because we use the pertussis vaccine? Dr Chris Ingall replies: The risk of an adult having the disease is much greater in the Byron Shire where disease prevalence is high because of the low immunisation rates. If we could get those rates up, babies too young to be immunised, like Dana, would have a fighting chance. When I ask Toni McCaffrey if there is anything that she would like to see come from this tragedy, she says, I would like to see state and federal governments implement their promised educational programs and provide factual information. There's not enough information out there about what these diseases can do. Parents shouldn't have to dig to find information. I realise I have heard exactly the same words from Dorey it wasn't right that parents had to dig. Two mothers, two very different circumstances. But both are driven, and both want the same thing more readily available information for parents to make the best decision for their children. Amid the propaganda, vested interests and conflicting information on both sides, there must be an absolute truth. But how can we know for sure, until all the information is put on the table? Document APNNOS0020100917e69i000gp

Page 4 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

STAR BRIEFS 233 words 5 August 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 5 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved AVN's debate call AUSTRALIAN Vaccination Network (AVN) spokesperson Meryl Dorey has challenged the Australian Medical Association's vice-president, Dr Steve Hambleton, to a public debate on the benefits and risks of vaccination. The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) recently ruled the Bangalow-based AVN had put lives at risk by providing misleading, inaccurate and deceptive information'. Let Dr Hambleton choose three statements the AVN makes which he feels are either misleading, inaccurate or deceptive, gather his information and provide it in a public venue at which parents and other health professionals can attend, Ms Dorey said. NORTH Coast residents can get active and keep healthy thanks to the North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) Live it Up' Physical Activity Guides now available in hard copy and online at: www.ncahs.nsw. gov.au/healthy-weight There are now 12 Physical Activity Guides covering all local government areas from Tweed Heads in the north to Port Macquarie. CLARKES Beach Holiday Park in Byron Bay was awarded a prestigious Environmental Award on July 28. It received the Land and Property Management Authority Environmental Excellence Award for Holiday Parks at the Caravan and Camping Industry Association of NSW (CCIA) Awards of Excellence gala dinner at the Sheraton on the Park in Sydney. Judges were exceedingly impressed with the park. Document APNNOS0020100804e6850010b

Page 5 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

h e c k

a c t

o n

v a c c i

n e

Check facts on vaccine 136 words 28 August 2010 The Tweed Daily News APNDNQ Main 6 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE fear over measles is not warranted, according to Meryl Dorey, of the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). It seems the area health service is certainly fear-mongering on this issue, she said of the current outbreak. Ms Dorey said it was the parents' decision whether to vaccinate their children against measles and they should get as much information as possible. She said there were two questions parents should ask themselves before using the measles mumps and rubella vaccine: Is the vaccine effective? And is measles a dangerous disease? People need to know that vaccination is not compulsory. The Health Care Complaints Commission has issued a public warning about AVN, saying it provides incorrect and misleading, solely anti-vaccination material. Document APNDNQ0020100827e68s00106

Page 6 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n t

v a c c i

n a t

o n

g r

o u p

a c c u s e d

o f

h a r

a s s i

n g

p a r

e n t

Anti-vaccination group accused of harassing parents Steve Cannane 1,372 words 12 July 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Transcripts ABCTRS English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission has compiled a damning report after examining Australia's most prominent anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network. The commission accuses the AVN of providing inaccurate and misleading information and selectively quoting research out of context to argue against vaccination. It's also noted accusations that the AVN harassed the parents of a child who died of whooping cough last year, after they'd advocated the importance of childhood vaccination. The report's likely to go public within the next two weeks. For its part, the AVN maintains it's not an anti-vaccination network, merely wanting parents to make informed choices. Steve Cannane reports. STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: Meryl Dorey runs the Australian Vaccination Network from a home office on the North Coast of NSW. The AVN provides anti-vaccination information through their website, their magazine and seminars. But an investigation into the AVN by the Health Care Complaints Commission has found that the information they provide to parents is inaccurate and misleading. MERYL DOREY, AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NETWORK: This was not an independent investigation. This was an investigation by an organisation that set out to support Government policy, which is provaccination. ... We do not agree that the HCCC has any jurisdiction over us and we have been telling this from the very beginning and we are seeking legal advice on this issue. KEN MCLEOD, COMPLAINANT TO HCCC: I think they're a bunch of ratbags. I mean, reason and science just does not break through. They're not interested in the reality, they're interested in conspiracy theories and junk science. STEVE CANNANE: Ken McLeod is the man who took the initial complaint against the AVN to the Health Care Complaints Commission. KEN MCLEOD: I remember as a six-year-old seeing the look of horror on my father's face as the doctor told him that my sister had polio and my mother just being so shattered. And I remember going to the hospital ward in Townsville to visit my sister and it was an entire ward full of dozens of kids, little babies with polio. And it was awful, absolutely awful, and then only a year or so later, the polio vaccine came and this just disappeared. It was like magic. And it was just wonderful, and then, all these years later you now find people who are trying to set the clock back fifty years, and I thought, "Someone's got to do something." STEVE CANNANE: More and more people rely on the internet for health care information. If you Google vaccination, the Australian Vaccination Network comes up second on the list of sites. But nowhere on their website do they declare they are an anti-vaccination organisation. MERYL DOREY: Our position is to provide information that balances the information that parents get from their doctors and from the government. We have never said that we provide both sides of the story. We don't. STEVE CANNANE: Nobel prize-winning immunologist Professor Peter Doherty says denying children vaccines is a crime against humanity. PETER DOHERTY, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER: The reason it is a crime against humanity is it's really a crime against children, and children are vulnerable, we're responsible for them and basically anything that will adversely affect children strikes at us as a society. STEVE CANNANE: Dana McCaffery died of whooping cough in March last year. She was just 32 days old - too young to be vaccinated against the disease also known as pertussis. Page 7 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

What her parents didn't realise was that they lived in an area with one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in the nation and one of the highest rates of whooping cough. The McCaffery's live just a few kilometres from the headquarters of the Australian Vaccination Network. They say they've been harassed by the AVN since their daughter died and that the AVN has made repeated claims that Dana didn't die of pertussis. TONI MCCAFFERY, PARENT: Our daughter wasn't even buried and it began. It began the day before her funeral. It began with phone calls to the Health Department to get her medical records contending she didn't die of pertussis. STEVE CANNANE: This email from Paul Corben, the director of public health at the North Coast Area Health Service, backs up Toni McCaffery's claims. PAUL CORBEN, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH, NORTH COAST AREA HEALTH SERVICE (male voiceover): "Ms Dorey called me on 12 March seeking details of your daughter's illness and death. Ms Dorey contended that I had misled the public in attributing your daughter's death to pertussis." MERYL DOREY: I never said any of that. All I asked was ... STEVE CANNANE: That's what he says in an email to Toni McCaffery. MERYL DOREY: Well, I'm sorry, that's not true. That is not true. All I said was, "How was the diagnosis made? If it was a quick test, do you know that it's a real test and that the result is real? Was it really whooping cough?" STEVE CANNANE: Meryl Dorey says repeatedly that Dana McCafferey "supposedly" died of pertussis. TONI MCCAFFERY: It's the most offensive statement because I watched over five days my beautiful daughter suffer the most agonising death. She was just this innocent little girl who - it was cruel. But then to be put in a position where I have to prove that she died of pertussis, that's even crueller. DAVE MCCAFFERY, PARENT: And she's diminishing the fact that pertussis does and can kill and it's gonna lead to someone to make a decision about vaccination that could put their baby or their family at risk, and that's not right. STEVE CANNANE: OK, there is a post that you made in reference to the sceptics which said, "Isn't it incredible how they have made Dana into a martyr because she supposedly died from whooping cough?" Now could ... MERYL DOREY: Did I say that? STEVE CANNANE: Yeah. MERYL DOREY: I don't believe I did. STEVE CANNANE: OK. MERYL DOREY: Let me see. (Steve Cannane hands over statement.) MERYL DOREY (reading from statement): "... but ignore all of the children and adults who have died after vaccination." STEVE CANNANE: Yeah, but you still said that. MERYL DOREY: I did say that and I still think that a death is a death. STEVE CANNANE: Could you imagine reading that if your daughter had died of whooping cough? How would that make you feel? MERYL DOREY: Can you imagine reading the Stop the AVN site or the Dana site ... ? STEVE CANNANE: I'm asking you about comments you've made; I'm not asking you about comments they've made. MERYL DOREY: OK. That's fine. That's fine. Page 8 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

STEVE CANNANE: Can you imagine reading those comments? MERYL DOREY: I can imagine and it would probably be hurtful and I would be sorry if she felt hurt from what I had said. But, from my point of view, all children are important, all deaths are important. STEVE CANNANE: The McCaffrey's have made their own complaint to the HCCC about the AVN. They have continued to advocate publicly for vaccination and say the AVN continues to publish false and hurtful comments about them - like this Facebook post by an AVN representative. AVN REPRESENTATIVE (Facebook post, female voiceover): "One day I hope the parents of this baby tell the whole story and are able to see how they've been used by a group of ruthless scumbags with alterior (sic) motives. Then maybe they will be able to honour their child's life with the truth." DAVE MCCAFFERY: To suggest that we're being used by a group of people, that we're not honouring our daughter's life with the truth, is just reprehensible. They're terrible people. STEVE CANNANE: The AVN has been given 14 days to comply with the HCCC's findings and place a statement on their website telling consumers they provide anti-vaccination information and that this information should not be read as medical advice. Steve Cannane, Lateline. Document ABCTRS0020100712e67c000dz

Page 9 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

L o b b y

g r

o u p

u n d e r

s i

e g e

Lobby group under siege 222 words 1 September 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News ABCNEW English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Police are investigating reports of death threats being made against members of a Bangalow-based anti-vaccination group. Meryl Dorey from the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) says she has been receiving abusive calls almost daily in recent weeks. The group has been under attack after the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission ruled the AVN website was spreading misleading information about the dangers of immunisation. Ms Dorey says the trouble started after opponents of the group lodged complaints with the commission. "I have had threats of violence against myself, against other people in the organisation on an almost daily basis," Ms Dorey said. "We don't answer the phone at night any more unless we know who is calling because we get so many angry and violent calls; I'd say under siege is an understatement." The spokesman for Stop the AVN, Ken McLeod says the group was set up to counter the claims of the anti-vaccination campaign. Mr McLeod says has never been involved in aggression towards Ms Dorey, nor to his knowledge has any member of the group. He says similar allegations have been made in the past and have been referred to his lawyers. Anti-vaccination campaigners have previously been accused of harassing a Lennox Head couple whose baby died from Whooping Cough. Document ABCNEW0020100901e691000ba

Page 10 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a l

e g e s

h a t

c a m

p a i

g n

AVN alleges hate campaign DIGBY HILDRETH digby.hildreth@northernstar.com.au 276 words 3 September 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 7 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE argument over childhood vaccination is turning very nasty. The Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network isunder attack from several quarters, spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said. It has recently been accused of breaching copyright by including photocopied articles in the information packs it sells online. Ms Dorey said the AVN rem-oved the packs from its website immediately the allegations surfaced and would seek legal advice. We don't want to do the wrong thing and in fact have always tried to do the right thing, Ms Dorey said. Not one of the authors whose articles we used has contacted us to complain. Rather, the claims came from a Sydney journalist setting out to create the news' by telephoning the writers, she said. More seriously, Ms Dorey and other members of the AVN have been receiving death threats since December. Ms Dorey said the original threat was an anonymous message on Facebook that said we are coming for you, babykiller'. The people who sent such messages were unbalanced', she said. This is no way to have a debate. Meanwhile, the AVN is compiling a petition to take to Federal Parliament seeking three pieces of legislation. This included a requirement for all health practitioners to report vaccine reactions when these reactions are reported to them by parents; a requirement to reveal the vaccination status of those who contract vaccine preventable' illnesses; and the funding of a study comparing the amount of Medicare money spent on healthcare for vaccinated Australians as compared with unvaccinated Australians. Document APNNOS0020100902e693000xd

Page 11 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n t

v a c c i

n e

g r

o u p

d e f

a n t

General Anti-vaccine group defiant 116 words 15 July 2010 The West Australian TWAU Second 16 English (c) 2010, West Australian Newspapers Limited A controversial anti-vaccination group will push ahead with its second public seminar in Perth warning against childhood vaccination, despite a damning finding by NSW health authorities that its information is biased. Australian Vaccination Network founder Meryl Dorey said that like its first seminar last month, Tuesday nights event would be held at a 200-seat State Library auditorium. The NSW Health Care Complaints Commission this week found the group had selectively quoted research out of context to argue against vaccination. The AVN has been given two weeks to put a statement on its website advising that it provides anti-vaccination information which should not be read as medical advice. Document TWAU000020100714e67f0005b

Page 12 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

s t

p p e d

o f

c h a r

a b l

s t

a t

u s

AVN stripped of charitable status John Stewart 506 words 14 October 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Transcripts ABCTRS English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Australia's most prominent anti-vaccination group has been stripped of its charitable status. The Australian Vaccination Network will no longer be able to make public appeals for money after NSW authorities moved to restrict the organisation's fundraising ability. Leading vaccination experts have welcomed the move and say the group's dangerous, but the vaccination network's leader has vowed to fight on. John Stewart reports. JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: The Australian Vaccination Network is run by Meryl Dorey on the North Coast of NSW. The AVN provides anti-vaccination information through its website, magazines and seminars. In July, the Health Care Complaints Commission accused the AVN of providing inaccurate and misleading information about vaccinations to parents, but the criticism was dismissed by the group. MERYL DOREY, AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NETWORK: This was not an independent investigation. This was an investigation by an organisation that set out to support government policy, which is provaccination. JOHN STEWART: The Health Care Complaints Commission ordered the AVN to publish a statement on its website, saying that the group is against vaccinations and its information should not be read as medical advice. But the group refused to publish the warning. Today the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing revoked the group's charitable status, stopping it from making public appeals for money. Meryl Dorey says the decision was politically motivated. MERYL DOREY: This is the way that they handle dissent: by shutting organisations down that don't agree with their policies, and it's not the sort of move that you would expect in a democratic nation. JOHN STEWART: But vaccination experts like Professor Robert Booy from Westmead Children's Hospital in Sydney say the group is spreading a dangerous message and discouraging parents from vaccinating their children. ROBERT BOOY, NATIONAL CENTRE FOR IMMUNISATION RESEARCH: Children on the North Coast of NSW have died of pertussis. Only last year a child died. Only last year another child in NSW died of varicella, or chicken pox. And these are vaccine-preventable diseases. It's a tragedy. JOHN STEWART: Meryl Dorey says her group will continue, regardless of the new fundraising limits. MERYL DOREY: It may make things more difficult, but it's not gonna stop us. We have a right to operate. Parents have a right to the information that we offer them. ROBERT BOOY: They are certainly a danger to public health. I've been very concerned for quite a long time about the fact that the very thing they say they're doing, which is providing people with options, with choice, is the very thing they take away, by being completely subjective, non-evidence-based and not supportive of the truth, which is that vaccines are generally beneficial and have some side effects. By being that way, they have reduced people's choices, convinced people not to vaccinate and children have died. JOHN STEWART: The AVN says it will keep going by using private donations. Page 13 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

John Stewart, Lateline. Document ABCTRS0020101014e6ae000b8

Page 14 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

o t

h e r

' s

c r

u s a d e

b e g a n

h e

n i

g h t

h e r

b a b y

s t

o p p e d

b r

e a t

h i

n g

News and Features Mother's crusade began the night her baby stopped breathing Saffron Howden 591 words 28 July 2010 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 7 English 2010 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. THE Australian Vaccination Network, which has run foul of the NSW health watchdog for its claims about the dangers of child vaccination, is based in a ramshackle house overlooking the Byron Bay hinterland. But its roots lie in the night 21 years ago when Meryl Dorey's first child stopped breathing. Ms Dorey, 51, a New Yorker, founded the network in 1994 after years of research into the illnesses her son Matthew had as a small boy. "He had a bad birth to begin with," Ms Dorey said in her small office yesterday, surrounded by books, pamphlets, magazines and box files filled with information warning of the potential dangers of vaccinations. "[But] he was a very placid baby, never cried." But "within an hour and a half" of his diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio vaccinations, she said Matthew was "screaming". "He ran a very high fever and that night, in his sleep, he stopped breathing." Her son later developed obstructive sleep apnoea and Ms Dorey, whose organisation is the subject of a Health Care Complaints Commission investigation and a public warning, believes "he's only just getting over it". "I never associated that reaction with the vaccine. I just thought he got sick. It wasn't until my doctor asked me after the last vaccine ... That was the first alarm bell that I had." Ms Dorey said Matthew, now 21, still had breathing problems and was hospitalised after his second set of vaccinations when he was 18 months old. She chose not to vaccinate the final two of her four children, now 17 and 14. Her second child, 19, received only the first set of vaccinations. "My second child got mumps and she was over that within about 48 hours. We've all had whooping cough and they've all had chicken pox," Ms Dorey said. The two youngest had the strongest immune systems, she said. "There's no doubt about it." Ms Dorey married a local macadamia farmer and moved to the north coast in 1988. The network is run out of a room in her home at Newrybar. It employs two part-time staff, produces a magazine and has a membership base of about 2500. Ms Dorey said this included GPs and nurses. "There are a lot of people within the medical community that question vaccination." MS DOREY ON VACCINATION "Make no mistake folks, this measles 'outbreak' was orchestrated for one reason and one reason only to force the issue of compulsory vaccination." "Is the use of the nasal flu vaccine nothing more than a blatant attempt by the government to spread the disease further, thereby ensuring future demand for the vaccine?" "I met my first asthmatic when I was 26 years old. I'd never heard of that before. Why, you know, 30 years ago did we have no asthma, and now 25 to 30 per cent of children are asthmatic." "I don't see that the measles vaccine has done anything for Australia." Page 15 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

