Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18403

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Woodhead M
Anti vaccine group found misleading
6Minutes.com 2010 July 12
http://web.archive.org/web/20101119170013/http://6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=520210

Full text:

An anti-vaccination group has been found guilty of providing misleading information on immunisation in Australia and ordered by the Health Care Complaints Commission in NSW to include disclaimers on its website.

After investigating a complaint against The Australian Vaccination Network, the HCCC has ruled that the information provided to the public by the AVN “is misleading in that often information is omitted which does not provide the reader with an accurate picture of vaccination issues.”

On its website, the AVN says the final verdict from the HCCC finds that “the AVN provides information that is misleading for the average reader by inaccurately representing information, selectively reporting information, and giving non-peer reviewed and anecdotal material the same authority as peer-reviewed literature”

The AVN’s founder, Meryl Dorey, has posted the judgment online , in which the HCCC says the AVN should include a disclaimer to this effect in a prominent position on its website, stating that the AVN should not be regarded as medical advice and that decisions to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.

The AVN is a lobby group that has used slogans such as “Love them, Protect them, Never Inject Them” to campaign against vaccine such as MMR and immunisation against childhood diseases such as pertussis.

It has been widely condemned by medical groups, including the AMA, but the AVN has labelled its critics as ‘health fascists’ and lackeys of Big Pharma.