Woodford Folk Festival organiser Bill Hauritz – anti-vaccination apologist

A Response to Hauritz’s First Public Comment.

By now most of us are aware that the Woodford Folk Festival are giving a platform for anti-vaccine opinions (yes, opinions), to be shared as fact by Meryl Dorey.

This afternoon Mamamia Editor, Rick Morton, was able to make contact with the recalcitrant and unapologetic organiser, Bill Hauritz. Rick states that Hauritz “shouted, quoted Google and didn’t care”.

It isn’t pretty. Let’s go through Hauritz’s responses.

Rick: Does the Festival feel it appropriate to give a platform to a woman who has been officially discredited as any type of vaccination expert?

Bill: Look, I’m not going to get into that. There are a lot of discredited artists and talkers and singers and songwriters at the Festival and we’re about giving a voice to a diverse range … something like 400 artists there.

Hauritz is proud of hosting a lot of discredited people? Look, giving stage space to Michael Bolton is not the same as providing billing to someone who describes herself as an expert in areas in which she is frequently proven to be inept and dishonest. The Arts is not the same thing as Public Health; especially when the speaker has been demonstrated to “pose a risk to public health and safety”, due to her unrelenting misuse and misrepresentation of legitimate research which has been found to be “misleading and incorrect”;  and whose sole “purpose is to provide information against vaccination”. One of these things is not like the other.

Rick: But surely if a singer/songwriter is discredited, that doesn’t pose a public health risk does it?

Bill: Who says it is dangerous? There are a lot of people out there who believe this whole vaccination thing is not an open and shut case. Is anybody willing to say that all vaccinations are 100% safe?

Argument ad populum is not a pretty sight, Mr Hauritz:  it is “a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or most people believe it”. Even worse, Hauritz backs it up with a flaming Strawman fallacy which is almost always at the forefront of any anti-vaccination canard drinking game: the only people who state that vaccinations are 100% safe are the pixies which dwell in the minds of anti-vaccination zealots. It’s sounds like Hauritz has had a briefing from Dorey herself. The basis for the Strawman is, in itself, a Nirvana Fallacy, which anti-vaccinationists frequently abuse: if something isn’t 100% [insert whatever], then, that thing is absolutely [worthless at its proposed intentional use]. My toilet doesn’t function correctly 100% of the time, therefore, all toilets are useless. See what I mean?

Rick: I don’t think even doctors say that, Bill. Is Meryl billed as an expert for her talk?

Bill: I suppose she would regard herself as an expert, yes. Look, when this issue hit the floor yesterday I typed into Google ‘doctors against vaccinations’ and there are pages and pages and pages of results of information. I wonder about the tactics of the science lobby.

So, because Meryl Dorey tells you she is an expert, then, she is an expert? Dorey has absolutely no qualifications in immunology, epidemiology, statistics, ethics, the list goes on. I have a degree in Healing Touch from Thunderwood College. I have been investigating Meryl Dorey and her claims for just over two years. I guess I could say I’m an expert in alternative energy healing, majoring in anti-vaccination skullduggery, but I won’t. What a disgraceful insult to real researchers worldwide. Real researchers. Real researchers actively helping people, in a thankless job.

I have to wonder about the “tactics” of Hauritz. I typed “vaccine safety and efficacy” into Google Scholar (no less) and came back with 283,000 hits in 0.12 seconds. Literally “pages and pages of results of [medical] information”. I typed in “doctors against vaccinations”, and the first hit is Vactruth, with articles that cite Isaac Golden (not a doctor, but, a discredited homeopath), and Viera Scheibner (retired micropaleontologist, not a doctor, and discredited keeper of the Parsnip).

He “typed in Google”. Seriously.

Rick: Why do you call it a lobby? That seems fairly indicative of your personal views don’t you think?

Bill: I didn’t mean to call it a lobby. I just get wary when people are trying to sell stuff on the Internet.

Me too, Bill. I get extremely wary when people are trying to sell stuff on the internet.  You have these deep-seated suspicions that all is not right, and some advantage is being sought over vulnerable people in our community.

Rick: I don’t think scientists necessarily want to sell anything?

Bill: Look, it doesn’t make a difference. We’ve already entered into contracts with Meryl Dorey and we cannot break those contracts now. We’re 10 days away from opening the gates to the festival. The damage is already done.

Well, it does kind of make a difference, when you just accuse a bunch of people of having ulterior, financially motivated reasons for holding you to account. Dorey is not being paid. She stated as much on the AVN Facebook page today. There is no loss which needs to be accounted. Can her, or tell your punters the truth about Dorey’s expertise, stating clearly that she has been found to pose a risk to the community. Yes, the damage has already been done. I don’t think you realise how much, just yet.

Rick: Is Meryl Dorey being paid for her appearance?

Bill: I honestly haven’t seen the contracts. I’d say she isn’t.

As above. Also, you haven’t seen the contracts? Really? Really?

Rick: Can you understand the backlash you have received? You know it isn’t about diverse views. It’s about spruiking information that has been officially debunked. Do you understand the issue many have with Dorey is that she is not a statistician, a researcher, a scientist and has no level of expertise as found by the Health Care Complaints Commission which ordered her to be upfront about her anti-vaccination stance?

Bill: Everyone has a right to their opinion.

What a cop-out. This tired old post-modernist turd has been around so long that it has gone white and powdery. Yes, everyone has a right to their own opinion. What everyone does not have is the right to their own facts. Facts exist independently of us. When it comes to the crunch, Dorey’s demonstrably flawed opinions have the potential to cause dead children. That she spouts these demonstrably flawed opinions under the guise of information which has been “sourced from medical data” (that’s on the Festival website), makes Dorey and the Festival even more complicit in endangering the health of children. Nice work there.

