These criminal assaults happen all the time in Australia – or, do they?

When you make a claim, you need to substantiate it. This is an ongoing problem with the anti-vaccination movement who are known to rely on anecdotes and testimonies often only backed by a recollection of something bad they heard about that happened at some stage, where and when they can’t exactly remember, but, it was criminal and it always happens.

I just received an email which prompted me to revisit an Australian Vaccination Network Facebook post, from two weeks ago.

Hmm. How much of this comment is true?

Criminal activity! It happens all the time in Australia too. It is time that people who do these things are held accountable for these assaults.

Courageous, anonymous AVN Facebook Admin B52 is making some pretty strong claims, here, right? I mean, there will be some evidence to substantiate B52’s comment, which will be produced to vindicate the outrage; and other AVN Admins will produce it, right?

The article linked by B52 is here. I’m not going to get into it, because Orac had already given it the insolence it deserves. Needless to say, it is one hell of an anti-vaccination screed extrapolated from an event which just should not happen: children should not receive a vaccine without the appropriate consent from parents or guardians, period. As Orac notes:

The mother in question, Sighle Kinney, is misguided and wrong. However, the law is the law, and the law says that she is allowed to refuse to let her daughter be vaccinated. As a result, as much as I disagree with her, I can understand why she’s upset.

But, how does this relate to us, Down Here, and, more importantly; how does the AVN portray the school vaccination program?

Here is the NSW School-Based Immunisation Program 2012. Here is the first requirement:

Free vaccine is only available to students who have a signed parental/ guardian consent form and who commence the vaccine course while they’re in Year 7 or (as described in the table above) Year 10.

So far, all good. Of course consent forms are required. This is a mandatory administrative task, as it should be. Only kids who have signed consent forms can get the vaccine; and schools are strict about this, as attested by a friend who administers vaccines to schools. This is also attested by any school administrators. But, sometimes, things don’t go to plan. Sometimes. One such case has been abused by Meryl Dorey for some years:

Meryl Dorey has been bringing out this anecdote for years

There are a variety of claims made by Meryl Dorey in the above comment. Dorey has never provided any information substantiating these claims (remember this bit). Dorey’s autism causation claim is just wrong; given the lack of occasions where this type of error happens, it is safe to say that Dorey’s claim that “mistakes will ALWAYS be made”, is wrong (regardless of CAPSLOCK); Dorey’s claim that an “entire school” was vaccinated without consent is wrong; and, Dorey’s inference that the law doesn’t “take this seriously” also is wrong, as we shall see.

Thanks to courageous, anonymous AVN Admin RR some light was finally brought to the anecdote. RR provides some substance to the anecdote; finally. It was one class, not a whole school:

You see, it’s everyone else’s fault if they can’t find the source you are deliberately and coyly refusing to post, for years.

Well, “provides” isn’t the precise word. We had to find it for ourselves, because, you know:

New court for school jabs case.

BY By Catherine Anderson.WC 151 wordsPD 22 April 1999SN Hobart Mercury … SC MRCURYPG 10LA EnglishCY (c) 1999 Davies Brothers LimitedLP

A MOTHER who is suing over the immunisation of her son without her consent is expected to transfer the legal action to a Tasmanian court. Janet Cragg, of Lutana, had lodged legal action against federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge and the Hobart City Council in the Federal Court in Hobart.

However, Mr Wooldridge has been dropped from the action in the Federal Court and yesterday leave was granted to discontinue action in that court.

Counsel for Mrs Cragg, Jonathan Nolan, of the ACT, told the court he would be proceeding against the Hobart City Council for negligence in the Supreme Court of Tasmania.
The case arose from an incident last May when 23 year 1 students at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Lenah Valley received triple antigen injections and oral polio vaccine without parental consent.

(C) 1999 Davies Brothers Limited.

So, this happened in 1998. This was fourteen years ago; so, it doesn’t happen all the time. A whole school was not vaccinated without consent. There was one class whose guardians did not receive permission slips (yes, they should not have been vaccinated without these). One mother was outraged, and believes that vaccines caused her son’s autism. This one mother took legal action (sounds like it was taken seriously, to me). This all sounds to me like Meryl Dorey has trouble getting anything right. Let’s see how she responds to courageous, anonymous AVN Admin RR’s correction (remember that substantiating your anecdotes bit from earlier, okay?):

Oh, I was mistaken with that Tasmanian “whole school” anecdote I have been using for years? Here, have another: this time we’ll change States…I’ll get back to you…

So Meryl Dorey had an intimate knowledge of this case, having been in contact with the Tasmanian mother who intitiated the legal action*. But, after all of these years Dorey couldn’t get her story straight about the outcomes preferring to continue to spread the misinformation, even after correction. This is why we need to question everything Dorey states. Often there is more to every event than she claims.

Back to the email which reminded me to revisit these events: today I received a reply from the Hobart City Council regarding my questions surrounding the events outlined in the Hobart Mercury article. There are no records on AustLII, or in the media, as to any further court cases or litigation:

Proceedings were commenced in the Federal Court, but were ultimately discontinued by the plaintiff.

Kind regards

What? That’s it? But, what about courageous, anonymous AVN Admin B52’s comment which sparked off the whole thread?

Criminal activity! It happens all the time in Australia too. It is time that people who do these things are held accountable for these assaults.

“Criminal activity!”?

– Not that anyone has seen here, and it has been before courts.

“It happens all the time in Australia”?

– Bullshit.

“It is time that people who do these things are held accountable”?

– It sounds like they were. Maybe if there had have been any evidence of injury, then, they would have faced even more sanction than a discontinued legal action.

“these assaults”?

– well, at least B52 didn’t go all vaccination is the “rape of a child” on us. That would be barking mad.

*As an amusing aside, the lawyer representing the Tasmanian mother ended up being an ex-lawyer, who has a penchant for frivolous defamation proceedings of his own, which look remarkably like a SLAPP attempt.

Update: October 11 2012

This is the ex-lawyer to whom I referred above:

__________________________

He is the same person who worked with Meryl Dorey in the attempt to sue the Government in the Human Rights Commission, in 1998, over the push to increase immunisation rates.

About reasonable hank

I'm reasonable, mostly.
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0 Responses to These criminal assaults happen all the time in Australia – or, do they?

  1. Ken McLeod says:

    What a surprise. Meryl Dorey gets the story wrong.

  2. Ken McLeod says:

    I forgot to say, “beautiful research, beautifully presented. Congratulations.

  3. kill3rtcell says:

    Nice one. Maybe the AVN should ask you to be their ‘official researcher’ or something of the sort; it would certainly help the AVN from continually lodging their collective feet in their collective mouths.

  4. @advodiaboli says:

    One would think “the most perfect sentient being in the galaxy” (or whatever her tag line is) would have records.
    Nice work.

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