Meryl Dorey’s other Pertussis Lie

In the last week Meryl Dorey of the anti-vaccination organisation, the Australian Vaccination Network, has provided another interview for the infowarrior online radio program Fair Dinkum Radio. I won’t go into the whole 39 minute shambles, as I think someone else may have something up his sleeve (nudge, nudge etc). It is an extensive piece of misinformation, the like of which we have come to expect from Dorey, well practised in her whole cloth narrative which misinterprets factoids , often deliberately.

What I would like to focus upon is one particular claim from Dorey, which can be heard here, courtesy of my favourite black, cast-iron flying pig (note: Fair Use under Copyright Act 1968):

Meryl Dorey discusses Whooping Cough deaths (35 second grab)

…the child that died a couple of years ago, in New South Wales, was the first death from Whooping Cough, in over a decade, um, in Australia…

Now, my ears pricked up at that comment, because I’ve heard it before. Lots of people have heard it before. In fact, Meryl Dorey has stated that claim a few times. But: is it true?

Of course it isn’t true. But, the worst part is: Meryl Dorey knows it isn’t true; and she has acknowledged that it isn’t true.

Back on July 4 2011, Dorey responded to this article from the Sydney Morning Herald. This screenshot shows Dorey’s comment, shared to her followers on the AVN Yahoo! Group:

"There had been no deaths at all from whooping cough for well over a decade before the first reported death in 2009"

Without even double-checking most knew that this was, well, bullshit. It’s great that Meryl Dorey makes these public, testable pronouncements. It’s also great that people hold to her to account for these demonstrably wrong claims.

Before she was banned from the AVN Facebook page, Kathy McGrath did just that: Kathy pointed out that Dorey’s claim was wrong, and Kathy backed it up (from July 15 2011):

Dorey is not only wrong, but, she is also devoid of compassion for the families of children who have died, as shown in the next screenshot.

Here is some more of the same thread:

So, Dorey stated she was "sorry for your loss", yet, with the complicity of Bugges, turns this into a debate about "respect", the harm from vaccines, and the awful SAVN. Read their comments again. And, then, read them again.

My good friend Kate had a closer look at Dorey’s claim, at the time, and did up a quick montage showing the depth of Dorey’s research skills. Dorey’s flawed claim, reliant on Dorey’s flawed memory, was based on her flawed reading of the Northern Star newspaper. Her claim is not based on any research, the type of which she claims she has conducted for the last twenty years.

Arrows mine

All I can really add is that this is just another example of deliberate misinformation from a person who claims that she isn’t anti-vaccination; doesn’t misinform; sources all of her information from the peer-reviewed literature; has a brain; and, isn’t a liar.

Meryl Dorey is a demonstrable liar; and she continues to lie to prop up her flailing anti-vaccination organisation and their agenda against childhood immunisation.

Many thanks to Kathy, Kate, and Paul for their input into this post.