"I have just discovered ... that the only [World Health Organisation] facility in the southern hemisphere that is involved with flu vaccine research is in Melbourne - the part of Australia where the largest number of swine flu cases has been reported. This in the country that is also creating the world's first 'swine' flu vaccine and has the most number of cases in this area of the world. Things that make you go hmmmm." Document SMHH000020100727e67s0004a

Page 16 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a s k e d

d e f

e n d

c h a r

s t

a t

u s

AVN asked to defend charity status John Stewart 495 words 4 August 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Transcripts ABCTRS English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation TONY JONES, PRESENTER: A prominent anti-vaccination group has been given 28 days to explain why it should be allowed to continue raising funds as a charity. The Australian Vaccination Network is being investigated by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing for potential breaches of charity fundraising laws. John Stewart reports. JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: The Australian Vaccination Network is run by Meryl Dorey from a home office on the north coast of New South Wales. The AVN provides anti-vaccination information through their website, their magazine and seminars. Last month the healthcare complaints commission accused the AVN of providing inaccurate and misleading information about vaccines to parents, but the criticism was dismissed by the group. MERYL DOREY, AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NETWORK (July): This was not an independent investigation. This was an investigation by an organisation that set out to support Government policy, which is pro-vaccination. JOHN STEWART: Now the AVN is under fire again, this time from the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing which wants the anti-vaccination group to show why it should be able to continue raising funds as a charity. The man who started the complaint against the AVN, Ken McLeod, was interviewed by Lateline earlier this year. KEN MCLEOD, COMPLAINANT TO HCCC: We thought that it was a travesty that the AVN should hold a charity licence. They are not performing charitable activities - quite the opposite. JOHN STEWART: In his complaint, Ken McLeod accused the anti-vaccination group of misusing funds. He claimed that the AVN had been raising funds to place anti-vaccination pamphlets in bounty bags which are given to mothers of newborns. But he said the company which made the bounty bags had nothing to do with the AVN. KEN MCLEOD: It's very clear that, for example, money raised for the bounty bags could never be spent on the bounty bags. The bounty bags company didn't want to have a bar of the AVN. But the money was raised; where did it go? Well it was obviously spent on running the AVN. JOHN STEWART: Today the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing said their audit of the AVN had detected a number of breaches of charity fundraising laws, including: - fundraising without an authority; - unauthorised expenditure; and, - failure to keep proper records of income and expenditure. Meryl Dorey could not be contacted tonight, but last month she made the following statement. MERYL DOREY (July): The Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing has been investigating the AVN's fundraising. We will wait until they've made their final judgement before we make any comment on this. JOHN STEWART: The Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing said it had also identified possible breaches of the Charitable Trust Act which will be referred to the Department of Justice and the Attorney General. The AVN has been given 28 days to respond to the investigation. John Stewart, Lateline. Page 17 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Document ABCTRS0020100804e684000b8

Page 18 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n j

e c t

o n

d a t

o w

Local Injection data row 89 words 13 July 2010 Daily Telegraph DAITEL 4 - City Edition 11:30pm 5 English Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved AN anti-vaccination group is providing inaccurate and misleading information, the Health Care Complaints Commission inquiry has found. The HCCC has been checking the Australian Vaccination Network over allegedly giving medical advice without authority, especially on its website. It is alleged the AVN does not declare it is an anti-vaccine organisation on its website and has been given 14 days to rectify this. AVN founder Meryl Dorey told the Lateline program they do not agree with the HCCC findings. DTM-20100713-4-005-253012 Document DAITEL0020100712e67d0008h

Page 19 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

u n d r

a i

s i

n g

b a n

n e e d l

e s

p l

a n s

o f

v a c c i

n a t

o n

c a m

p a i

g n e r

Fundraising ban needles plans of vaccination campaigners 271 words 18 October 2010 Coffs Coast Advocate COFFS Main 11 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) is considering its options after the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing (OLGR) cancelled its authority to raise funds last week. NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing Kevin Greene approved the revocation, effective from this month, after an investigation found the group breached NSW charity laws and potentially misled the public AVN media spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said about 10 to 15 per cent of the group's operating revenue came under the jurisdiction of the Charitable Fundraising Act. This will make a hard situation more difficult we are used to difficult, Ms Dorey said. The OLGR found the organisation had been fundraising without authorisation to do so. It is understood that between July 2, 2007 and June 2 last year, the AVN was without authorisation to raise funds. Ms Dorey admits this was true but claimed the OLGR was aware of the AVN's fundraising status. During this time we were unable to find an auditor, Ms Dorey said. It took the AVN 12 months to find an auditor and then another year before the audit was conducted because the AVN was put at the bottom of the new auditor's work pile, Ms Dorey claims. The OLGR also found there had been unauthorised expenditures. Ms Dorey said she did not know what these expenditures were. The findings also said the AVN had failed to keep proper records of income and expenditure. The group was also found to not be operating in good faith.' Document COFFS00020101017e6ai0005o

Page 20 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n a t

o n

o w

s p a r

k s

a n g e r

a t

u s e

o f

b r

a r

General Vaccination row sparks anger at use of library ROBERT TAYLOR and CATHY OLEARY 449 words 1 June 2010 The West Australian TWAU Third 3 English (c) 2010, West Australian Newspapers Limited A political row has broken out over the State Librarys decision to allow an anti-vaccination group to hold a public forum at its Northbridge premises tonight. Two weeks ago, the Uniting Church had a last-minute change of heart and cancelled an Australian Vaccination Network forum scheduled to be held at one of its city properties. Network spokeswoman Meryl Dorey told followers its members in Perth had excellent contacts with larger and better venues...and we are hoping to reschedule this talk for some time within the next four weeks. More than 200 people have paid $10 each to attend tonights event and the network is planning another one next month. Ms Dorey said parents were still contacting her group wanting to attend tonights forum but there were no more seats. Shadow arts minister John Hyde said the Barnett Government had opened the floodgates for any group to use the librarys facilities to push their agendas. Does this mean that the Liberal Party can hold a membership drive there, or for that matter the Ku Klux Klan or a bikie gang, Mr Hyde said. He said the State Government should not have allowed the group to use the library to push its antivaccine message. 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, Mr Hyde said. Their dangerous propaganda which is putting children at risk of polio, smallpox, cholera and other preventable diseases should not be able to gain respectability by using the good name of the State Library. Yesterday, State Library chief executive Margaret Allen refused to say how the group, which has been criticised by health authorities for discouraging parents from having their children vaccinated, was able to book the library for its forum. Instead she issued a brief statement saying the library provided facilities and services to the WA community as a whole. Inevitably from time to time this may include interest groups with views that some may find controversial, she said. Australian Medical Association WA president Gary Geelhoed said he was worried the use of the venue could give the group credibility. The State Government needs to make it clear it does not support this groups beliefs, and if there is a danger people might think otherwise, that needs to be addressed, he said. Health Minister Kim Hames said the Government encouraged parents to have their children vaccinated but would not make it compulsory. Arts and Culture Minister John Day declined to comment. OPINION 21 Document TWAU000020100531e66100052 Page 21 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Page 22 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

s e e k s

e g a l

a d v i

c e

AVN seeks legal advice MEL MCMILLAN mel.mcmillan@northernstar.com.au 412 words 16 October 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 5 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Group unable to fundraise after authority was revoked this week THE Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) is considering its options after the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing (OLGR) cancelled its authority to fundraise on Thursday. NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing, Kevin Greene, approved the revocation, effective from this month, after an investigation found the group breached NSW charity laws and potentially misled the public AVN media spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said about 10 to 15 per cent of the group's operating revenue came under the jurisdiction of the Charitable Fundraising Act. This will make a hard situation more difficult we are used to difficult, Ms Dorey said. The OLGR found the organisation had been fundraising without authorisation to do so. It is understood that between July 2, 2007 and June 2, last year, the AVN was without authorisation to fundraise. Ms Dorey admits this was true but claimed the OLGR was aware of the AVN's fundraising status. During this time we were unable to find an auditor, Ms Dorey said. It took the AVN 12 months to find an auditor and then another year before the audit was conducted because the AVN was put at the bottom of the new auditor's work pile, Ms Dorey claims. The OLGR also found there had been unauthorised expenditures. Ms Dorey said she did not know what these expenditures were. The findings also said the AVN had failed to keep proper records of income and expenditure. The group was also found to not be operating in good faith', a requirement of the Act, because it had failed to comply with recommendations by the Health Care Complaints Commission. The HCCC ordered the AVN to place a disclaimer on its website stating its purpose was to provide information which was against vaccination and its information should not be taken as medical advice. Ms Dorey said the AVN had strong support from solicitors and barristers and it would consider its legal options. Ms Dorey has stepped down from the role as president of the AVN but would not reveal the identity of her replacement or any of the other committee members. They are too scared they will be threatened, Ms Dorey said. She has claimed committee members have been subjected to death threats and hate mail for their activities. Document APNNOS0020101015e6ag000p3

Page 23 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n a t

o n

g r

o u p

n e e d l

e s

o p p o n e n t

Vaccination group needles opponents 483 words 27 July 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News ABCNEW English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network says it won't be putting a new disclaimer on its website. The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission has issued a public warning about the page, saying it poses a danger to health and safety. The Commission says the site provides misleading information about the dangers of immunisation, and should prominently display a statement declaring it's anti-vaccination stance. But spokeswoman Meryl Dorey says the group is being unfairly targeted. "It's like going to Greenpeace and saying 'well you tell people about the dangers and the problems with whaling, why don't you also tell them how good it is to eat whale meat and how wonderful it is the kill whales?', that would be ridiculous," Ms Dorey said. "Well saying to us that we have to say that we're anti-vaccine and that we have to show the government's side, which is available everywhere, as well as our own side is just as ridiculous," she said. "The Health Care Complaints Commission wants us to state that we are anti-vaccination, and we are not and never have been anti-vaccination, we are pro-choice, pro information and health and safety watchdog," Ms Dorey said. Meanwhile, a North Coast doctor has accused the group of fear-mongering. Paediatrician Chris Ingall treated a four week old baby Dana McCaffery from Lennox Head, who died from whooping cough last year. He says the region's immunisation rates have fallen dramatically since the Australian Vaccination Network became active in the area. "They spook many young families into believing them that vaccinations are bad, that the risk outweighs the benefit, which is quite wrong," Dr Ingall said. "Ever since the AVN became active up here immunisation rates have fallen, we're the lowest in the state, we have pockets below 50 percent vaccination," he said. One of the people who filed a complaint against the Australian Vaccination Network says it's time the state and federal governments stepped in to address the issue. Ken McLeod says a planned pro-vaccination campaign has been put on hold while market research is being conducted. He says it shouldn't be left to individual citizens to tackle major health issues. "It's not the job of people like me, or even the McCafferys to counteract the propaganda of the antivaccers, it's the job of government," Mr McLeod said. "It's the job of our health ministers and senior bureaucrats to do that and they have been conspicuous by their absence," he said. "I think it's possible for the HCCC to go to court and apply for a court order to have the disclaimer put up, they don't need enabling legislation to do that, so I'll be writing to the Commissioner eventually asking them to consider that," Mr McLeod said. Document ABCNEW0020100727e67r0003p Page 24 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Page 25 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n a t

o n

g r

o u p

s a y s

' s

b e i

n g

c e n s o r

e d

Vaccination group says it's being censored 364 words 13 July 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News ABCNEW English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Vaccination Network says it doesn't accept the findings of a report by the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission. The Bangalow-based group is accused of selectively quoting research out of context to argue against vaccination. The AVN has been told to put a statement on its website advising people that it provides antivaccination information which should not be read as medical advice. Spokeswoman Meryl Dorey says she's being censored. "This is not just an issue about vaccination, this is an issue about whether or not an organisation or an individual... has the right to freedom of communication and freedom of speech in Australia and whether a government department that is supporting government policy has the right to censor anyone," Ms Dorey said. A Lennox Head woman who complained about the activities of the AVN says she's relieved by the findings of the HCCC report. Toni McCaffery lost her new-born daughter to Whooping Cough last year. She says she's been harassed by anti-vaccination campaigners ever since. Ms McCaffery says it's wrong to suggest the group is being censored. "AVN still gets to operate but what they have to do is put a disclaimer on their site so parents know the information they're providing is opposed to vaccination and... that's the whole that we submitted our complaint," Ms McCaffery said. "Information that the AVN is putting forward is misleading, they've selectively got data from what they claim are peer-reviewed journals and they've just twisted information and the purpose behind our complaint is that we got sick and tired of them twisting information about our daughter's death," she said . Ms Dorey says she doesn't know if she'll comply with the HCCC direction to amend her website. "The AVN is seeking advice on that right now," Ms Dorey said. "A decision will be made shortly but the AVN says what it has always said, that in order for any parent to make a decision about vaccination they need to access information on both sides and make an informed choice," she said. Document ABCNEW0020100713e67d0006i

Page 26 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n t

a b

o b b y i

s t

c e n s o r

e d

W A

General Anti-jab lobbyists censored in WA CATHY OLEARY MEDICAL EDITOR 368 words 14 May 2010 The West Australian TWAU Third 17 English (c) 2010, West Australian Newspapers Limited Anti-vaccination lobbyists say their views are being censored in WA, after having to cancel a planned public forum on flu vaccination in children because the Uniting Church refused to provide a promised venue. The Australian Vaccination Network had booked a meeting room at the Uniting Church in the Queens Building in the city for a forum tonight but it was told yesterday the event could not go ahead there. Group spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said more than 100 people had been expected at the forum, which was publicised as giving parents accurate information about the risks associated with childhood flu vaccination. It comes after a recent and still unexplained spike in bad reactions in at least 250 WA children who had injections since mid-March. Ms Dorey said Church officials had told her they had received calls from WA Health Department staff advising them that the lobby group should not be allowed to discuss the topic in the Church venue. I was at the airport ready to fly to Perth when I got the call so we had no chance to get another venue, she said. The seminar was about the flu vaccine in children, and WA is the reason why the vaccine program has been suspended in children under the age of five, and now parents there are being denied information. The venue had nothing to do with what we were talking about so I dont know why they cancelled. Ms Dorey said she planned to organise the WA seminar for a later date. But the Health Department denied it had made any approach to the Church to have the event cancelled, a claim supported by a Church spokesman. The Church said it had cancelled the booking yesterday because of concerns about hiring the room to the lobby group and a possible perception that the Church did not support childhood vaccinations. The level of public response had also raised security concerns for other users of the building. The statement said the Church regretted the inconvenience to the lobby group. It was now reviewing its policy on community use of the Churchs meeting areas. Document TWAU000020100513e65e0008t

Page 27 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n e

o p p o n e n t

s k s

c h a r

s t

a t

u s

News and Features Vaccine opponent risks charity status Kate Benson HEALTH 522 words 5 August 2010 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 5 English 2010 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. THE Australian Vaccination Network has three weeks to show why its charity licence should not be revoked after an audit revealed it was soliciting donations without permission. Charity inspectors from the NSW Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing visited the group's office in Bangalow to examine records and interview staff after it received a complaint that the group was calling for donations even though its licence had expired. The group, run by Meryl Dorey, was granted a fund-raising authority from July 5, 2002, to July 4, 2007, but allowed that to lapse for two years. During that time, it is believed the group asked supporters for money to provide brochures on vaccination to be inserted into gift packs, called Bounty Bags, that are given to new mothers across Australia. But Megan Baker, the organiser of Bounty Bags, said yesterday she had never had discussions with the group and would not permit its brochures to be distributed in the bags, which contain product samples, such as nappies, baby wipes and rash creams, educational materials and parenting magazines. "We only insert information which follows public health guidelines set down by the [National Health and Medical Research Council] and the AVN doesn't follow public health guidelines. They are just so controversial," she said. "We would only insert materials in support of immunisation." A spokeswoman from the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing said the audit had detected a number of breaches of the charity fund-raising law. They included: fund-raising without an authority; unauthorised expenditure; and failure to keep proper records of income and expenditure. She said other possible breaches of the Charitable Trusts Act 1993 had been referred to the Department of Justice and Attorney-General. The demand to show cause comes a week after the Health Care Complaints Commission issued a public warning against the group for refusing to display a disclaimer on its website that indicated its information should not be taken as medical advice. The commission also found that the group's website presented incorrect and misleading information which was solely anti-vaccination and quoted selectively from research suggesting that vaccination may be dangerous. The Vaccination Awareness and Information Service, which opposes Ms Dorey's work, claims she also solicited donations from June 2006 to test vaccines for mercury, lead and other heavy metals, but the testing never occurred. "And in 2009 the AVN solicited donations to place an autism advertisement in a magazine. Despite raising thousands of dollars from the general public, these ads were never placed. We are not aware of these donations being refunded," the service's website says. In a Lismore newspaper article yesterday Ms Dorey challenged the vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, Steve Hambleton, to a debate after he publicly sided with the complaints commission. When contacted by the Herald, Dr Hambleton rejected the offer, saying: "I have no interest in providing her with any further oxygen. People want mainstream advice from their medical practitioners." Ms Dorey did not return the Herald's calls yesterday. Document SMHH000020100804e68500050 Page 28 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Page 29 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n t

