The Hammond Dilemma – adverse events and anti-vaccination activism

Until five days ago, as far as I  am aware, I had never commented publicly on the case of the Hammond family and their campaign for compensation for Ben Hammond’s “probable” 2012 vaccine adverse reaction. I just did not know enough about the Hammond story; although I was aware that friends had previously attempted to assist and advise the Hammond family. I did tweet public photos from (Ben’s wife) Tanya Hammond’s Facebook profile, on February 28 2016; but, that was in relation to the Hammond family’s exploitation by anti-vaccination activists. Tanya Hammond is angry. And Tanya Hammond is frustrated. And she has every right to be; I would be, too, if I was in their position.

Today, I want to investigate the chasm we would hope would exist between advocating for compensation for a legitimate, “probable” vaccine adverse event and an escalating campaign of anti-vaccinationism, using that adverse event, which has since resulted.

I will also investigate grubby accusations – which have been condoned and promoted by Tanya Hammond and her supporters – against me, personally, and my friends and colleagues.

And, worryingly, I will present evidence of Tanya Hammond and her anti-vaccination colleagues joking about committing physical violence against me, journalist Jane Hansen, online publisher Mia Freedman, and Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy.

What is the right thing to do? What is the ethical route? What benefits us all?

A good guide for ethical activism surrounding real vaccine adverse events comes from the Salamone family, who, in the 1990s, were instrumental in achieving greater vaccine safety for the whole community after their then-baby son, David, contracted vaccine-induced polio. John Salamone is a public health hero for his work. He is the gold standard.

A no-fault serious vaccine injury compensation scheme

I am not aware of anyone who is opposed to such a scheme. It has been promoted and supported by health professionals and health advocates for years. On February 29 2016, Senator Richard Di Natale moved a motion in the Australian Senate:

(a) in the past 20 years, Australia has an excellent record of achievement in the prevention of disease through immunisation;

(b) in the most recent annual data records (2012), there were 1,897 adverse events following immunisation;

(c) a no-fault vaccine injury compensation system would provide critical cover for those exceptionally unfortunate instances where a patient experiences an adverse event with a vaccination;

(d) nineteen other countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States of America and New Zealand, have a no-fault vaccine injury compensation system, and such a scheme would enable Australia to compensate the families where there is this extremely rare instance of long-term vaccine injury; and

(e) high rates of immunisation reflect public trust in its benefits, and such trust would only be strengthened by the knowledge that the community will look after the few unfortunate casualties of a highly successful immunisation program.

Senator Di Natale’s motion was negatived (opposed and failed); but, not for the reasons anti-vaccination conspiracy theorists would have you think. The Senate is not against such a scheme. The motion was negatived because negotiations for such a scheme are already underway. As outlined by Senator Ryan:

The government is currently in negotiations with the states and territories on the establishment of a National Injury Insurance Scheme, a federated model of separate state-based no-fault schemes that provide lifetime care and support for people who have sustained a catastrophic injury. This is as recommended by the Productivity Commission in 2011. One stream of work in these negotiations is discussions to provide cover for medical accidents, where issues such as causality and the scope of such cover will be elements of the negotiations.

Question negatived.

One thing which makes me sit up and take notice of that reply, however, is the date that the Productivity Commission recommended such a scheme: 2011. This is a year before Ben Hammond’s “probable” vaccine injury, in 2012. Wouldn’t it be nice if some retrospective legislation was eventually put in place, backdated to 2011? It would certainly be nice for the Hammonds.

Ben Hammond’s traumatic saga

The Hammond family received a bit of media for Ben Hammond’s injury, more so in the couple of years following his 2012 diagnosis of ADEM. As you will see, the media – as well as general community support – appears to have dropped off for the Hammond family as the years progressed. Linking vaccine injury to ADEM is difficult. It happens so rarely that isolating the vaccine as the cause, as opposed to the more common viral or bacterial infection – causes which need to be excluded as per normal procedure, which is not a part of any medical conspiracy – is almost impossible.

All of this makes me wonder why the Hammond family left it so long to post the following, crucial piece of documentation in support of their claims (I can only guess it is inexperience, which is understandable). I checked, last night: none of my friends – who had previously been in contact with, and supported, the Hammonds – had seen this document before I showed it to them. This document comes from a consultant immunologist, who notes that Ben Hammond’s ADEM has the “dTP”  booster as its “probable” cause, due to the “lack of other triggers”. This document was not published until March 3 2016 – four days ago:

Hammond 89 immunologist letter 2013

“Probable” is not the same thing as “certain”, and the Hammonds would still be hard-pressed to achieve any justice as the legislation currently stands;  but, it’s a damn sight better than public claims which were previously unsubstantiated by clinical documentation.