Rick: But surely not to their own facts? Are you worried people will boycott the festival now?

Bill: Let them, they have every right to

Yes. We can only hope that now we have finally seen the hubris-filled lack of concern displayed by Mr Hauritz, on behalf of the Woodford Folk Festival, that people will vote with their feet. The Festival may also have some questions to answer from Local and State Government once next year’s Festival comes around.

Thank you Bill Hauritz, for demonstrating so clearly what those of us concerned about Dorey’s appearance have been stating. Thank you.

About reasonable hank

I'm reasonable, mostly.
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0 Responses to Woodford Folk Festival organiser Bill Hauritz – anti-vaccination apologist

  1. Chris Bayne says:

    What contract could Bill possibly have with Meryl Dorey that would make him unable to break it?
    Meryl Dorey stated for the record, only yesterday, that she doesn’t get paid for her talks.

  2. Alden Clarke says:

    Please keep up the pressure, I have gotten a few replies from some of the local councilors fingers crossed she wont appear.

  3. AndyD says:

    How can it be too late? How can the damage already be done ten days before she speaks? It’s like driving toward a busy intersection, people are waving at you to slow down and stop but you choose not to hit the brakes because, for some bizarre reason, you figure you’ve already had an accident. How does that work?

  4. Dorey should be allowed to give her talk. But reasonable_hank or somebody like him should be allowed to stand behind her with a load of placards to hold up reading (as appropriate) “Argumentum ad populum”; “Ad hominem”, “Straw man argument”, “Nirvana fallacy”, “ulterior motive”, and so on; and to get the audience to chant these out whenever she uses one of these logical fallacies or other improper tactics.

    That way the meeting might be a fun, educational event!

  5. Gary Dargan says:

    One of the links you give is to a 60 minutes video featuring the Keeper of the Parsnip Viera Scheibner and her (anti) Vaccination Network. I worked in the same laboratory as she did for several years. She was mad then, (among other things she was heavily into astrology) and her claim that catching a potentially fatal disease is good for you shows she is even crazier now.
    I am old enough to remember the polio scares as a child and the fear of this disease as we lined up to receive our newly available vaccinations. I can remember the misery of measles when I was a child and I was severely affected by mumps. I also as an adult became seriously ill as a result of contracting chicken pox as a child. My son received his full quota of vaccinations and is healthier for it. I know the horror, the death and disability that can be inflicted on children as a result of failure to vaccinate. This is particularly so where parents fail to vaccinate and their unvaccinated older children spread the disease to babies who are too young to vaccinate. If parents fail to vaccinate their children it is child abuse and should be treated as such and carry a heavy penalty.
    Viera Scheibner and her ilk are putting the lives and health of thousands of children at risk they should be held accountable. If a real doctor falsely reported research results they would be barred from practice unfortunately because Viera lacks any medical qualification she can continue to spread he poison unchecked. That is just plain wrong.

  6. Dan Buzzard says:

    If Meryl is on a contract to speak then I wonder what she’s so worried about. Her frantic summoning of minions suggests that she thinks she’s going to be canned.

  7. Matt says:

    You sir, are a dead set goose.

  8. Erik says:

    This is absolutely ridiculous. You’ve generated your own strawman in this article numerous times like a broken record in terms of Bill’s responses. You say Meryl has been heavily discredited and debunked. The same can be said for Vaccines. It’s an open body of information that should be allowed to be shared. The status qua should always been challenge-able if we ever hope to evolve. If you really think that Vaccines save lives, then fine. But you’re ultimately ignoring an abundance of esoteric research and proof of the contrary. Leave the personal attacks out of this. Debate the information, not the people.

    • Thanks for your comment Erik. Care to point out the Strawman? Can you point me to some reputable info where you can prove vaccines have been “heavily discredited and debunked”? Can you please point out where Meryl Dorey hasn’t been discredited and debunked? I have addressed Bill Hauritz’s claims. I have debated his information, or lack thereof. Or were you referring to the liar Meryl Dorey? Calling someone a “liar” when they are indeed a liar is not a personal attack. I’m also wondering where the status qua needs to be challenged, and where we’re evolving to? Do you know something I don’t know?

    • The only debunking of vaccines occurs in the subjective opinions and fallacious scare tactics of antivaccination lobbyists. There is no science to it whatsoever. When people share these unsubstantiated claims as if they’re fact (which they’re not without substantiation) in such a manner that it results in endangering the lives of others with misinformation, than they leave their ideas open to attack, and in turn, themelves when they refuse to retract their comments in light of substantiated evidence to the contrary being offered.

      Take a door with a “push” sign on it, for example. If someone told me that it needs to be pulled to open it, I would show them otherwise. I would tell them, “you’re idea is wrong, here’s the evidence”, and I would push the door and open it.

      If they then try to say, “you’re wrong, it needs to be pulled,” I’m gonna laugh at them at tell them they’re an idiot. Obviously, vaccines aren’t doors, but the analogy of the situation is accurate. Meryl Dorey is grinding idealistic axes with no substantiation. She’s been proven wrong time and time again, but keeps on grinding. I don’t know anything about Silly Billy, but apparently, he’s clever enough to do a flawed Google search and believe all the results without question. Apparently, he’s clever enough to take Dorey’s own self-declared “expert” opinion that she’s an expert. It’s too bad for him that she is absolutely not an expert on anything medical, statistical, immunological or virological at all.

  9. Ken McLeod says:

    Yes Eric, please refer us to the peer-reviewed articles in reputable journals that “heavily discredit and debunk vaccines.”

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