v a c c i

n e

g r

o u p

a c c u s e d

o f

h a r

a s s i

n g

p a r

e n t

Anti-vaccine group accused of harassing parents Steve Cannane 963 words 12 July 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News ABCNEW English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has compiled a damning report into Australia's most prominent anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). The HCCC accuses the AVN of providing inaccurate and misleading information and selectively quoting research out of context to argue against vaccination. The report has also noted accusations that the AVN harassed the parents of a child who died of whooping cough last year, after the parents advocated the importance of childhood vaccination. Meryl Dorey runs the AVN from a home office on the north coast of NSW. The AVN provides anti-vaccination information through its website, magazine and seminars. An investigation by the HCCC into the AVN has found the information it provides to parents is inaccurate and misleading. But Ms Dorey told ABC1's Lateline the investigation was biased. "This was not an independent investigation - this was an investigation by an organisation that set out to support government policy, which is pro-vaccination," she said. "We do not agree that the HCCC has any jurisdiction over us and we have been telling them this from the very beginning, and we are seeking legal advice on this issue." Ken McLeod is the man who took the initial complaint against the AVN to the HCCC. He says the AVN's anti-vaccination stance is indefensible. "I remember as a six-year-old seeing the look of horror on my father's face as the doctor told him my sister had polio, and my mother just being so shattered," he said. "I remember going to the hospital ward in Townsville and it was an entire ward full of dozens of kids, little babies with polio, and it was awful - absolutely awful. "Only a year or so later the polio vaccine came and this just disappeared. It was like magic and it was just wonderful, and all these years later you now find people who are trying to set the clock back 50 years." Mr McLeod says the AVN are "a bunch of ratbags". "I mean reason and science just does not break through [to them]," he said. "They're not interested in reality, they're interested in conspiracy theories and junk science." More and more people rely on the internet for health care information. If you Google "vaccination", the AVN comes up second on the list of sites. But nowhere on its website does the AVN declare it is an anti-vaccination organisation. But Ms Dorey says the AVN has never claimed to "provide both sides of the story". "Our position is to provide information that balances the information that parents get from their doctors and from the Government," she said. Page 30 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dana McCaffery died of whooping cough in March last year. She was 32 days old - too young to be vaccinated against the disease also known as pertussis. What her parents Toni and Dave did not realise was that they lived in an area with one of the lowest rates of childhood vaccination in the nation, and one of the highest rates of whooping cough. The McCaffery's live just a few kilometres from the headquarters of the AVN. They say they have been harassed by the AVN since their daughter died and that the AVN has made repeated claims that Dana did not die of pertussis. "Our daughter wasn't even buried and it began," Ms McCaffery said. "It began the day before her funeral, it began with phone calls to the health department to get her medical records, contending she didn't die of pertussis." An email from Paul Corben, the director of Public Health at the North Coast Area Health Service, backs up Ms McCaffery's claims. In the email, Mr Corben says Ms Dorey called him on March 12 seeking details of Dana's death and accusing him of misleading the public by attributing the cause to pertussis. Ms Dorey denies the claims. She repeatedly says Dana "supposedly" died of pertussis, but the McCaffery's say that is an offensive claim. "It's the most offensive statement because I watched over five days my beautiful daughter suffer the most agonising death," Ms McCaffery said. "Then to be put in a position where I have to prove that she died of pertussis, that's even crueller." Mr McCaffery says Ms Dorey is "diminishing the fact that pertussis can and does kill". "It is going to lead to someone making a decision that could put their baby or their family at risk, and that's not right," he said. The McCaffery's have made their own complaint to the HCCC about the AVN. They have continued to advocate publicly for vaccination and say the AVN continues to publish false and hurtful comments about them. They say an AVN representative posted a message on Facebook urging them to "tell the whole story". "One day I hope the parents of this baby tell the whole story and are able to see how they have been used by a group of ruthless scumbags with alterior (sic) motives," the Facebook post said. "Then maybe they will be able to honour their child's life with the truth." Mr McCaffery says the comment is "reprehensible". "To suggest that we're being used by a group of people - that we're not honouring our daughter's life with the truth - is just reprehensible. They are terrible people," he said. The HCCC report is expected to be made public within the next two weeks. The AVN has been given 14 days to comply with the HCCC's findings and place a statement on their website telling consumers they provide anti-vaccination information and that the information should not be read as medical advice. Document ABCNEW0020100712e67c000mm

Page 31 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n a t

o n

n e t

o r

h e

s p o t

g h t

Vaccination network in the spotlight Ava Benny-Morrison ava.benny-morrison@northernstar.com.au 256 words 16 September 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 7 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved INVESTIGATIONS are continuinginto whether the Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network Inc has solicited unauthorised fund-raising. Last month, the NSW Office ofLiquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) issued AVN with a notice to show why its charitable fundraising authority should not be revoked following complaints. An OLGR spokesman said a decision about whether AVN would retain its charitable fundraising licencewould be delivered sooner rather than later'. They have responded to the notice and we are currently assessing that response, he said. According to the OLGR, an audit of AVN revealed breaches of the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991, including alleged incidents of fundraising without authority, unauthorised expenditure and failure to keep proper records of income and expenditure. AVN president Meryl Dorey said she was not worried about the investigation. We have submitted a response, but I cannot completely comment at this stage until the investigation is finished, she said. We are not really concerned as we have been told by (OLGR) there has been no fraud. Ken McLeod, from the Stop the AVN advocacy group, made the initial complaints to the OLGR. We would hope earnestly that they go out of business, he said. I have recommended in my letter to the Minister (NSW Minister for Gaming and Racing Kevin Greene), as per the Charitable Fundraising Act, they cancel the AVN's licence, which means they cannot appeal for money. Document APNNOS0020100915e69g000ul

Page 32 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n e

a c t

v i

s t

a b e l

e d

h r

e a t

News and Features Vaccine activists labelled a threat Kate Benson 559 words 27 July 2010 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 1 English 2010 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. HEALTH WHEN their four-week-old baby daughter Dana died from whooping cough Toni and David McCaffery sought love and healing to ease their grief. Instead, they say they were subjected to a campaign of harassment and abuse at the hands of antivaccination campaigners, a group who were yesterday labelled a serious threat to the public's health and safety. The Health Care Complaints Commission issued a public warning against the Australian Vaccination Network after it refused to display a disclaimer on its website to inform readers its information should not be taken as medical advice. Earlier this month the HCCC investigated the network, run out of Bangalow on the north coast by Meryl Dorey, and found its website presented incorrect and misleading information which was solely antivaccination and quoted selectively from research suggesting that vaccination may be dangerous. Its investigation was sparked by two complaints, one from Toni and David McCaffery, whose four-weekold daughter Dana died from whooping cough last year. The couple, from Lennox Head, allege they were subjected to months of harassment and abuse by Ms Dorey and anti-vaccination campaigners, accusing them of lying about the cause of their daughter's death. They received anonymous letters and emails which said whooping cough was not fatal and vaccinations were not needed. Mrs McCaffery, whose daughter was too young to be vaccinated when she caught whooping cough, said Ms Dorey also tried to get her baby's medical records from the hospital without permission. "Instead of love and healing in the weeks after Dana's death, we got ugliness ... it has been terrible," she said. Mrs McCaffery also complained that Ms Dorey had quoted misleading statistics, spread misinformation through seminars and the internet, and gave poor telephone advice. The second complaint against the network was made by Ken McLeod, a member of a group called Stop the AVN. He said Ms Dorey had claimed that meningococcal disease was harmless and "hardly kills anybody"; that vaccination was being used to spread AIDS in third world countries; and homeopathy could take the place of vaccination. His group now wants the state government to apply for a court injunction against the network and have it closed down. The group's website says Ms Dorey believes "vaccines are part of a global conspiracy to implant mind control chips into every man, woman and child and that the 'illuminati' plan a mass cull of humans". Ms Dorey did not return calls yesterday but issued a statement on her website which said the HCCC's recommendation was "laughable" and she was seeking legal advice. "Nobody would expect nuclear safety advocates to issue statements on the benefits of nuclear power; Greenpeace to make films on the pleasures of killing and eating whales ... Why then should we be expected to make statements we don't believe are factual and that are not supported by the medical literature? "If the AVN is expected to show both sides of this issue, why aren't the medical community and the government likewise cited for their lack of disclosure on the risks and ineffectiveness of vaccines?" Page 33 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

A spokesman for the HCCC said it could take no further action but it was disappointing the network was refusing to make its position clear. Document SMHH000020100726e67r0003m

Page 34 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n a t

o n

g r

o u p

s h u t

Local Vaccination group shut Kate Sikora, Health Reporter 421 words 16 February 2010 Daily Telegraph DAITEL 4 - City Edition 11:30pm 8 English Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE country's largest anti-vaccination group -- accused by critics of endangering children's lives through misinformation -- is on the brink of collapse. The likely demise of the Australian Vaccination Network by the end of the month comes just weeks after the State Government launched an investigation into the organisation. The Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing will conduct an audit following complaints the group was allegedly fundraising without a licence. A spokesman said inspectors would shortly visit the organisation's North Coast offices to examine records and interview staff. The Health Care Complaints Commission is also wrapping up a six-month investigation into AVN over allegedly giving medical advice without the authority to do so. AVN founder Meryl Dorey yesterday told her supporters via an email that a spiteful campaign had been run against her. ``What the outcome of all these investigations will be is unknown,'' Ms Dorey said. ``I gave up a long time ago expecting justice from government departments but am hopeful that those who throw the dirt will find it flying back in their faces.'' She claimed the reason she was quitting the network was to focus on being a ``mother, wife and activist''. Ms Dorey had posted a plea for financial aid, asking members to donate 1 per cent of their income to keep the network going. ``If nobody comes forward to take on the role of president or if the funds are not provided to allow us to continue however, the AVN will be ceasing operations on or about the 28th of February,'' she said. Contacted twice for comment yesterday, Ms Dorey referred The Daily Telegraph to her email. Ms Dorey has run the AVN for the 17 years from Bangalow, a region with one of the country's highest rates of unvaccinated children. Entrepreneur and pro-vaccine supporter Dick Smith yesterday said Ms Dorey and her group were dangerous. ``This can only be a good thing,'' he said. ``I knew she was having an effect on parents of young children by sending information out about the risk of vaccination and people were following that.'' Mr Smith has waged a campaign against the AVN by taking out full page ads and lobbying chief medical officer Jim Bishop to stop the group. Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt last night said she was aware of the HCCC investigation into the group. However, a spokesman said the minister could not comment until the inquiry was finalised. DTM-20100216-4-008-894166 Document DAITEL0020100215e62g0005v

Page 35 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n t

u n i

s e r

n e e d l

e d

Anti-immunisers needled MEL MCMILLAN mel.mcmillan@northernstar.com.au 377 words 11 February 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 3 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved New community group wants to stop anti-vaccination campaigners THE BANGALOW-BASED Australian Vaccination Network will undergo a full audit by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing following complaints it has been unlawfully fundraising. Charity inspectors are expected to soon visit the organisations office to examine records and interview staff to check if it has been operating in breach of the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991. A spokesperson for the office said it made inquiries about the network last year after a complaint was lodged. The office warned the network about a breach of its fundraising authority conditions as it did not have a mechanism to properly and effectively deal with complaints relating to fundraising. The audit will also attempt to determine whether the network has conducted unlawful fundraising during a period it was without a fundraising authority, between July 2, 2007 and June 2, 2009. Network president Meryl Dorey said the authority had expired but they had been granted an extension. The complaint against the network was lodged by a group known as Stop the AVN, which was formed after the death of Lennox Head baby Dana McCaffery from whooping cough last year. The group blames the network for low-immunisation rates and high levels of whooping cough in the Northern Rivers. Mrs Dorey described the group as a thorn in the AVNs side. On July 14 last year, Stop the AVN member, Ken McLeod, lodged a complaint with the Health Care Complaints Commission about the network and Mrs Dorey, on the basis she was assuming the role of a health educator and advisor, but was in breach of the code of practice for health providers by disseminating wrong information. The commission is expected to conclude its investigation soon. Mr McLeod is also threatening Mrs Dorey with legal action after she published statements about him online that he alleges were defamatory. The group has also lodged a complaint with the Registry of Co-operatives and Associations alleging the network has operated in breach of the law. The Northern Star was unable to confirm if the registry received the complaint. Document APNNOS0020100210e62b000m9

Page 36 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

s h o t

h e

a r

Magazine A shot in the arm Greg Callaghan 424 words 7 August 2010 The Australian Magazine AUSMAG 1 10 English Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved PARENTING WATCH Try this little experiment: type "vaccination" into the Google search engine and the first entry to pop up will be a slick-looking website called the Australian Vaccination Network. With an official-sounding name like that, you could be forgiven for thinking it's run by the federal Department of Health. Scroll down, however, and you quickly discover it belongs to a zealous anti-vaccination lobby group that has recently become mired in nationwide controversy: first, over complaints that it promulgates inaccurate, misleading information; second, over a demand by the Health Care Complaints Commission that the AVN publish a prominent disclaimer on its site (which it has failed to do); and third over allegations that AVN activists harassed a northern NSW couple - Toni and David McCaffery - who had spoken publicly i n support of vaccination after their baby girl died from whooping cough last year. The president of the AVN, Meryl Dorey, 51, insists the network is not an anti-vaccination lobby group but a "pro-choice", "balanced" information source. But talk to Dorey for a few minutes or peruse her website and it becomes clear she is an impassioned adversary of vaccination. She has run the AVN and its forerunners for nearly 17 years, she explains. Her mission began when her son developed sleep apnoea and other symptoms after a triple antigen and polio vaccine (he is now a happy and healthy 21year-old). Australian Medical Association federal vice-president Steve Hambleton says the AVN demonstrates not only medical illiteracy but also an appalling ignorance of history. Vaccines have dramatically improved global health, leading to the eradication of smallpox and a 99 per cent reduction in polio. And contrary to the network's website, mumps and measles can in fact be devastating if allowed to spread. And the mistaken message seems to be sinking in. In parts of NSW Northern Rivers, vaccination rates are down to 60 per cent, leading to whooping cough and measles outbreaks. Earlier this year the global medical establishment torpedoed a small study of 12 children published in 1998 and which linked the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine with autism. Its lead author was found guilty of having manipulated his research. Despite such damning findings, anti-vaccine campaigners such as the AVN continue to believe in a vast pro-vaccine conspiracy involving the media, the government and medical authorities. It would all be laughable, says Dr Hambleton, if it were not so dangerous. GC TAM-20100807-1-010-405233 Document AUSMAG0020100806e68700009

Page 37 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

e a l

o m

s s i

o n

s t

e p s

u p

a r

n i

n g

a g a i

n s t

v a c c i

n e

g r

o u p

Health Commission steps up its warning against vaccine group Bronwyn Herbert 512 words 27 July 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Transcripts ABCTRS English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation TONY EASTLEY: The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission has taken the unusual step of issuing a safety warning against a group of anti-vaccination campaigners. The Commission says the group, known as the Australian Vaccination Network, has refused to include a prominent disclaimer on its website stating the information should not be taken as medical advice. Bronwyn Herbert reports. BRONWYN HERBERT: Australia faced a whooping cough epidemic last year. More than 19,000 cases were reported and three babies died, including four-week-old Dana McCaffery from the New South Wales north coast. Paediatrician Chris Ingall treated the sick baby and says since the Australian Vaccination Network became active in the region immunisation rates have fallen dramatically. CHRIS INGALL: They spook many young families into believing them that vaccinations are bad, that the risk outweighs the benefit which is quite wrong. Ever since the AVN became active up here the immunisation rates have fallen, we're the lowest in the state, we have pockets below 50 per cent vaccination. Those are the pockets where the pertussis outbreaks seceded. Unfortunately it rolls out to the entire community so everyone gets affected and we've seen that in waves over the last two or three years and poor little Dana McCaffery was caught up in one of those waves. BRONWYN HERBERT: The Health Care Complaints Commission has been investigating the network. It's now issued a new public warning. VOICEOVER: The Commission recognises that it is important for there to be debate on the issue of vaccination. However, the AVN provides information that is inaccurate and misleading. The AVN's failure to include a notice on its website of the nature recommended by the Commission may result in members of the public making improperly informed decisions about whether or not to vaccinate, and therefore poses a risk to public health and safety. BRONWYN HERBERT: The Australian Vaccination Network spokeswoman is Meryl Dorey. MERYL DOREY: We already have two of the three items that the Health Care Complaints Commission asked us to put up on the website and we've had these things up there for years. The only thing that the AVN refuses to put up on the website, and we do refuse to put it up and surely this is censorship at its highest level to insist that we put this up, the Health Care Complaints Commission wants us to state that we are anti-vaccination and we are not, never have been, antivaccination. We are pro-information, pro-choice and a health safety watchdog. BRONWYN HERBERT: So you do advocate that vaccinations should be taken when it is appropriate? MERYLY DOREY: No, we advocate that people make informed decisions when it comes to all medical issues, including vaccination and that's all we say. BRONWYN HERBERT: Meryl Dorey says since the AVN is neither a healthcare practitioner or educator, it's a breach of the Health Care Commission's jurisdiction to investigate the group. TONY EASTLEY: Bronwyn Herbert. Page 38 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Document ABCTRS0020100727e67r00007

Page 39 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n v e s t

g a t

e d

a f

e r

c o m

p l

a i

n t

AVN investigated after complaints 303 words 14 July 2010 Coffs Coast Advocate COFFS Main 12 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved LISMORE Paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall has welcomed the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) report on its 12 month investigation into the Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network. The investigation was triggered by two complaints made to the commission, a NSW State authority to investigate complaints relating to health-care providers. The first was from Toni and David McCaffery, of Lennox Head, parents of baby Dana who died at four weeks from pertusis on March 9, last year. The second complaint was made by Ken McLeod. The investigation found the network provided misleading and inaccurate information' on vaccination. It backs up what we have been saying about the AVN, Dr Ingall said. (It) has directly affected the health of children on the North Coast. Dr Sue Page said the report was an exhaustive study which showed the network's claim to be a provider of balanced information was false. The report shows that they are anti-vaccination, Dr Page. In this local area they have had a major and negative impact. David McCaffery said he welcomed the report's findings. Part of his complaint to the commission was the network president, Meryl Dorey, had misrepresented the facts of Dana's death by inferring the baby had not died from pertusis. The investigation found Mrs Dorey was not in possession of all the facts and circumstances of Dana's illness and death when she spoke with the media and posted information relating to Dana on her weblog'. Mr McCaffery said the report proved the network could not be trusted'. People need to access information that gives them the real benefits and risks, he said. People should keep away from the AVN because they do not tell the truth. Document COFFS00020100713e67e000mx