Support for the Hammond family

As alluded to above, five days ago I wrote a blog post calling for donations for the Hammond family. I had been watching their story more closely in the last couple of months, and comments made by Tanya Hammond on March 2 2016 made me write the blog post, in good faith, calling for support for the Hammonds, as well as promoting their gofundme account where donations can be lodged. I donated to their appeal; and, I know friends have also donated. When I wrote that blog post, Ben Hammond had not yet published that consultant immunologist’s report. Ben Hammond published the report the day after I published my blog post.

Regardless of the content of the following evidence in this blog post, I still call for donations to the Hammond family, who are in crisis. The real story of Ben Hammond’s condition, and how his condition has affected his whole family, is heartbreaking. It is also important to distinguish the “probable” vaccine injury suffered by Ben Hammond from the anti-vaccination activism of his wife, Tanya Hammond, as championed by an exploitative anti-vaccination movement.

Anti-vaccination revisionism 

In an interview given by Tanya Hammond to conspiracy podcast, The Crazz Files, on March 5 2016 – to which I shall return, below – Hammond states the following – at approximately 1:17:05 – regarding support from anti-vaccination activists, and the lack of support from the rest of the community (by this stage Hammond had become aware of my blog post calling for financial support for  her family):

Crabb (host): what they’re going to do  now is  pretend to be on your side

Hammond: that’s exactly what they’re doing…apparently Reasonable Hank has been trying to get a hold of me, I’ve been informed [edit: this is untrue. I have at no stage attempted to contact Hammond]

Crabb: these people want to act and to sympathise with you and pretend they’re on your side

Hammond: where has any provac been for the last three and a half years? The only people to help have been the antivac people. If Hank is listening to this I hope he knows that.

“Where has any provac been?”

Hammond repeated her claim, that anti-vaccination activists are the only ones to have helped her, at about 1:41:20 in the interview.

Anti-vaccination activist Brett Smith also attempted to make mileage out of the Hammond claim, repeating it on Twitter. The like you see in this image is from Lois Vitler, Hammond’s mother:

Brett Smith 242 tweet only antivax helped Hammonds for 3 years Lois Vitler liked

Clearly Hammond – as well as her mother – has misremembered the previous two years; whilst Smith just doesn’t know, or care, what he is talking about.

In the Facebook group which was set up by the Hammonds, in 2014 – before Smith was even on Facebook – called SEVERE ADVERSE REACTION TO VACCINATION COMPENSATION SCHEME, several “provac” individuals were already in there helping the Hammonds and offering them advice on how to proceed with an effective campaign:

Hammond 96 Ben Thomas support June 2014

Most of the “provac” people have now been banned from the group – such as Benjamin Thomas, above, who helped in the setting up of the group – by Hammond and her mother, Lois Vitler. Here are other examples of “provac” people attempting to help the Hammonds. From May 2015:

Hammond 95 Dorit support AE May 2015

And, from October 2015, this person – who was attacked by anti-vaccinationists in the group – was banned by Hammond, and then blocked by Hammond after having a private messaging conversation:

Hammond 98 October 2015 Kathy assisting advice AE

And that is only two examples. Please see this this 44-page PDF for threads and screenshots from the group which show that support was provided to the Hammond family, from “provac” people, until they were either banned, or their support became untenable and pointless. Maybe Hammond would like to offer an apology, to all of the individuals who attempted to help her family, for her hurtful and untrue claims.

I, myself, attempted to join the group on February 25 2016. Lois Vitler denied my request, banned many more “provac” members, and set the group’s privacy to closed:

Vitler 3 closed AE group and banned members Feb 2016

Credibility

The Hammonds’ story is real. It is entirely legitimate for Tanya Hammond to be advocating for compensation for her family – something which I entirely support – as well as a no-fault vaccine injury scheme – which we all support.

Attaching their story to an exploitative anti-vaccination movement – whose stories of vaccine injury are made from whole cloth: such as AVN president, Tasha David and her six children who, she argues, have a range of conditions, from autism to allergies and beyond, none of which are caused by vaccination; AVN creator and ideologue, Meryl Dorey, who argues that her children are vaccine injured, linking conditions which are not caused by vaccination; as well as the general raft of anti-vaccination lies, that vaccines cause SIDS, shaken baby syndrome and the rest – lends legitimacy to a movement based in dishonesty, vilification, and subterfuge. Linking up with the anti-vaccination movement was always going to end poorly for the Hammonds; and I feel for them, having been duped into allowing the anti-vaccination movement to use them to legitimise harm-causing fantasies. The Hammonds were warned of this, of course.

In the Hammonds’ Facebook group we see posts which declare that the family is not anti-vaccine. From June 2014:

Hammond 94 AE June 2014 not for or against vax

Also from June 2014:

Vitler 2 not for or against AE June 2014

Hammond even claimed, within the last month – in this YouTube interview, which was published yesterday – “I’m not an anti-vaccination nut” (08:00).  Lending your legitimate story to a conspiracy theory video which uses this title is questionable, at best:

Hammond 106 FOC interview YT March 6 2016

And, as an aside, negatively identifying a registered nurse – by name, twice (05:00) – in the same video, for simply doing her job in advocating for your baby to receive immunisations, which are recommended in the Australian immunisation schedule, speaks volumes.