Page 40 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

c o p s

a k

o m

a t

c h d o g

AVN cops flak from watchdog MEL MCMILLAN mel.mcmillan@northernstar.com.au 653 words 14 July 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 5 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Vaccination group found tohave misled' community LISMORE pediatrician Dr Chris Ingall has welcomed the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) report on its 12-month investigation into the Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network. The investigation was triggered by two complaints made to the HCCC, a NSW authority that investigates complaints relating to the provision of health care. The first was from Toni and David McCaffery, of Lennox Head, parents of baby Dana who died at four weeks from whooping cough (pertussis) on March 9 last year. The second complainant was made by Ken McLeod. The investigation found the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) provided misleading and inaccurate information' on vaccination. It backs up what we have been saying about the AVN, Dr Ingall said. It has directly affected the health of child-ren on the North Coast. Health academic Dr Sue Page said the report was an exhaustive study that showed the AVN's claim to be aprovider of balanced information was false. The report shows that they are anti-vaccination, Dr Page said. In this local area they have had a major and negative impact. David McCaffery welcomed the report's findings. Part of his complaint to the HCCC was that AVN president Meryl Dorey had misrepresented the facts of Dana's death by implying the infant had not died from pertussis. The investigation found Mrs Dorey was not in possession of all the facts and circumstances of Dana's illness and death when she spoke with the media and postedinformation relating to Dana on her weblog'. Mr McCaffery said thereport proved the AVN could not be trusted'. People need to accessinformation that gives them the real benefits and risks, he said. People should keep away from the AVN because they do not tell the truth. Mr McCaffery also said the State and Federal governments were not doing enough to provide accurate information on vaccination. The HCCC has recommended the AVN include a prominent statement on its website to say its purpose is to provide information against vaccination in order to balance what is it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere'. It also said there should be a statement on the website explaining the information provided should not be taken as medical advice and thedecision about vaccination should be made in consultation with health-care providers. The Australian Vaccination Network has been given 14 days to comply with the HCCC recommendations. Page 41 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mrs Dorey issued a media release to say she would be investigating all options in order to respond to the outrageous attack on free speech inherent in the recent allegations made against it by a NSW state authority, the HCCC'. Mrs Dorey argued the AVN did not fall under the jurisdiction of the commission. However, the HCCC found that Mrs Dorey was a health-care educator and the AVN was a health education service, so therefore fell under the jurisdiction of Health Care Complaints Act. Mrs Dorey is yet to respond to the findings of the report and did not agree to be interviewed for this story. FINDINGS CONCERNING THE AVN Purports to provide balanced information, but clearly takes an anti-vaccination stance. There was evidence it misleads people by using reliable and peer reviewed research, but quotes selectively from it, often in contradiction to its findings. Provides information for which there are no references quoted, and refers to cases where there are no tests of reliability of data. Makes strong assertions about the benefit of exposure to childhood illnesses, but has no supporting research. No references are provided to support its claim there is a link between MMR vaccination and the development of autism, Crohn's disease and irritable bowel disease. Wrongly asserts pertussis does not kill. Uses statistics irresponsibly. Document APNNOS0020100713e67e000ma

Page 42 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n t

v a c c i

n a t

o n

g r

o u p

o s e s

s t

a t

u s

Anti-vaccination group loses status Julian Drape AAP 336 words 14 October 2010 AAP Bulletins AAPBLT English 2010 Australian Associated Press Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved A controversial NSW-based anti-vaccination group has been stripped of its charitable status after the state government found its appeals had not been conducted in good faith. The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) was ordered in July to publish a disclaimer on its website stating the group was anti-vaccination and its material shouldn't be read as medical advice. On Thursday, the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) revoked the group's charitable status on the grounds it had failed to publish the disclaimer as recommended by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC). "This has led to appeals not being conducted in good faith," the office says in a letter sent to the AVN. "The organisation's website is misleading in that it may lead people making donations to believe they are donating to a cause which promotes vaccination, whereas the organisation adopts an anti-vaccination position." The HCCC investigated AVN's website following complaints including one from a couple whose fourweek-old daughter died from whooping cough. Shortly after Dana McCaffery's death her parents discovered their story was being used as part of an anti-vaccination campaign. AVN is currently appealing the HCCC's decision to the NSW ombudsman. Spokeswoman Meryl Dorey told AAP the group was now "investigating its options" regarding a possible appeal of the OLGR's decision. She insisted the Australian Vaccination Network wasn't anti-vaccination. "This is a great injustice," she said. "It's not the sort of action you'd think a democratic government would take." Despite losing the ability to appeal for donations from anyone other than AVN members, the group insists it will continue campaigning. "Just because the government has done something immoral it doesn't mean we should lay down and die," Ms Dorey said. "It may make our job more difficult, but it's not going to make us give up." AVN claims to have 2500 members in Australia and overseas. Document AAPBLT0020101014e6ae000b6

Page 43 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

' s

c h a r

s t

a t

u s

e v o k e d

a i

u r

p o s t

e b s i

d i

s c l

a i

e r

b r

e a c h

o f

c t

AVN's charity status revoked Failure to post website disclaimer a breach of Act MEL MCMILLAN mel.mcmillan@northernstar.com.au 371 words 15 October 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 2 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Anti-vaccination group ordered to stop taking donations THE Australian Vaccination Network will no longer be permitted to collect charitable donations after the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing revoked the organisation's fundraising authority. The decision, effective from Monday, came after the OLGR found the AVN had breached Section 31 of the Charitable Fundraising Act. It found the AVN had not raised funds in good faith' because it had refused to comply with a request made earlier this year by the Health Care Complaints Commission that a disclaimer be displayed on its website, stating the information provided was anti-vaccination and not medical advice. This has resulted in an unacceptable risk of potential donors to the organisation being misled when making a decision whether or not to make a donation, which has led to appeals not being conducted in good faith, the OLGR said. The OLGR also found fundraising appeals had been improperly administered' because the AVN's website may have misled people into believing they were making a donation to a cause which promoted vaccination, whereas the organisation adopted an anti-vaccination position'. The OLGR also found it was in the public interest to revoke the fundraising authority, referring to the AVN's failure to comply with the HCCC recommendation to display a website disclaimer. This failure posed a risk to public health and safety and, for this reason, it was not in the public interest to permit the organisation to conduct fundraising appeals under the Act, it said. AVN media spokesperson Meryl Dorey said the decision was an abuse of power and a government attempt to suppress legitimate dissent. Had the OLGR based its decision upon the simple errors which were found during our audit errors which any small, volunteer-run organisation can and does make it would have been unfair, but not unexpected, Ms Dorey said. Ms Dorey said the AVN was a victim of a campaign to shut it down, which had included death threats to committee members and hate mail. Document APNNOS0020101014e6af0013b

Page 44 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

o p y r

g h t

b r

e a c h e s

a n d

g r

o u p

o u b l

News and Features Copyright breaches land group in trouble Kate Benson HEALTH 411 words 1 September 2010 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 7 English 2010 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. AN ANTI-VACCINATION group is under fire for allegedly breaching copyright laws by selling newspaper and medical journal articles online without permission from the authors. The Australian Vaccination Network, which was the subject of a public warning issued by the Health Care Complaints Commission last month, withdrew 11 information packs from its website yesterday after complaints from authors. The packs, which were selling for up to $128, included home-made books filled with articles photocopied from journals around the world, information on drugs taken from MIMS, the medical guide used by doctors and nurses, and copies of brochures inserted in medication boxes by pharmaceutical companies. Under the Copyright Act, articles can be copied for personal research or for use by students but cannot be disseminated widely or sold. For most works, copyright lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator or 70 years after the work was first published but none of the authors contacted by the Herald knew their work was being sold. Helen Signy, a freelance medical writer, said: "I've never even heard of this group and I certainly did not give consent to have my work reproduced. "That article is at least 15 years old so is not based on current information." Mary-Anne Toy, from The Age newspaper, said she did not recall giving the network permission to sell her work and would seek payment. Leigh Dayton, a science reporter at The Australian newspaper, was also unaware her story was being sold. Kate Haddock, a copyright lawyer, said those found breaching the law could face substantial damages. Damages would increase if articles were reproduced in a way which would cause readers to think less of the writers, Ms Haddock said. The network is also under investigation by the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing after reports it solicited donations without a fundraising licence. If found guilty, the network will no longer be allowed to operate as a charity. The president of the network, Meryl Dorey, said she was unaware she had breached copyright but accepted there had been problems with her licence. "We've made mistakes but they've been honest mistakes. They've been out of ignorance rather than fraudulence," she said. Yesterday she asked her supporters for $150,000 to fight the HCCC claiming it "stepped outside of its jurisdiction to persecute a non-profit organisation". Document SMHH000020100831e6910002x

Page 45 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a r

e n t

o p t

o u t

o f

c h i

d h o o d

a b s

Parents opt out of childhood jabs CLAIR WEAVER 410 words 25 April 2010 Sunday Tasmanian SUNTAS 12 English Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE number of Australian parents deciding not to have their children vaccinated has more than doubled in the past decade. New figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph reveal 26,000 children are currently excluded from the national immunisation program because their parents have registered as ``conscientious objectors''. This compares with 12,050 families in 2000. Experts say the real number of unvaccinated children is likely to be more than 52,000 as many parents do not record their intentions with the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register. The finding comes as doctors across the country are ordered to stop giving the flu vaccine to under-fives following a spate of adverse reactions marked by high fevers and seizures. But public health experts maintain children who are denied routine childhood jabs, which do not include flu, are putting themselves and others at risk. National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance director Peter McIntyre said: ``If your child is unimmunised they remain at risk of diseases that have pretty much gone away for everyone else. ``They are protected by other people being vaccinated but if a disease does emerge, they are the ones who are going to get it. ``There's the individual risk to the child but there's also the risk to other kids, like those with immune deficiency and other health problems.'' Parents who register as conscientious objectors can still receive child-care benefits and maternity allowances, which are conditional on keeping up-to-date immunisation records. But their children may be excluded from childcare or school during a disease outbreak. Immunisation register data shows 83 per cent of five-year-olds in NSW were fully immunised as of March 31, 2010. This is slightly less than the national average. Meryl Dorey, of the action group Australian Vaccination Network, said many parents did not realise they still could get government benefits if their children were not vaccinated as long as they registered. The network says parents should be able to keep their unvaccinated children in childcare or school during a disease outbreak so they can be exposed to infections. Conscientious objectors sign a one-page form saying they have a ``personal, philosophical, religious or medical'' objection to childhood jabs to retain benefits. Prof McIntyre said unvaccinated kids were 15 to 20 times as likely to get Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and meningitis than those who are vaccinated. STS-20100425-1-002-129408 Document SUNTAS0020100424e64p0000m

Page 46 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

W a r

n i

n g

s s u e d

a b o u t

a n t

v a c c i

n a t

o n

g r

o u p

Warning issued about anti-vaccination group By Andy Parks 570 words 15 July 2010 The Northern Rivers Echo APNNRE Main 3 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved A report by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) into the Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) has found that the information they provide is often selective, misleading and inaccurate. Contrary to what the name suggests, the Australian Vaccination Network is essentially an antivaccination advocacy group, but this is not made clear on their website. The group has a high profile on the North Coast, which has the lowest vaccination rate in the country. The HCCC report, which has not been made public but was leaked to the media and made available on the web, was triggered by two formal complaints: one from Moruya resident Ken McLeod and the other from David and Toni McCaffery, whose baby daughter Dana died from whooping cough (pertussis) in 2009. The McCafferys then embarked on a media campaign to warn other parents about the dangers of pertussis, which led to the NSW Government announcing free pertussis boosters for parents and grandparents of newborns, with the ACT and Queensland soon following suit. But the McCafferys said they were harassed by the AVN for nine months, which led to their HCCC complaint. The AVN has accused us of running a fear campaign. We call it a reality check. We only wished someone had warned us of the epidemic. We do not know how Dana became infected, but we now know that the Northern Rivers of NSW has the lowest rates of vaccination in the country, and in 2009 had a pertussis notification rate that was twice the state's average. We saw the healthiest, most beautiful baby suffer the most agonising death and there was nothing we could do. We will not stand by and let this happen to another family, the McCafferys said in a statement. We respect parents' rights to making an informed choice and understand they have concerns over vaccination. But we plead with parents, before you make a decision, please access factual information on vaccines, and understand how dangerous the diseases are that they prevent. Stay away from the AVN and be very careful of the internet. The HCCC report recommends that the AVN put the following three-point statement on their website in a prominent position: 1) The AVN's purpose is to provide information against vaccination in order to balance what it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere; 2) That the information not be read as medical advice; and 3) The decision about whether to vaccinate or not should be made with a health care provider. The AVN has 14 days to respond to the report (which they received about a week ago) and if they fail to follow the recommendations, HCCC executive officer Ken Swan said they have the power to make a public statement warning people that the AVN service poses a threat to public health and safety. AVN president Meryl Dorey said she was still waiting on legal advice about how the organisation would respond, but said in a statement that they rejected the HCCC's assertion that the AVN is a healthcare provider, and therefore does not fall within the jurisdiction of the HCCC. Vaccination is not compulsory in Australia, nor is it illegal to not vaccinate. In addition, prior to the HCCC's decision, it has not been illegal to publish information that questions a medical procedure, she said. Document APNNRE0020100714e67f000gt

Page 47 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

u t

a g e

o v e r

c a m

p a i

g n

a f

e r

b a b y ' s

d e a t

FED:Outrage over campaign after baby's death 442 words 27 July 2010 Australian Associated Press General News AAP English (c) 2010 Australian Associated Press Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved WHOOPING By Steve Gray BRISBANE, July 27 AAP - A mother who lost a four-week-old baby to whooping cough has called on the state and federal governments to do more to promote vaccination. The call came as NSW's Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) issued a warning against the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), which campaigns against vaccination, after it allegedly used the baby's death to promote its opposition. In March 2009 Toni and David McCaffery lost their four-week-old baby Dana to whooping cough. Shortly afterwards they learned that Dana's death was being used as part of an anti-vaccination campaign. Toni McCaffery said health ministers had agreed to a national immunisation strategy and campaign by the end of 2009, but had failed to deliver. "We've had letters from NSW Health (saying) they're ready to go, but the federal Department of Health and Ageing have said to wait," she told AAP on Tuesday. "We've followed up with Nicola Roxon's office twice or three times since February and just can't get an answer. "We did the right thing and allowed Dana's death to be made public ... and in doing that we've been thrust out, exposed to some pretty nasty people. "It would be nice if (governments) were more pro-active about it." Ms McCaffery said the AVN campaign which began just days after Dana's death, claiming the baby girl had not died of whooping cough, had shaken her to the core. "To suddenly be in this situation of vitriol and lunacy out there, it was extremely distressing," she said. "It's bad enough losing the child to such an horrific disease, but to see lies printed about us which could potentially mislead another parent was so distressing. "To publish information that whooping cough is not dangerous is completely irresponsible and that's why we put our complaint to the HCCC." The HCCC said its investigation revealed that the AVN provides information that is solely antivaccination, incorrect and misleading and that it quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous. The HCCC has recommended that the AVN should include a statement in a prominent position on its website pointing out it is against vaccination, is not offering medical advice, and the decision about whether to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health-care provider. AVN spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said the HCCC does not have the jurisdiction to ask the AVN to change its website. The AVN is seeking legal advice, she told the ABC. AAP stg/pjo/jsh Document AAP0000020100727e67r003jt Page 48 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Page 49 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

e d i

c a l

c o u n c i

s l

a m

d o c t

o r

h o

n k e d

v a c c i

n e

a u t

s m

Medical council slams doctor who linked vaccine to autism Lindy Kerin 619 words 29 January 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Transcripts ABCTRS English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation ELEANOR HALL: The British doctor who created panic by suggesting a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism has been condemned by the country's peak medical group. The British General Medical Council has found that Dr Andrew Wakefield acted dishonestly and irresponsibly in conducting his research. Medical experts here in Australia say the ruling should allay any fears of parents considering their children's vaccinations. Lindy Kerin has our report. LINDY KERIN: His theories caused panic among parents around the world when he claimed the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was linked to autism. But now after two-and-a-half years of investigation Dr Andrew Wakefield's research methods have been condemned by the British General Medical Council. It ruled that Dr Wakefield had abused his position of trust and brought the medical profession into disrepute. It found that he'd carried out invasive and unnecessary tests on children and that he'd acted unethically when he paid children five pounds for blood samples at his son's birthday party. Investigative journalist Brian Deer has been covering the case of Dr Wakefield and his colleagues. BRIAN DEER: You cannot trust these men who were responsible for creating the MMR scare. The General Medical Council's evidence that they've brought forth today is quite clear that there is a serious lack of integrity in these people. These are people, these are doctors who are not to be believed. LINDY KERIN: But speaking outside the hearing Dr Wakefield stood by his research and said he was deeply disappointed with the ruling. ANDREW WAKEFIELD: The allegations against me and against my colleagues are both unfounded and unjust. I repeat - unfounded and unjust. And I invite anyone to examine the contents of these proceedings and come to their own conclusions. LINDY KERIN: A lobby group for parents, the Australian Vaccination Network has criticised the ruling. The national president Meryl Dorey says Dr Wakefield and his team of researchers have been treated unfairly. MERYL DOREY: These are three incredibly ethical, dedicated doctors who have actually put their careers and possibly their freedom on the line because they believe so strongly in what they have found . And they have been helping children with autism where a lot of other doctors who deny what Wakefield has found are doing nothing whatsoever to help children with autism. A lot of parents are supporting Wakefield and Walker-Smith and they will continue to support these people. LINDY KERIN: The Lancet published Dr Wakefield's initial study 12 years ago. It led to a drop in vaccination rates in the UK and an increase in cases of measles and mumps. Julie Leask a senior research fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research says the ruling further discredits Dr Wakefield's research. JULIE LEASK: It left parents questioning whether their child's autism was caused by something they did, Page 50 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

ie giving that child a vaccine. I think it can further reassure parents that autism is not caused by the MMR vaccine. And it can help us to look towards the real causes and early treatment for children with autism. LINDY KERIN: Julie Leask says the General Medical Council's ruling should further allay the fears of parents considering vaccinations. JULIE LEASK: Already a lot of people see this theory as one that's been discredited largely because of the poor science that was used to put it forward. So this will just be another nail in the coffin of this theory for many parents. ELEANOR HALL: That's Julie Leask from the National Centre for Immunisation Research speaking to Lindy Kerin. Document ABCTRS0020100129e61t00035

Page 51 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

h e

s h a r

e n d

o f

h e

v a c c i

n a t

o n

d e b a t

Features The sharp end of the vaccination debate Jane Hansen 2,456 words 7 November 2010 Sunday Telegraph SUNTEL 1 - State 52 English Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved The anti-vaccination lobby believe they are fighting for personal freedom but, as Jane Hansen reports, are they selfishly putting your children at risk. The six-month-old baby looked a picture of health -- chubby, pink-cheeked, thriving. Except the little boy was unconscious with a raging temperature and -- lying in the intensive care unit at The Children's Hospital at Westmead -- was hooked up to life support. He had pneumococcal meningitis, caused by a common bacterium that crosses into the brain with often fatal consequences. It was July, 2004 and I had a sick child of my own in the isolation unit next door and bore witness to this modern-day tragedy. ``He was fine yesterday, now he's hooked up to all these wires,'' I heard the mother say in disbelief to friends in the hallway of the paediatric intensive care unit. At that stage, she still had hope; a few hours later the curtains were drawn -- flimsy insulation against the howls of a mother who had lost her precious baby. The little boy was one of 87 to have died in 2003-04. A year later, after the January 1, 2005 introduction of the vaccination program for babies was introduced; the incidence of the disease in under-twos dropped 73 per cent. Lives have been saved. Like polio and measles, it may one day be eradicated from our shores. In 1901, one in 12 babies didn't make it to age one, in the days before clean water and mass immunisation reduced childhood death. Now it's one in 200. ``In a sense, vaccination is a victim of its own success,'' says Dr Chris Ingall, a paediatrician who works on the Far North Coast of NSW, an area with notoriously low immunisation rates. He is also the doctor who looked after four-week-old Dana McCaffery last year and remains altered by her death by the preventable disease whooping cough. ``I was devastated; a tiny baby who is dying in front of your eyes and there is nothing you can do -- that's why we vaccinate, we can't treat it,'' he says. Dana's father Dave does not hide the complete horror of his daughter's death. ``We cry ourselves to sleep with memories of our daughter coughing until she couldn't breathe, attached to a ventilator, going into cardiac arrest and holding her bruised and swollen body after her heart stopped. ``We were inconsolable as we left our baby in the hospital morgue and drove home ... with an empty baby capsule.'' Most of us are spared this tragedy because of the success of the mass vaccination program. It's called ``herd immunity'' and, with 95 per cent of the population vaccinated, we can prevent epidemics of preventable illnesses like measles, whooping cough and chicken pox, all highly transmissible diseases, says Sydney University Infectious Disease expert Professor Robert Booy. ``At present we have 92 per cent of the population vaccinated on average, but there are areas that don't have that rate and, if you have a community with more than 10 per cent not vaccinated, that increases the risk,'' he says. Green rolling hills of Mullumbimby in the Byron Shire have always attracted alternative types. The volcanic soils provide fertile ground for bananas, palm trees, marijuana -- and conspiracy theories. Here, a fifth of parents have registered as conscientious objectors to immunisation and refuse to immunise their children. The area has the worst rate of immunisation in the State, with 21 per cent philosophically against it. In nearby Byron Bay 16 per cent are. ``We chose to live in this community because of the broadminded people, but in this case they've got it Page 52 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

wrong -- immunisation is not an evil,'' says Mullumbimby mother Roesheen Ritchie. At the height of the 2008 epidemic, her three-year-old fully immunised son contracted whooping cough. The vaccine is only 85 per cent successful. ``I was outraged. Here's Kai, fully immunised and he gets this awful disease because of the luxury of others choosing not to vaccinate due to bad science,'' the business consultant says. Some in the community believe that the mass immunisation program is a covert operation between government and big pharmaceutical companies for the sole purpose of making money. Worse still, according to opponents of vaccination, they are harming children. ``We are having too many people make informed choices not to vaccinate, and the medical and pharmaceutical industries don't like it,'' says expat American Meryl Dorey, of the Australian Vaccination Network, based at the Northern Rivers town of Bangalow. Dorey insists her network does not tell parents not to vaccinate; she does however say ``the Government is paying a bounty to doctors to push vaccines''. And she talks about children being ``collateral damage'' as a result. ``Everything from brain damage to autism to ADD, ADHD, diabetes, food allergies and death, I have met with many families whose children have died after vaccines,'' she says. An angry Chris Kokegei, who has just endured the one-year anniversary of his seven-year-old son Michael's death from chicken pox, simply says: ``Where's their evidence? I've looked for it. What these people are telling parents is putting kids at risk, more kids will die. There shouldn't be kids dying of this disease.'' The Health Care Complaints Commission investigated the online activities of Dorey's network and found the group was dangerously selective in the information it distributes. The HCCC issued this public warning in July: ``The AVN website: provides information that is solely antivaccination, contains information that is incorrect and misleading and quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.'' It also requested the AVN post the warning on their website, which Dorey refused to do. Some of the research Dorey believes in has been universally discredited. In 1998, British medico Andrew Wakefield hypothesised that the Measles Mumps and Rubella, or MMR, vaccine possibly caused autism. The study was published in The Lancet, but this year after serious conflicts of interest were revealed and proven, the respected medical journal withdrew the paper. Wakefield failed to disclose accepting pound stg. 55,000 from lawyers representing autistic children trying to sue vaccine companies. He also failed to disclose he had a patent pending on a vaccine that was a rival to the MMR vaccine. In May this year, he was struck off the UK medical register. His causal link has been disproved several times. In Denmark, a study of 440,000 children vaccinated with the MMR were compared to 96,000 who were not; there was no difference in the incidence of autism. A Swedish study and a Finnish study found the same, but Dorey discounts all of it. ``His study has been confirmed,'' she says defiantly. ``There's a new term now: he's been `Wakefielded' -- he has been used as a scapegoat.'' Dorey plans to have a host of Australian vaccines tested in US laboratories. ``We're looking for heavy metals and proteins,'' she says. The debate is an emotional one for the McCafferys. Time has done little to ease the pain of their daughter Dana's awful death. The Lennox Head couple says their grief has been enormously compounded by the actions of the AVN. Dorey tried to get Dana's medical records from NSW Health on March 12, 2009 -- the day before her funeral. ``All I did was contact the Department of Health: I wanted to know if her whooping cough was a laboratory diagnosis, because it might not have been whooping cough,'' Dorey explains. ``They were trying to disprove Dana did not die from pertussis. It was so disrespectful,'' Toni McCaffery said. Whooping cough, or pertussis, is deadly to babies, especially those under the age of six weeks. It has claimed five babies in the past 20 months. Between 1993 and 2005 there were 18 deaths -- 16 infants were aged under 12 months. Page 53 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Paul Corben is the Director of Public Health for the Far North Coast Area Health Service. His statistics on the incidence of whooping cough shows that where there are lower vaccination rates, there are higher rates of infection. ``Whooping cough raged through Byron; it had twice the rate of adjacent Ballina, which has a good vaccination rate,'' Corben says. He says North Coast communities with the highest number of cases of whooping cough over the period 2008-10 were those with lowest childhood vaccination rates (Bellingen, Lismore and Byron), while the three local government areas with the highest vaccination rates had the lowest attack rates (Port Macquarie-Hastings, Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour). In an unpublished review of the pertussis epidemic conducted in 2009, Professor A. M. Brown found the rate of notification in NSW peaked at 341.9 cases per 100,000 in December, 2008. Notification rates in the Byron Shire peaked at 1493 cases per 100,000 -- more than four times the State rate. Babies rely on the ``cocooning'' of the adults and children around them to shield them from whooping cough. Some 90 per cent of adults are not immunised or covered because shots wear off after 10 years. Immunisation rates are so bad on the Far North Coast that Dr Ingall says parents should take a siege mentality and simply not go out the door with a baby under six weeks -- and screen every adult coming through the door. The McCafferys are expecting another baby in February. The family will ``cocoon'' their new baby. ``We know everyone around us will have booster shots, Dave will take time off work, and we will cocoon our baby and not go out,'' Toni says. If the anti-vaccination movement needed legitimate ammunition, CSL, the makers of the Fluvax vaccine which caused febrile convulsion in children under five, handed it to them. There was one death of an infant recorded in Brisbane shortly after the child received the vaccine. ``It was an untested vaccine and children were used as guinea pigs,'' Dorey says of the tragedy. ``The coroner said in the case of the baby, the vaccine could not be ruled in as a cause, but it could not be ruled out either, so we have to take that into account,'' Professor Booy says, admitting that the incident was not ``good for the cause''. Other companies that produced a similar vaccine did not record any problem. ``The bottom line is we don't have any evidence of children dying after vaccination, but we definitely do see children dying from vaccine-preventable diseases.'' ----- WHAT IS PERTUSSIS? ----Pertussis (or whooping cough) is a disease caused by infection of the throat with the bacteria Bordetella pertussis What are the symptoms? * Pertussis usually begins just like a cold, with a runny nose, tiredness and sometimes a mild fever. * Coughing then develops, usually in bouts, followed by a deep gasp (or "whoop"). Sometimes people vomit after coughing. * Pertussis can be very serious in small children. They might go blue or stop breathing during coughing attacks and may need to go to the hospital. * Older children and adults may have a less serious illness, with bouts of coughing that continue for many weeks regardless of treatment. How is it spread? Pertussis is spread to other people by droplets from coughing or sneezing. Untreated, a person with pertussis can spread it to other people for up to three weeks after onset of cough. Page 54 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

The time between exposure and getting sick is usually seven to 10 days, but can be up to three weeks. Who is at risk? * Anyone can get pertussis. * People living in the same household as someone with pertussis are more likely to catch it. * Immunisation greatly reduces your risk of infection, but reinfection can occur. How is it prevented? Immunise your child on time: * The vaccine does not give lifelong protection against pertussis, and protection is sometimes incomplete. * Children need to be immunised at two, four and six months (the first dose can be given as early as 6 weeks of age). * Boosters are needed at four years of age and again at 15 years of age. * Immunisation is available through general practitioners and some local councils. Keep your baby away from people who cough * Babies need two or three vaccinations before they are protected. For this reason, it is very important to keep people with coughing illnesses away from your baby so they don't pass on pertussis or other germs. Get immunised if you are an adult in close contact with small children A vaccine for adults is available. It is recommended: * For both parents when planning a pregnancy, or as soon as the baby is born. * For other adult household members, grandparents and carers of young children. * For adults working with young children, especially health care and child care workers. If you are a close contact of someone with pertussis: * Watch out for the symptoms. If symptoms develop, see your doctor and mention your contact with pertussis. * Some close contacts at high risk (e.g. children under one year, children not fully vaccinated, and women at the end of their pregnancy) and others who live or work with high-risk people may need to take antibiotics to prevent infection. If you have pertussis: * Get treated early while infectious, avoid other people and stay away from young children, e.g. at child care centres, pre-school and school. How is it diagnosed? If a doctor thinks someone has pertussis, a swab from the back of the nose, or a blood test may be done to help confirm the diagnosis. How is it treated? A special antibiotic - usually either erythromycin, clarithromycin, or azithromycin is used to treat pertussis. These antibiotics can prevent the spread of the germ to other people. Coughing often continues for many weeks despite treatment. Page 55 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

What is the public health response? Doctors and laboratories must confidentially notify cases of pertussis to the local Public Health Unit. Public Health Unit staff can advise on the best way to stop further spread. Infectious children are restricted from going to pre-school and school. Unimmunised contacts may be excluded from child care unless they take the special antibiotics. Source: NSW Health ----- TIMELINE TO A TIMEBOMB ----1998 Study by Andrew Wakefield published in The Lancet raises concern that MMR vaccine causes Autism. Feb 2010 The Lancet fully retracts the 1998 Andrew Wakefield study from the published record after serious conflicts of interest not declared May 2010 Andrew Wakefield found guilty of professional misconduct and struck off UK Medical Register. July 2010 HCCC finds the Australian Vaccination Network distributes incorrect anti-vaccine information. October 2010 Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing revokes AVN charitable status Document SUNTEL0020101106e6b70003v

Page 56 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

o o d

h e a l

s p a r

k s

v a c c i

n e

o w

Opinion Good health sparks vaccine row 1,053 words 1 June 2010 The West Australian TWAU First 21 English (c) 2010, West Australian Newspapers Limited F or most parents, having your child vaccinated is a no-brainer. We have been brought up in an age of seeing relatively few serious contagious diseases, much of which is due to the carefully scripted childhood vaccination schedule. When rates of immunisation are high, the so-called herd immunity protects everyone. Because once you have less disease around, the effect snowballs so there is less disease around to catch and spread to others, and so on. It relies on a level of community support for the common good. Your child has the jab and it will hopefully protect him or her, and others in turn. It is a system that appears to work remarkably well, given the millions of doses administered in developed countries every year, where the rate of serious adverse reactions remains low. You may hear to the contrary, but it is not true. This year we saw something unexpected. Parents who went off dutifully to give their children the seasonal flu vaccine, which for the first time included protection against the human swine flu strain H1N1, became alarmed. Hundreds of WA children who had their jab suffered unexpected bad reactions, including 57 with convulsions, forcing health authorities to pull the pin on the flu vaccination program in children aged under five. Authorities have not yet been able to say what went wrong. This has rightfully raised questions about vaccinations, particularly how the seasonal flu cocktail is tested, but has also provided fodder for vaccination critics. It has given a new injection of life for the somewhat misnamed Australian Vaccination Network, a lobby group which maintains it is not anti-vaccination but rather pro-information. A planned public forum at the State Library complex tonight is sold out, with more than 200 people parting with $10 a piece to hear both sides of the vaccination debate. The event comes two weeks after the group was forced to cancel an earlier forum in Perth when the Uniting Church in the City made a last-minute decision to withdraw its venue. That brought cries of censorship but probably gave the event even more publicity. So what is the Australian Vaccination Network? It is a non-profit organisation formed in NSW in 1994 by a group of parents and health professionals concerned about protecting the rights of Australians to make free and informed health choices. The groups mission statement says it is dedicated to the idea that health can be achieved and maintained without the use of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. It is headed by Meryl Dorey, who is due to attend tonights forum, but who in recent months was said to be winding down her involvement in the group for personal reasons. The main thrust of the groups efforts over the years has been to fight any form of compulsory vaccination because it argues governments have no right to tell people whether to vaccinate or not. It argues many parents feel pressured to comply. However, the network has been widely criticised by medical professionals, and in 2007 it was forced to make a public apology to the Australian Medical Association in NSW after wrongly claiming on its website that the medical association had received funding from pharmaceutical companies and censored information provided to its members. Page 57 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Last year, the Australian Skeptics awarded the AVN its Bent Spoon Award presented annually to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle. It said the award had been earned for scaremongering and misinformation about childhood vaccination. In turn, Ms Dorey said winning the award meant she was on the right track. As far as the flu vaccine goes, the group said there were not enough checks and balances in place. This has clearly struck a chord with some parents. Some of the unanswered questions, it argued, include whether parents were fully informed about the testing of the vaccine and why health authorities still wont provide the batch numbers of the vaccines associated with this cluster of reactions. The group is right when it says there are many unanswered questions, more than a month after the flu vaccine program in young children was suspended. Until there are answers, parents are likely to worry. It will also reignite the highly emotive debate between parents who choose to vaccinate their children, and those who dont. It was not surprising then that the story of Perth mother Sarah Chivers in last Fridays The West Australian attracted strong reaction. Ms Chivers said she had elected not to vaccinate her nine-month-old son after researching the risk of side effects. But by the next day, others were criticising parents who did not vaccinate their children, saying they put other children at risk of catching preventable diseases. Yesterday Ms Chivers wrote to The West , defending her decision and saying it was up to parents to make the decision about what was right for them and their children. Meanwhile, the final chapter in a long-standing saga about the safety of childhood vaccines has played out quietly in Britain. Disgraced researcher Andrew Wakefield, who was at the centre of a massive scare linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism in children, was finally struck off the medical register for serious professional misconduct. Years earlier it was found Dr Wakefield had financial interests in the outcome of his research and had taken money to prepare evidence for solicitors who hoped to bring cases against vaccine manufacturers, alleging that the MMR triggered autism. Im not an apologist for health authorities. I think they misjudged the whole swine flu vaccination issue last year, buying up millions of doses of a vaccine that really few could be bothered having, and which now sit idle under refrigeration. Nonetheless, you dont throw the baby out with the bathwater. Perth paediatrician Gary Geelheod, who is soon to step down as president of the Australian Medical Association in WA, does not mince his words. We have to do everything we can to prevent childhood illnesses, and the science is rock solid, he says. People who vaccinate their children save them from death and disability, and parents who dont vaccinate their children put them at risk of death and disability. Document TWAU000020100531e6610002n

Page 58 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

u m

d o z e n s

o t

h e r

o f

h e

e a r

General Mum to dozens is Mother of the Year 492 words 7 May 2010 The West Australian TWAU Second 19 English (c) 2010, West Australian Newspapers Limited Mum to dozens is Mother of the Year Gosnells mother, grandmother and foster mother Kaye Worth was named Barnardos Australian Mother of the Year in Sydney last night. Mrs Worth received the top honour for her dedication and devotion to looking after some of the most vulnerable children in the community. She has cared for more than 50 babies and children over the past 15 years, many of whom have had disabilities or needed crisis care. She also offers respite for parents and struggling young mothers. Mrs Worth was nominated by her granddaughter Amy Pratt, who said her grandmother had an extraordinary love and had given many babies a wonderful start in life. State probes workers club sale The Office of State Revenue has launched an investigation into the sale of a Fremantle workers club property to former deputy mayor Phil Douglas for a quarter of its estimated $2 million value. The Department of Treasury and Finance said it was unable to comment, but The West Australian has obtained an email sent from a compliance officer confirming the $482,559 sale of the RSL Club Wyolaowned building on Bannister Street was being investigated. It is believed the department is checking, among other things, whether stamp duty reflecting the market value of the property was paid. Anti-vaccination lobbyist heads west The head of Australias main anti-vaccination group will hold a seminar in Perth for parents on childrens flu vaccination, a move likely to highlight concerns about the recent spike in bad reactions in WA. Australian Vaccination Network spokeswoman Meryl Dorey, an outspoken critic of the countrys childhood vaccination program, and Murdoch University PhD researcher Judy Wilyman are hosting the forum. Next Fridays meeting will focus on flu vaccine risks, but promotional material says it will also discuss links between vaccines and allergies, autism and behavioural problems. Algal balls fuel ocean-warming fears Scientists probing the sea floor off Jurien Bay have found billions of bright pink algal balls they fear could signal the start of rising ocean temperatures because of global warming. The coral-like balls, each about the size of a softball, are known as rhodoliths and help form living reef systems on the seabed. Although common in temperate waters, the prevalence of the balls off Jurien surprised scientists who had been expecting to see big kelp forests on the sea floor. The balls would usually be covered by thick kelp but instead were clearly visible on the bottom. ALP suspends lying NSW MP NSW Labor MP Karyn Paluzzano has been suspended from the Australian Labor Party and faces a possible jail term after admitting she lied to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. State ALP general secretary Sam Dastyari confirmed yesterday the Member for Penriths membership was suspended pending the final report of the ICAC after Premier Kristina Keneally asked the party to review it. Document TWAU000020100506e65700037

Page 59 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

u e

o v e r

v a c c i

n a t

o n s

Blue over vaccinations MEL MCMILLAN mel.mcmillan@northernstar.com.au 407 words 27 July 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 11 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Public warning issued on inaccurate' advice from Bangalow-based group A PUBLIC health warning has beenissued by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) about the Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). The warning, issued yesterday, came after the AVN failed to comply with a recommendation by the HCCC to put a statement on its website in a prominent position stating its purpose was to provide information that was against vaccination and it should not be considered as medical advice. The HCCC also recommended the AVN advise visitors to its website that any decision about immunisation should be made in consultation with a health care provider. The HCCC said while it was important there was a debate on the issue of vaccination, the AVN provided information which was inaccurate and misleading. The AVN's failure to provide a warning on its website meant members of the public may make improperly informed decisions on vaccination and therefore it posed a risk to public health and safety, the HCCC warning said. The HCCC investigated the AVNafter it received two complaints about the organisation, the first from Ken McLeod, of Stop the AVN (SAVN), and the second from Toni and David McCaffery, of Lennox Head, who lost their daughter, Dana, to whooping cough at four weeks old in March last year. Earlier this month, the HCCC released a report which found the AVN provided information about vaccination that was incorrect and misleading and quoted selectively fromresearch to suggest vaccination may be dangerous. AVN president Meryl Dorey yesterday said the HCCC had no jurisdiction over the AVN and that its legal representatives had written to the HCCC advising them of this. The whole investigation has been handled in an extremely irregular manner, Mrs Dorey said. In a media release, the AVN said it was taking advice on future steps to defend against the unsubstantiated allegations that our information is anything but complete, unbiased and fully-referenced from the medicalliterature'. The AVN, which describes itself as a consumer advocacy and vaccinesafety watchdog', has accused the HCCC's investigation of being biased. Mr McLeod said the AVN's attack on the HCCC was deplorable'. He said SAVN would ask the HCCC to consider an injunction to take the AVN to court to compel it to comply with the recommendations. Document APNNOS0020100726e67r000gq

Page 60 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

u s s e l

b s e r

v e r

W e d n e s a y

2 5 )

RE Russel (SMS, Observer, Wednesay 25). 903 words 30 August 2010 The Observer (Gladstone) APNOBG Main 18 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved RE Russel (SMS, Observer, Wednesay 25). Considering our petrol comes from the centre of town. The petrol for Rocky comes from Pt Alma? The petrol for Bundy comes from the new port near Burnett Hds. Notice how prices don't fluctuate or vary much either. This is of course except for out of town where, last time I looked, was two to three cents cheaper. I know a word for this. Herb Linwood Gladstone Appreciation for Base hospital's service MY experience with the Gladstone Base Hospital is completely the opposite to that of Robyn (Robyn isn't happy with hospital' 26/8/10). Just this week I spent several hours there being checked out for a medical condition. I was seen promptly and found all the staff to be working very hard and efficiently. The attending doctor was extremely pleasant and most thorough. I heard an elderly lady in the nearby cubicle being spoken to in a genuinely warm and caring way, particularly by one of the wardsmen. I was given various tests, and a blood test result only took an hour to return not days as is the case when you normally have a blood test. I couldn't speak more highly of the Gladstone Base Hospital and it struck me that, even with all our health system's shortcomings, Gladstone Hospital staff are nonetheless doing a fantastic job. Vicki Johnson Gladstone Attack on Australian Vaccination Network THE Australian Vaccination Network has been vilified in the media in recent weeks. While it is the media's job to expose wrongdoing when it has been found, it is not their job to act as judge, jury and executioner. Newspapers and radio stations have been reporting ridiculous lies stating that the AVN believes in reptilian aliens and mind-control chips. They got this misinformation from Mr Ken McLeod, an active member of a group that has set out to either shut our small, volunteer-run organisation down or shut us up in any way they can. That is their agenda. What is the media's excuse? And while this beat-up has been taking place, 136 of 139 pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing facilities in Australia have failed their TGA audits yet this hasn't merited so much as a mention in the press. It seems that drug companies have a privileged position in our society while vaccine safety watchdogs are shut down quicker than you can say Pan Pharmaceuticals! The AVN was formed in 1994 due to a lack of information in the community on the downsides of vaccination. We were started by a group of parents whose children had reacted to this medical procedure and the health practitioners who had helped us. Daily, we provide support and information to parents in Australia and overseas who are seeking medically-based, fully-referenced data on vaccines. Daily, we help parents report their children's serious and sometimes fatal reactions to the Australian government because their doctors have refused to do so. Vaccines are not compulsory. It was previously not illegal to criticise vaccines. The AVN are vaccine whistleblowers and, like all organisations that are perceived to threaten an entrenched status quo, we are now being victimised by a group that openly states their object is to stop us in any way they can. Their tactics include death threats, threats of violence, calling our supporters to threaten them, filing complaints with every government body they can think of and generally inciting fear, hatred and violence towards us in the Page 61 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

community all with the support and cooperation of the government and the media. That this organisation has used these tactics is shameful and should be taken seriously by the authorities. That the media and government bodies such as the HCCC have cooperated with them even sending people who request more information about the current investigations' to their website is criminal. It is time the Australian people learnt the truth about the coordinated attacks on the Australian Vaccination Network by those who want to stop anyone questioning the safety or effectiveness of vaccines. I invite everyone who is interested in knowing more about the facts behind these attacks to read the documents that can be found at http://scr.bi/cpfdTe and on our website, www.avn.org.au. Meryl Dorey Australian Vaccination Network Plebiscite on the war in Afghanistan, Republic THE time has come for the Australian people to have their say on this country's involvement in the war in Afghanistan. The people did not have any say in the commitment to war either in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Australian Constitution only provides for a de facto dictatorial power for the PM, an absurd situation. Money spent on the war effort could be used much more profitably for foreign aid purposes in Afghanistan. A plebiscite on this could be run at election time, late August. In addition, a plebiscite on the Republic is long overdue. Voters could be asked: (a) if they want a Republic; (b) if they want to elect the President directly; (c) if they want a symbolic or executive President. The public has been told that the Gillard Government wants to consult with the people. Plebiscites provide the opportunity to assess the people's wishes. It's called democracy. Klaas Woldring Pearl Beach Document APNOBG0020100829e68u000um

Page 62 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

a c c i

n a t

o n

s a v e

o v e d

o n e s

Agenda Vaccination to save loved ones Jane Hansen 1,693 words 7 November 2010 Sunday Mail, The SNDMAL 2 - State - Main Country 50 English Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved Whooping cough is reaching epidemic proportions in Queensland and immunisation is crucial, writes Jane Hansen ``We don't have any evidence of children dying after vaccination but we definitely do see children dying from vaccine preventable diseases'' PROFESSOR ROBERT BOOY IT'S the nightmare every parent dreads but for Lennox Head couple Toni and David McCaffery it is a nightmare from which they will never wake. Last year the couple made the emotionally harrowing journey from Brisbane to Lennox Head with an empty baby capsule in the back seat of their car. They'd had to leave the body of their four-week-old daughter, Dana, in the morgue at Brisbane's Mater Hospital. Dana died from whooping cough. For the past two years Queensland has been in the grip of a whooping cough epidemic and unless parents get serious about it, the disease will claim more lives. Already this year there have been 6153 Queenslanders who have contracted the disease that causes a painful, hacking cough that can kill the very young and the very old. In 2003, there were 716 cases. In 2007, just before the epidemic began, there were 1537 cases. While doctors will say better diagnosis is part of the reason, the other part is that many people, mainly adults, are not immunised and it is highly contagious. Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital infectious diseases expert Dr Michael Nissen says people are not aware of the time limits on the vaccine. ``Even if you have had a shot, or even whooping cough itself, the immunity lasts only ten years,'' he says. ``So we have a case of adults with low immunity possibly giving it to young children.'' It's the reason AMA president Dr Gino Pecoraro had his whooping cough booster shot last week, during a tour around Queensland that was, in part, to raise awareness of the disease. ``I'm an obstetrician and I'm around babies all the time and we are in the middle of an epidemic,'' he says.'' ``Queensland is running higher than any other state.'' Queensland Health communicable diseases director Dr Christine Selvey expects the number of cases of whooping cough to hit 7000 before the end of the year and says it is only ``sheer luck'' that the Sunshine State has not recorded a death in 2010, but it has claimed five babies in the past 20 months. Between 1993 and 2005 there were 18 deaths - 16 of the babies less than a year old. It also concerns Dr Selvey that pockets of Queensland have low immunisation rates, which is why the Government has introduced a pertussis booster shot for all Year 10 students. ``The immunisation program is a victim of its own success,'' she says. ``People just don't see death from these diseases any more.'' Page 63 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

At four weeks of age Dana McCaffery was too young to be vaccinated and probably caught the fatal pertussis bacterium from an adult or child in a far northern New South Wales region notorious for low immunisation rates. Dana was airlifted to Brisbane's Mater Hospital but nothing could stop the toxins that attacked her immune system and heart. Dana's father Dave explains his and his wife Toni's overwhelming horror at their baby daughter's death. ``We cry ourselves to sleep with memories of our daughter coughing until she couldn't breathe, attached to a ventilator, going into cardiac arrest and holding her bruised and swollen body after her heart stopped,'' he says. ``We were inconsolable as we left our baby in the hospital morgue and drove home from Brisbane with an empty baby capsule.'' The Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast hinterland have the lowest rates of vaccination in the state between eight and 18 per cent of parents believe their children will be harmed by vaccines. Generations ago, children regularly died of preventable diseases, such as whooping cough. In 1901, before clean water and mass immunisation, one in 12 babies didn't make it to the age of one. Now it's one in 200. Most of us are spared this tragedy because of the success of the mass vaccination program. It's called herd immunity and with 95 per cent of the population vaccinated, we can prevent epidemics of measles, whooping cough and chicken pox - all highly transmissible diseases, says Professor Robert Booy from the National Centre for Immunisation and Research Surveillance. ``At present we have 92 per cent of the population vaccinated on average but there are areas that don't have that rate and if you have a community with more than 10 per cent not vaccinated, that increases the risk,'' he says. Pockets of southeast Queensland, like the Sunshine and Gold Coast hinterlands, have rates as low as 88 per cent. And a trip down to the Byron shire may end up giving you more than a suntan. One in five parents has registered as conscientious objectors to immunisation and refuse to immunise their children. It was the hotspot of the whooping cough epidemic that started in 2008. The Australian Vaccination Network opposes vaccinations for children but its spokeswoman Meryl Dorey denies the organisation encourages parents not to vaccinate their children. She does, however, say ``the Government is paying a bounty to doctors to push vaccines''. And she talks about children being ``collateral damage'' as a result. Professor Booy dismisses any suggestion that children may have died as a result of being vaccinated. ``The bottom line is we don't have any evidence of children dying after vaccination but we definitely do see children dying from vaccine preventable diseases,'' he says. The debate is an emotional one for the McCafferys. Time has done little to ease the pain of their daughter Dana's awful death. They say their grief has been enormously compounded by the actions of the network. On March 12 last year Ms Dorey tried to get Dana's medical records from NSW Health. It was the day before the four-week-old's funeral. ``All I did was contact the Department of Health because I wanted to know if her whooping cough was a laboratory diagnosis, because it might not have been whooping cough,'' Ms Dorey says. The McCafferys see it differently. ``It was such an invasion of privacy,'' Mrs McCaffery says. Page 64 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

``They were trying to disprove Dana did not die from pertussis, it was so disrespectful.'' Babies rely on the ``cocooning'' of the adults and children around them to shield them from whooping cough. Some 90 per cent of adults are not immunised or covered because the shots wear off after 10 years. The McCafferys are expecting another baby in February. ``We know everyone around us will have booster shots,'' Mrs McCaffery says. ``Dave will take time off work and we will cocoon our baby and not go out.'' Dr Pecoraro says vaccinate and be vigilant and if you are about to have a baby, get everyone around you to have a booster shot. WHOOPING COUGH DESCRIPTION Whooping cough, also known as pertussi, is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It can affect babies, children, adolescents and adults. For adolescents and adults the infection may only cause an irritating, persistent cough. It can be life-threatening for babies and young children, particularly those not fully protected by vaccination. During coughing attacks, a baby or child's breathing can be obstructed and they may become blue or stop breathing. SYMPTOMS It may start like a cold, with a runny nose, sneezing and tiredness, and then the characteristic cough develops. These coughing bouts can be severe and frightening, and may end with a crowing noise (the whoop). This occurs as air is drawn back into the chest, and can be followed by vomiting or gagging. Bouts of coughing may continue for many weeks even after treatment. Infants under six months, vaccinated children, adolescents and adults often don't have the typical whoop. TRANSMISSION It is highly infectious and can spread to other people by an infected person coughing and sneezing. The infection can also be passed on through direct contact with infected secretions from the mouth or nose. The time between exposure to the bacteria and getting sick is usually seven to 10 days, but can be up to three weeks. A person is most infectious in the early stages of their illness. Unless treated with antibiotics, a person is regarded as infectious for three weeks after the cough began. TREATMENT Treatment is a full course of antibiotics. Antibiotics need to be given within 21 days of the start of general symptoms or within 14 days of the start of coughing. Some people who have had close contact with an infected person may need to take antibiotics to prevent infection. This includes people at high risk of serious complications (for example, children aged less than one year who are not fully vaccinated and women near the end of their pregnancy) and others who live or work with people at risk. CONTROL Infected people should stay away from work, school, preschool and childcare until they have had at least five days of their course of antibiotics or until 21 days after the cough began. If children who have had less than three doses of the vaccine are in close contact with an infected person, they should stay away from preschool and childcare until they have taken a full course of antibiotics or for 14 days after their last exposure. PREVENTION Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent whooping cough. The vaccine is recommended and Page 65 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

available free for: * All children at 2, 4 and 6 months of age and 4 years of age. Vaccines due at 2 months of age can be given from 6 weeks, and those due at 4 years can be given from 3 years 6 months; and * Year 10 students (booster). * A booster is also recommended for any adults who haven't had a booster, particularly parents planning a pregnancy, or as soon as the baby is born, and anyone caring for babies and young children. Source: Queensland Health Document SNDMAL0020101106e6b70003q

Page 66 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

L e t

e r

News and Features - Letters Letters 645 words 2 September 2010 The Sydney Morning Herald SMHH First 12 English 2010 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. Churches' view of families an insult I wonder if those in the NSW Council of Churches who say "every child has a right to a mother and a father" to argue against same-sex adoption have any idea how much of an insult that is ("Churches get opt-out point on same-sex adoption bill", August 31). Not only to single mothers and fathers, but to the thousands of decent, stable and rational citizens who are products of atypical family compositions. I would have thought church representatives would feel sufficiently ill at ease to refrain from comment on what has the greatest adverse effect on children, but it seems their arrogance knows few bounds. I did very well with just a mother. But if she had decided to take on a female partner after my father drank himself into obscurity, I am confident it could not have been any worse than the years previous. John Long Caringbah Why does Verity Firth want to "expand the pool of potential adoptive parents" when there are many more heterosexual couples eager to adopt than available children ("Same-sex couples face injustice on adoption", September 1)? There were only 20 local adoptions in NSW last year. There has been no long-term research on the effects on children of growing up with same-sex parents, and NSW should not embark on a massive experiment on children in the name of gay rights. The proponents of gay adoption use only examples of known adoption (where an existing parent has a same-sex partner). Family Court parental responsibility orders and will drafting will deal with their concerns. But what about when the child is to get two new parents? Give them a chance to receive the distinctive roles of a mother and father. Adoption is about the best interests of a child, not adults' wants. Polly Seidler Darlinghurst Same-sex couple adoption is about the rights of all children. Those who oppose a same-sex partner adopting their partner's child are denying that child's right to certainty. If something happens to the legal parent, there is no guarantee that child will remain with the person they know and love as a parent. Regardless of views on sexuality, that can only be an awful outcome. Samantha Chung Newtown Unflattering light Ian Morwood (Letters, July 5) spoke of sexual and emotional abuse he experienced at the hands of a parish priest at least once a month over a four-year period in his youth. He argued the $25,000 he received at the hearing of the Catholic compensation panel chaired by Susan Crennan, QC, was a fraction of amounts received in similar cases in the US and Ireland. Now we read $850,000 has been offered to a young woman to settle a sexual harassment - not a sexual abuse - case ("Fraser-Kirk rejected $850,000 offer from David Jones", September 1). This means either the church's compensation is "indefensible", as Morwood argued, or the settlement sum offered has been a serious miscalculation. I suggest the church stands damned by its miserly and insincere treatment of those abused in its institutions. Meg Wallace Gosford Ignorance abounds Page 67 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network says she made "honest mistakes out of ignorance rather than fraudulence" ("Copyright breaches land group in trouble", September 1). Are we to believe that the outrageous claims her groups appear to make have also been out of ignorance? That would explain a lot. Peter Haggarty Cranebrook The queen is dead I had never heard of theology referred to as the "queen of the sciences" until five minutes ago (Letters, September 1). Now I have checked, I know why; theology has not been regarded as the queen of the sciences since the Middle Ages, for obvious reasons. Brad Fuller Macksville Document SMHH000020100901e69200059

Page 68 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

o x o n

a i

e d

d e l

v e r

u n i

s a t

o n

a w

a r

e n e s s :

p a r

e n t

Roxon failed to deliver immunisation awareness: parents Steve Cannane 560 words 27 July 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation Transcripts ABCTRS English (c) 2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The parents of a child who died of whooping cough say the Federal Health Minister has failed to deliver a promised immunisation awareness campaign. Toni and Dave McCaffery say Nicola Roxon wrote to them more than 12 months ago, suggesting that a national strategy would be up and running by the end of 2009. The McCaffery's live in a relatively low immunisation area on the NSW North Coast. They've told Lateline the promised program has failed to materialise. Steve Cannane reports. STEVE CANNANE, REPORTER: Toni and Dave McCaffery want to make sure no-one else goes through the pain they've suffered. Since their daughter Dana died in March last year, they've been lobbying governments for an immunisation education campaign. TONI MCCAFFERY, PARENT: We've been promised by three consecutive NSW Health ministers, we've been promised by Nicola Roxon. All of the Health ministers of Australia got together at two ministers' conferences to agree to doing a national review on education and prevention of pertussis and to launch a campaign. The last time they announced that was in September last year. Nothing has happened. STEVE CANNANE: Dana McCaffery was too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough, the disease that killed her. Her parents were unaware there were low vaccination rates in their neighbourhood. TONI MCCAFFERY: When Dana was born it was the highest rates of notification anywhere in the state; it was seven times what it was the previous year. We didn't get one warning. We didn't even get a warning sticker. That's why we spoke up, because my daughter was the third baby air-lifted to intensive care in three weeks and there were two babies the week afterwards. STEVE CANNANE: Ken McLeod took one of the complaints against the anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network, to the Healthcare Complaints Comission. Today he told ABC Radio a Government vaccination campaign had been put on hold while market research was being conducted. KEN MCLEOD, COMPLAINANT TO HCCC: It's not the job of people like me to counteract the propaganda from the anti-vaccers, it's the job of government, it's the job of our Health ministers and our senior bureaucrats to do that and they have been conspicuous by their absence. STEVE CANNANE: In a statement to Lateline, the Health Minister said tonight: (female voiceover): "Following agreement reached between Health ministers last September, the Commonwealth is currently in the process of researching the most effective ways to promote the childhood whooping cough vaccination message with a view to conducting an effective national awareness campaign." STEVE CANNANE: The HCCC yesterday released a public warning about the Australian Vaccination Network. As Lateline revealed two weeks ago, the HCCC found the AVN had been providing inaccurate and misleading information about vaccination to parents. So far, the AVN has failed to comply with the HCCC's findings that it label its website as providing antivaccination information. MERYL DOREY, AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NETWORK: We do not agree that the HCCC has any jurisdiction over us and we have been telling this from the very beginning and we are seeking legal advice on this issue. STEVE CANNANE: The HCCC has no power to force the AVN to publish a disclaimer. Page 69 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Steve Cannane, Lateline. Document ABCTRS0020100727e67r000e1

Page 70 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

n o w

n k n o w

n s :

n f

u e n z a

Known Unknowns: Influenza BY MALCOLM KNOX 3,864 words 1 April 2010 The Monthly THEMON English Copyright 2010. The Monthly Pty Ltd. At the outset of the 2010 flu season, 16 million vials of the vaccine for H1N1, also known as swine flu, lay unused. The biggest vaccination program in our countrys history, costing an estimated $120 million, triggered a wave of inaction. The federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, sees this inertia as the palpable cost of complacency. Since the vaccines arrival on 1 October last year, Ms Roxon, backed by the major voices in our health system, including the Australian Medical Association, has been urging Australians to take the injection. By the end of January, only 27%, or 6 million people, had listened, a figure considered so low that it prompted the federal Oppositions health spokesperson, Peter Dutton, to call for a review of the governments commitment to buy 21 million doses from the pharmaceutical company CSL. Not even the alarming news that by the end of 2009 about 10,000 Americans had died from the virus and 22 million had been infected was enough to send Australians to their doctors. If the take-up rate does not increase markedly this autumn, the program will become an embarrassment for the government and a possible public-health catastrophe. But our relationship with influenza is unique among all illnesses and nothing about it has ever been simple. Although it is an everyday virus, there is something about influenza that inspires awe. This microscopic hard-shelled parcel of genetic matter lives in aquatic birds, which have been flying it around in first-class comfort for generations. It is coughed into the air and across the species barrier and lodges in the lungs of mammals such as pigs and humans, where it becomes the common flu, our most cited cause for staying home from work. This bird-borne cocktail brings with it our muscle pain, headaches, chesty coughs, sore throats and fevers. It also incites some of our deepest fears, because influenza is often not just a passing illness, but a killer. More than 200,000 times per year in the US, flu develops into a lethal cascade of symptoms that require hospitalisation; death from flu, via pneumonia and organ failure, is fever-racked agony. It kills the young and the old, the pregnant and the chronically weakened; occasionally it juggles its genetic material into a new combination and kills millions. Because flu begets fear, it can become political. Public preparedness for the flu season is a matter for the state. Vaccination is argued over, not just as a question of available dosage, but on quasi-religious terms. Due to the centrality of fear, the public argument over influenza takes the same shape as the argument over terrorism, or climate change, or immigration, or the economy: it is as much about belief as it is about scientific assessment and says much about our disposition toward fear itself. The mysteries of the virus itself are genuine rather than warped by ideology, though. The worlds foremost influenza experts know remarkably little; they have not even known that flu was a virus for very long. To inform us about its evolutionary history, its human history and what it might do next, scientists are piecing together a narrative from the barest scraps. Great resources have been marshalled for solving the flu mystery, yet most of our knowledge is contingently held. It is likely, says Dr Keith Horsley, that nobody in Australia had the flu before July 1820. Horsley, a former medical officer with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, has been working on a book about historic flu pandemics in Australia. There was a good reason Australia was flu-free before 1820, he argues: The ships were too slow. As far as we know there was no flu in the Aboriginal population, and among the Europeans, if influenza broke out aboard a ship it would have passed through its cycle and no longer been contagious by the end of the voyage here. The flu virus can only live in humans for days or, at most, weeks. It needed shorter voyages than the early sea journeys that took months to get to Australia, and Dr Horsley says it probably came after island-hopping through the South Pacific to New Zealand, and then someone from New Zealand could have infected someone here. The evidence is circumstantial we suspect a New Zealand origin because a flu contagion could have survived the four-day Tasman voyage but the consequences were real. It decimated the Aboriginal people, who had already lost 20% of their population in the smallpox outbreak after 1789, Dr Horsley says, and it also laid low the white population, who were immunologically naive. Immunological naivety (where resistance to viruses has not been developed) is at the heart of every public health debate over flu. Opponents of vaccination maintain that getting the flu this year is an insurance against getting a worse bout next year. The first wave of swine flu, which hit Australia last winter, has either prepared us for a less-severe second wave or left us vulnerable because of its mildness we dont yet know which. All we can be sure of is that resistance is a product of exposure. Thirty-eight years ago the South Page 71 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Atlantic island of Tristan de Cunha was a human laboratory of immunological naivety. Some 300 inhabitants of the island evacuated to England after a volcanic eruption in 1961, then grew homesick and returned in 1963. For the next nine years they were isolated from diseases affecting the rest of the world. Then, says John Mathews, a population health professor at the University of Melbourne, an outbreak of influenza infected 96% of the population, a rate never seen before or since. That says very strongly that if you havent seen any influenza in the population, people become highly susceptible to it, he concludes. The Tristan de Cunha outbreak of the virus known as H3N2 was not particularly lethal. But a similar yet fatal unintended experiment on an isolated population had taken place in 191819, when, says Professor Mathews, virtually the entire population of Western Samoa fell ill with influenza, and as many as 20% died. In Alaska, another isolated place, the mortality rate [for the same outbreak] was even higher. Throughout the rest of the world although 20 million people died in the pandemic the mortality rate was a much lower 0.2%. From these experiences we can conclude that any sort of flu provides some protection against later exposure. * The years 191819 are the most critical to our knowledge of flu, and the pandemic from that time still forms the basis of our knowledge of how an outbreak shapes itself. The 1918 outbreak, nicknamed Spanish flu though we are uncertain of its origins spread in military camps and on troop ships at the end of World War I, reaching Australia in early 1919. In January of that year, it broke out almost simultaneously in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney. Its onset was devastating, says Dr Horsley. Many people were, literally, healthy today, gone tomorrow. More than 12,000 Australians died from the flu in the 1919 pandemic. Symptoms included severe forms of common flu afflictions, as well as gastrointestinal bleeding and haemorrhaging from the nose, ears, anus and vagina. It killed so swiftly that newspapers reported the disease not as flu but as the Black Death. So little was known about viruses that the Spanish flu was widely thought to be caused by bacteria. Uniquely, the 191819 flu killed populations in an M-wave; that is, it decimated those in their early twenties as well as the vulnerable infants and elderly who are generally most susceptible. The reasons are believed to be twofold. Firstly, the Spanish flu created a cytokine storm in the body of the sufferer. Cytokines are pro-inflammatory chemicals produced by influenza-infected cells as part of the bodys immune response. Among healthy young adults, the cytokine response was over-stimulated, leading to inflammations that closed down vital organs. Secondly, complacency was believed to be highest among young adults. While the wearing of masks was widespread, and cinemas, restaurants, clubs and train stations were soon deserted, young adults were the last to change their social habits, which meant they continued to spread the contagion. Young men contracted the illness more often than their female counterparts, probably because they were more likely to be exposed to it at work or at the pub. Among the general populace, ignorance created its own kind of storm. Leaflets propounded theories triggered by ideology and fear: the flu was a visitation from God, punishment for the Russian Revolution or a result of excessive ozone. Groups calling themselves firefighters would rush to the scene of an influenza outbreak and measure ozone levels. Quack cures abounded, from Bonox and tobacco (which the cigarette companies did little to dispel) to snake oils such as Dr Morses Indian Root Pills. Inhaling machines were set up in public places, such as the lobbies of department stores, so shoppers could breathe in a powder disinfectant before entering. It is likely, says Dr Horsley, that the machines actually helped to spread the virus. Although the level of precaution did limit Australias mortality rate to below the global rate, Dr Horsley says that if Australia ever came close to war between the states, it was in 1919. If New South Wales had a standing army, it would have declared war on Victoria. New South Wales police were stationed along the Murray to enforce the closure of the border, as the government believed the flu was migrating north from Melbourne. (In fact it was radiating out from all of the eastern port cities.) Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia soon closed their borders too; food shortages ensued, and trade, tourism and the economically vital sport of horseracing came to a standstill. More than 600 South Australians who had been stranded in Victoria when the border closed were taken on a special train to Adelaide and put up in a tent city on Jubilee Oval for four days. By then, ironically, the flu had broken out elsewhere in Adelaide, and it is possible that Camp Jubilee was the most flu-free location in the city. While the Australian Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet whose later virological work led to the development of a flu vaccine is justly famous for his contribution to this area, John Cumpstons work during and after the 191819 pandemic was no less influential. A former quarantine and military doctor and a specialist on the 1789 smallpox epidemic, Cumpston was at the forefront of the public health response to the 191819 flu pandemic. When Australian servicemen returned from World War I and were put into quarantine against the flu outbreak, Cumpston personally supervised them. He played a key role in delaying the arrival of the virus until 1919. In 1921, Cumpston was appointed Australias first Commonwealth director-general of health. As well as being a doctor and administrator, Cumpston was, says Dr Horsley, a historical epidemiologist of particular fanaticism. While assuming the highest position in the new health bureaucracy, Cumpston was also combing library records; from an 1834 clipping from the Australian Almanack & Sydney Page 72 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

Directory he began to compile a record of the 1820 arrival of flu in Australia, which he wrote up in his book Health and Disease in Australia: a History (1928). Cumpston also wrote about Australias first large-scale flu pandemic, the Russian flu episode of 188990, when 2362 deaths were recorded. He found that the lethality of the Russian flu was increased by the confusion of the populace. Nobody knew how the illness moved from one person to another: people speculated that it stemmed from diet, sunspots and ozone. In a similar pattern to the 1919 pandemic, the virus spread right through Sydney within just a week of its arrival from Russia and the first cases were not correctly diagnosed as flu. The patterns Cumpston was able to observe in the Russian and Spanish flu pandemics remain central to the current study of flu. Flu spreads so rapidly (and in fatal cases kills so swiftly: usually within about ten days) that quick identification remains a problem. Dr Barry Gilbert, a public health physician who consults to government and business, says that last June he was talking to the Australian Industry Group about swine flu and nobody had heard of it. It had last been seen in the 1970s. Yet within days it was known about in every household. Flu hits that suddenly. * Diseases live in a Darwinian kind of world and the Spanish flus greatest enemy, in the end, was itself. The survival advantage for any virus is that it has lower lethality, Dr Horsley says. Flu survives and prospers when the carrier goes out in public and spreads it. But the 191819 flu killed, so by 1920, it had effectively burnt itself out. It was not until the turn of this century that the genetic nature of the 191819 flu was conclusively identified. Frozen bodies of victims were disinterred and pathology slides were produced at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. They showed that the virus was H1N1; the worst pandemic of last century was a cousin of what we know today as swine flu. * Those Hs and Ns may need explaining. There are three types of the influenza virus, of which one, type A, is most relevant to humans. The virus is spherical, about 100 nanometres in diameter, and contains eight genes that act independently of each other and are collectively coded for 11 different proteins. Most viruses, by contrast, have just one gene that performs all the viruss functions. Flu is comparatively complex in both structure and behaviour. There is no Linnaean evolutionary tree for viruses, says leading Australian virologist Professor Gregory Tannock, of Melbournes Macfarlane Burnet Institute, so we cannot say with any certainty where the flu virus evolved or what animals hosted it in the distant past. Its tempting to speculate that, as birds are phylogenetically descended from dinosaurs, the giant reptiles were flu carriers. But there is no evidence to say that flu, in its current viral form, has been around that long. Genetically, influenza is an RNA virus (like polio), whereas many common viruses (such as herpes) are composed of DNA material. One of the characteristics distinguishing the flu virus, says Professor Tannock, is its complicated method of replication, in which carbon copies of genes are produced rather than the genes themselves being reproduced. Because this copying process is imperfect, the consequent errors produce mutated versions of the virus, which will have an initial resistance to existing antibodies. The viruss hard outer shell contains glycoproteins in different combinations; these create flu variants that each have different symptoms and their own contagion rates. The main glycoproteins are haemagglutinin and neuraminidase: the now infamous H and N. Haemagglutinin helps the virus bind and break into host cells, while neuraminidase assists the spread of viral material into other cells. The current H1N1 virus (swine flu) is a mixture of avian flus that passed through pigs to humans. Though related to the Spanish flu of 191819, it is more complicated, with a triple re-assortment of genes including two pig genes and one bird gene, says Professor Tannock. Other combinations are H2N2, which caused the Asian flu of 1957; H3N2, which caused the Hong Kong flu outbreak of 1968; and H5N1, commonly known as bird flu, which is a matter of serious concern worldwide because of its lethality. Although H5N1 has seldom crossed the species barrier to humans, it is believed to be fatal to more than 50% of those who contract it. The infection and mortality rates of these flu types are measured against the background, or ambient, rates of seasonal flu, which thrives in cooler weather and spreads at the onset of each winter. * The weakness in our preparation for flu is in what Donald Rumsfeld might have called the known unknowns. A virus can appear out of left field that we dont have a vaccine for, says Professor Tannock. The time lag in developing a vaccine is usually about six months, and in that time [the virus] can do a lot of damage. There is some work being done on developing universal vaccines, but its doubtful that those will be able to counteract a new flu virus. The 2009 swine flu, the first wave of which hit Australia last winter, appears to have had a similar mortality rate to seasonal flu. There was already a good deal of cross-immunity because the virus was Page 73 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

similar to seasonal flu, says Professor Mathews. The optimistic scenario for the future is that because most people in most parts of the world are exposed to seasonal flu, while the virus can be contagious, future pandemics wont have the severe mortality rates of the 191819 flu. The pessimistic scenario is that something like the H5N1 virus could cross the species barrier in high numbers. The H5N1 virus is believed to have killed only about 263 people, mostly in South-East Asia. It can spread from birds to humans, but is not believed to have the ability to spread from person to person, because, Professor Mathews says, the molecule grabs onto the host cell and is adapted to spreading among birds, which have a receptor for it, but the vast majority of human cells dont have that receptor and so the species barrier is hard to negotiate. The alarming prospect is if the virus mutates in a way that enables it to spread from human to human. The 191819 outbreak is still the benchmark against which contemporary factors are measured. The globalising effect of World War I and the mass movement of returned soldiers by sea in late 1918 was humanitys first experience of such rapid migration. But we are much more highly connected now, says Professor Mathews. Due to air travel, everyone is only a couple of handshakes from London and Washington. What this means is that a virus can spread extremely quickly, but it also means that immunity spreads quicker. While H5N1 flu is obviously lethal, some milder flus pose a greater societal threat, Professor Mathews says. These flus can spread through the population without showing symptoms. Therefore people wont stay home and will spread it, until it finds high-risk groups. This is what took place in the winter of 2009. It is believed that 191 Australians mostly belonging to the highest-risk groups died from the effects of H1N1 last year. They were not the very young and the very old, but were rather Indigenous people, who are at risk because of isolation and the immunological naivety that is a consequence of this, as well as the health effects of poverty; pregnant women, whose vital organs are already under the mechanical pressure of an enlarged uterus and the immunological pressure of pregnancy; and people already suffering from chronic diseases. The elderly, Professor Mathews speculates, probably got off lightly because the antigens in this new virus could have been recycled from when [they] were young, and their bodies had already seen them and developed a relative immunity. * With so much to fear about influenza, you might expect that Australians would have rushed to their doctors after 1 October 2009 when the swine flu vaccine became available to every one of us. Yet the relationship between fear and inaction is always closer and more perplexing than we would like to think. Dr Barry Gilbert says, the biggest issue is the apathy of the population and its wilful desire for ignorance. Maybe its the inherent optimism of humanity, but its astonishing how much indifference, even hostility, there is towards the vaccine at a time when we are the only country who can supply a swine flu vaccination to every man, woman and child. Sometimes the opposition does not come from apathy or indifference. The anti-vaccination movement is strong in the Byron Bay area of northern NSW, where the Australian Vaccination Network lobby group is based. A Canberra doctor, Ian Griffith, who has advised the federal government on pandemic prevention, attacked the AVN last November, saying: Id like to put all those unvaccinated people into a leper colony, because theyre a threat to me and my children. Dr Gilbert says such groups have a barrow to push. Meryl Dorey, the past president of AVN, has said the groups opposition to the vaccine is based on doubts about its effectiveness and safety. She cites a study by the British-based Cochrane Collaboration (an Australian branch of which, based at Monash Medical Centre, is funded by the federal government), which, she says, showed low effectiveness of flu vaccines among children and the elderly. The safety concern relates to the swine flu vaccines mercury content and anecdotal reports of pregnant women suffering miscarriages after taking it. Our concern is that the vaccines are not studied fully before being released into the population and then the claims of adverse reactions are not taken seriously, Dorey says. There has been a panic over swine flu here, and there doesnt seem to be a lot of logic in what the federal government is doing. We take heart from the low take-up of the vaccine, because perhaps it shows peoples real doubts. If the take-up remains low, Nicola Roxon is going to have to explain why the government has spent so much money on a knee-jerk reaction. The view of virologists such as Gregory Tannock is that the current swine flu will prove to be only a small part of an ongoing portrait of the virus, which will take decades to put together. The situation is always moving quickly around us, but we are quite blessed in having more handles on the virus now than we used to. Professor Mathews is also sanguine: My guess is that the [current swine flu] wont be too much of a problem. However, he believes the production of data from hospitals and death certificates is too slow and imprecise. Ive told the government that they should expedite the process of pulling data together, because they cant respond quickly or appropriately if they dont have a clearer picture of whats going on. Page 74 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

For Barry Gilbert, the issue is one of wise risk-management. We had a first wave of swine flu last year, and it was quite mild. In public health terms that was a tragedy, because it lulled people into complacency. History has shown that second waves, if the virus has adapted sufficiently, can produce severe illness and death among a great many people. The next wave might or might not cause that level of sickness, but I believe the outcome will be appallingly bad if we have the expected rate of mortality while millions of doses of the vaccine lie idle. Document THEMON0020110919e641000a4

Page 75 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

e m

o r

a l

e r

e c t

e d

o r

b a c k p a c k e r

Memorial erected for backpacker 408 words 27 December 2010 The Northern Star APNNOS Main 15 English Copyright 2010 APN Newspapers Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved Simply the most expensive NORTHERN Rivers land prices officially exceeded those of Brisbane, Adelaide, Launceston and Perth, and were the most expensive outside Sydney and Melbourne, it wasreported in February. The shockfigures, showing median residential land value in Richmond-Tweed was $255,000 (compared with Brisbane, $220,000), were given in a Residential Land Report from the Housing Industry Association and RP Data, which put the Sunshine Coast at number two at $241,500 and the Gold Coast a close third on $240,275. Soup Kitchen milestone THE Lismore Soup Kitchen celebrated 20 years of helping the homeless. Kitchen patron Reverend Tim Costello attended an event at the Winsome Hotel, now the centre of the Soup Kitchen's operations, andpalatial' compared with the previous inadequate, tin shed venue. Simone remembered ON the fifth anniversary of the murder of German backpacker Simone Strobel, who had been staying at a Lismore caravan park with her boyfriend Tobias, his sister and another friend, we noted the case had still not yet been solved. Tobias Suckfuell, who had returned to Germany and from there headed to a new life in the South African town of Wilderness, was the prime suspect in the case. He had declined to return to Lismore for the inquest into Simone's death in October 2007. Simone's Lismore friends erected a handcrafted granite bench, inscribed with her favourite quote, opposite the murder scene on the site of the old Italian bocce court on the corner of Dawson and Uralba streets in Lismore. The quote is: Defenceless I will be, and vulnerable, I know, on the open sea and protected only by love, your love.' Investigation of anti-vaccination campaigner THE NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing announced an investigation into the Bangalow-based ed Australian Vaccination Network which campaigned against the vaccination of babies to protect them from deadly diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough and polio. Charity inspectors were to examine the organisation's records and interview staff to determine if they had been operating in breach of the Charitable Fundraising Act of 1991. AVN president Meryl Dorey admitted its fund-raising authority had expired but the group had been granted an extension. The AVN was ordered by the Health Care Complaints Commission to publish disclaimers on its website. Its authority to fundraise was revoked in October. Document APNNOS0020101226e6cr0002t

Page 76 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

h e

a n t

v a c c i

n a t

o n

o b b y

b e l

e v e s

g h t

n g

o r

p e r

s o n a l

e e d o m

b u t

s e l

s h l

p u t

n g

c h i

d r

e n ' s

v e s

a t

s k ?

c k i

n g

o i

n t

Features The anti-vaccination lobby believes it is fighting for personal freedom but is it selfishly putting children's lives at risk? Sticking Point JANE HANSEN, Additional reporting by Sarah Mennie 2,440 words 5 December 2010 Sunday Mail SUNMAI 1 - State 56 English Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved THE six-month-old baby looked a picture of health - chubby, pink-cheeked, thriving. Except the little boy was unconscious with a raging temperature and - lying in the intensive care unit - was hooked up to life support. He had pneumococcal meningitis, caused by a common bacterium that crosses into the brain with often fatal consequences. It was July 2004, and I had a sick child of my own in the isolation unit next door and bore witness to this modern-day tragedy. ``He was fine yesterday, now he's hooked up to all these wires,'' I heard the mother say in disbelief to friends in the hallway of the paediatric intensive care unit. At that stage, she still had hope; a few hours later the curtains were drawn - flimsy insulation against the howls of a mother who had lost her precious baby. The little boy was one of 87 to have died nationally in 2003-04 of pneumococcal meningitis. A year later, after the January 1, 2005, introduction of the vaccination program for babies was introduced; the incidence of the disease in under-twos dropped 73 per cent nationally. Lives have been saved. Like polio and measles, it may one day be eradicated from our shores. In 1901, one in 12 babies didn't make it to age one, in the days before clean water and mass immunisation reduced childhood death. Now it's one in 200. ``In a sense, vaccination is a victim of its own success,'' says Dr Chris Ingall, a paediatrician who works on the north coast of NSW, an area with one of Australia's lowest immunisation rates. He is also the doctor who looked after four-week-old Dana McCaffery last year and remains deeply affected by her death by the preventable disease whooping cough. ``I was devastated; a tiny baby who is dying in front of your eyes and there is nothing you can do - that's why we vaccinate, we can't treat it,'' Dr Ingall says. Dana's father, Dave, does not hide the complete horror of his daughter's death. ``We cry ourselves to sleep with memories of our daughter coughing until she couldn't breathe, attached to a ventilator, going into cardiac arrest and holding her bruised and swollen body after her heart stopped. ``We were inconsolable as we left our baby in the hospital morgue and drove home with an empty baby capsule.'' Most of us are spared this tragedy because of the success of the mass vaccination program. It's called ``herd immunity'' and, with almost 95 per cent of the population vaccinated, we can prevent epidemics of preventable illnesses like measles, whooping cough and chicken pox, all highly transmissible diseases, says Sydney University infectious diseases expert Professor Robert Booy. ``At present we have 92 per cent of the population vaccinated on average, but there are areas that don't have that rate and, if you have a community with more than 10 per cent not vaccinated, that increases the risk,'' he says. Green rolling hills of Mullumbimby in the Byron shire have always attracted alternative types. The Page 77 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

volcanic soils provide fertile ground for bananas, palm trees, marijuana - and conspiracy theories. Here, a fifth of parents have registered as conscientious objectors to immunisation and refuse to immunise their children. The area has the worst rate of immunisation in the state, with 21 per cent philosophically against it. In nearby Byron Bay 16 per cent are. ``We chose to live in this community because of the broadminded people, but in this case they've got it wrong - immunisation is not an evil,'' says Mullumbimby mother Roesheen Ritchie. At the height of the 2008 epidemic, her three-year-old fully immunised son contracted whooping cough. The vaccine is only 85 per cent successful. ``I was outraged. Here's Kai, fully immunised and he gets this awful disease because of the luxury of others choosing not to vaccinate due to bad science,'' the business consultant says. Some in the community believe that the mass immunisation program is a covert operation between government and big pharmaceutical companies for the sole purpose of making money. Worse still, according to opponents of vaccination, they are harming children. ``We are having too many people make informed choices not to vaccinate, and the medical and pharmaceutical industries don't like it,'' says expatriate American Meryl Dorey, of the Australian Vaccination Network. She insists her network does not tell parents not to vaccinate; she does, however, say ``the Government is paying a bounty to doctors to push vaccines''. And she talks about children being ``collateral damage'' as a result. ``Everything from brain damage to autism to ADD, ADHD, diabetes, food allergies and death, I have met with many families whose children have died after vaccines,'' she says. Vaccination Information South Australia president Kathy Scarborough agrees, saying vaccines aren't worth the risk. ``This is a serious health issue when you've got 18-month-old babies, toddlers, who are now asthmatic, who are now diabetic, who are now diagnosed autistic,'' Ms Scarborough says. ``The evidence in medical journals linking all of those conditions with vaccines is overwhelming.'' But SA Health chief medical officer Professor Paddy Phillips says this just isn't true. ``The autism link has been completely debunked, it's a myth, it's just not true, it's false and people are lying when they go out and say that,'' he says. And, according to Professor Phillips, the ``hard evidence'' is that vaccinating does far more good than harm. ``Vaccinations are one of the most important public health interventions that have been developed to help protect the community since sanitation, running water and sewers,'' he says. ``We, in societies that have high vaccination rates, have forgotten the impact of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and smallpox. ``These are devastating diseases that kill and maim thousands - if not millions - of people every year i n areas where they don't have vaccinations,'' Professor Phillips says. But Ms Scarborough still isn't convinced and what worries her most is the lack of information available to parents about possible adverse reactions to vaccines. ``If you pick up literature that promotes vaccines in surgeries and health clinics, you won't find an adverse event listed. People aren't forewarned,'' she says. ``Adverse reactions are severely underreported.'' And Ms Scarborough says this is because most parents won't recognise an adverse reaction if their child has one. Page 78 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

``People don't know that when their child screams in a high pitch or has a fever or develops an ear infection or develops a rash, they are reportable (adverse) events that people are not forewarned about.'' Ms Scarborough says she realised people were wary of people - like herself - who questioned vaccines. ``People think that we are some kind of fringe lunatics or something,'' she says. ``All of the information comes from medical journals, out of their own mouth, from government bulletins.'' The Health Care Complaints Commission investigated the online activities of Ms Dorey's network and found the group was dangerously selective in the information it distributes. The HCCC issued this public warning in July: ``The AVN website: provides information that is solely antivaccination, contains information that is incorrect and misleading and quotes selectively from research to suggest that vaccination may be dangerous.'' It also requested the AVN post the warning on their website, which Ms Dorey refused to do. Some of the research Ms Dorey believes in has been universally discredited. In 1998, British medico Andrew Wakefield hypothesised that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine possibly caused autism. The study was published in The Lancet, but this year - after serious conflicts of interest were revealed and proven - the respected medical journal withdrew the paper. Dr Wakefield failed to disclose accepting $90,000 from lawyers representing autistic children trying to sue vaccine companies. He also failed to disclose he had a patent pending on a vaccine that was a rival to the MMR vaccine. In May, he was struck off the UK medical register. His causal link has been disproved several times. In Denmark, a study of 440,000 children vaccinated with the MMR were compared to 96,000 who were not; there was no difference in the incidence of autism. A Swedish study and a Finnish study found the same, but Ms Dorey discounts all of it. ``His study has been confirmed,'' she says defiantly. ``There's a new term now: he's been `Wakefielded' - he has been used as a scapegoat.'' Ms Dorey plans to have a host of Australian vaccines tested in US laboratories. ``We're looking for heavy metals and proteins,'' she says. The debate is an emotional one for the McCafferys. Time has done little to ease the pain of their daughter's awful death. The couple, from Lennox Head, a NSW coastal village near the Queensland border, say their grief has been enormously compounded by the actions of the AVN. Ms Dorey tried to get Dana's medical records from NSW Health on March 12, 2009 - the day before her funeral. ``All I did was contact the Department of Health: I wanted to know if her whooping cough was a laboratory diagnosis, because it might not have been whooping cough,'' Ms Dorey explains. The McCaffreys see it differently. ``They were trying to disprove Dana did not die from pertussis. It was so disrespectful,'' Dana's mum, Toni, said. ''It was such an invasion of privacy.'' Whooping cough, or pertussis, is deadly to babies, especially those under the age of six weeks. It has claimed five babies in the past 20 months, including a five-week-old SA boy in September. The little boy wasn't vaccinated, being one-week shy of the earliest time he could have been protected from the disease. There have been 24 deaths nationally from whooping cough since 1993 - 16 infants were aged under 12 months. Page 79 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

In SA, 6414 cases of whooping cough have been reported so far this year, compared with just 369 reported 15 years ago. And in that time there have been six deaths recorded in the state, including three infants under two months of age. This is despite an increased vaccination rate in the state. Professor Phillips said there was a good explanation for these statistics. ``Whooping cough goes in cycles, so we see up swings and down swings and we're in an upswing,'' he says. ``And more people are getting tested because the testing is easy.'' But he warns that the incidence of whooping cough would be even higher than it currently is if less people were vaccinated. ``If we didn't have as high a vaccination rate as we do in babies and children we'd be seeing a lot more (deaths), there's absolutely no doubt about that,'' he says. For the McCafferys, the pain of losing a child will never go away although there is some good news on the horizon - they are expecting another baby in February. ``We know everyone around us will have booster shots, Dave will take time off work, and we will cocoon our baby and not go out at all,'' Toni says. FYI What to do > FOR more information on whooping cough and vaccinations, visit SA Health's website at www.sahealt h.sa.gov.au or Vaccine Information South Australia's site at www.visainfo.org.au > ANYONE who is concerned about whooping cough should seek medical attention or contact healthdirect Australia on 1800 022 222. FYI What's pertussis Pertussis (or whooping cough) is a disease caused by infection of the throat. What are the symptoms? > Pertussis usually begins just like a cold, with a runny nose, tiredness and even a mild fever. > Coughing then develops, usually in bouts, followed by a deep gasp (or "whoop"). There can be vomiting. > Pertussis can be very serious in small children. They might go blue or stop breathing during coughing attacks. > Older children and adults may have a less serious illness, with bouts of coughing that continue for weeks, regardless of treatment. How is it spread? > Pertussis is spread to other people by droplets from coughing or sneezing. > Untreated, a person with pertussis can spread it to other people for up to three weeks after the onset of coughing. > The time between exposure and getting sick is usually seven to 10 days, but can be up to three weeks. Who is at risk? > Anyone can get pertussis but people living in the same household as someone with pertussis are more likely to catch it. Page 80 of 81 2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

> Immunisation greatly reduces your risk of infection, but reinfection can occur. How is it prevented? > The vaccine does not give lifelong protection against pertussis and protection is sometimes incomplete. > Children need to be immunised at two, four and six months (the first dose can be given as early as six weeks of age). > Boosters are needed at four years and again at 15. Immunisation is available through general practitioners and some local councils. > Babies need two or three vaccinations before they are protected. For this reason, it is very important to keep people with coughing illnesses away from your baby. > Get immunised if you are an adult in close contact with small children. A vaccine for adults is available. Who else should be vaccinated? > Both parents when planning a pregnancy, or as soon as the baby is born. > Other adult household members, grandparents and carers of young children. > Adults who work with young children, especially health-care and childcare workers. If you come into close contact with someone with pertussis: > Watch out for the symptoms. If symptoms develop, see your doctor and mention your contact with pertussis. > People who have close contact with high-risk people (such as children under one year, children not fully vaccinated and women at the end of their pregnancy) and others who live or work with high-risk people may need to take antibiotics to prevent infection. If you have pertussis: > Get treated early while infectious, avoid other people and stay away from young children, childcare centres and schools. How is it diagnosed? > If a doctor thinks someone has pertussis, a swab from the the nose or a blood test may be done to help confirm the diagnosis. How is it treated? > A special antibiotic - usually either erythromycin, clarithromycin or azithromycin - is used to trea t pertussis. Coughing often continues for many weeks despite treatment. Document SUNMAI0020101204e6c50002g

Page 81 of 81

2012 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.