As noted, above, the Hammond family received warnings from supporters who were concerned about the anti-vaccination direction in which their campaign was heading. From October 2015:

Hammond 100 SRW AE support comments deleted

And, tellingly:

Hammond 101 SRW AE support comments deleted

And, even more damning:

Hammond 103 Leonie AE lost support warning October 2015

As we can see, the anti-vaccination rot had already set in. And where did it lead?

This comment was made in the Anti-Vaccination Australia Facebook group, on March 2 2016:

Hammond 87 antivaccine poison in children March 2 2016 AVA

And, on March 3 2016, Lois Vitler posted this demented anti-vaccination video in the Hammonds’ Facebook group. Luckily, Vitler disagrees with the vaccine “murder” terminology :

Rob Schneider HEROICALLY EXPOSES THE GOVERNMENT’S VACCINE MURDER PROGRAM!
———————————————————————————

“I’M FOR PARENTAL RIGHTS, NOT GOVERNMENT COERCION TELLING US WHAT WE CAN DO AND WHAT WE CAN’T DO WITH OUR KIDS!”

MUCH LOVE AND RESPECT TO ROB FOR HAVING THE COURAGE TO EXPOSE THE GOVERNMENT’S EUGENICS DEATH CULT!

CAN YOU DEFEAT THE GOVERNMENT AND THEIR SATANIC AGENDA?

TO QUOTE ROB SCHNEIDER:

“YOU CAN DO IT!”

PLEASE, SHARE THIS VIDEO!

JOIN THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM TODAY!

Hammond 88 AE group Vitler Schneider

Credibility has left the Hammond campaign.

Anti-vaccination activism

On Sunday February 21 2016, an anti-vaccination and conspiracy theory event was held in the Northern New South Wales town of Mullumbimby, which is also home to  one of the worst childhood immunisation rates in Australia. Journalist Jane Hansen wrote about the event, here: Jane Hansen: An alternative universe where vaccines are the villain, not the hero. Here are some excerpts:

At a meeting last Sunday called “Mandatory Vaccinations” the 300 or so attendees did not come to hear “the medical and scientific facts about vaccines” as billed (this was not offered anyway); they came for validation: to indulge their conspiracy theories and to pat each other on the back for the area’s 50 per cent vaccination rate, the lowest in the country.

This, they think, is because they are “more conscious” than the rest of us “sheeple”, smarter than 99.9 per cent of the world’s scientific and medical communities and attuned to a worldwide plot to depopulate the human race.

From the moment the meeting was opened with Mullumbimby introduced as “the black sheep capital of the country’” to wild applause, you knew all had guzzled from the chai-infused Kool-Aid.

Inside, I was transported into a patchouli-scented, steamy alternative universe where all rationale was suspended and replaced by terrifying plots by big government, big pharma, big media and even big airline, all colluding to pin kids down and stick them full of cancer-causing nasties.

The “expert panel” had none; instead, the usual suspects fronted up. Meryl Dorey, the former president of the disgraced Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network, and the new president Tasha David were on hand to “prove” that Australia was “a testing ground for the rest of the world”.

A paralegal, not a lawyer, suggested everyone write a letter of complaint asking for a review about the new No Jab No Pay laws and “this would collapse the system”.

Then naturopath Brett Smith, who introduced himself as “a Sydney quack”, suggested people tell their doctors that their children are sensitive to gelatine or yeast because that may be “a medical contraindication” which is now the only exemption allowed to claim family tax benefits without vaccinating.

“If you show your child is hypersensitive to gelatine, your child should get a medical exemption,” he said.

Then Kathy Scarborough from Vaccine Information South Australia got up and told everyone “we have children diagnosed with diabetes, asthma and autism” and this was all due to vaccines.

Then Dr Rima Laibow joined the meeting via Skype from Chile.

This American GP told everyone that vaccines were nothing but “a marketing tool to make pharmaceutical companies rich”, “to create you as a customer” and that “it is clear science that injecting pus and poison prevents no disease and cures no disease”.

Again these hysterical claims were met with applause.

Okay. This event was always going to be a public health catastrophe. Especially with the roaring support for Dr Rima Laibow and her claims that vaccination is part of a plot by the murderous elite to depopulate the human race. This is not a joke. She says this stuff. That anyone would promote this guff in a town for which public health experts hold genuine fears is scurrilous. Tanya Hammond did just that. And she did it a lot, across many fora:

Hammond 107 Mullum event promote compilation

Hammond also publicly glorified AVN president Tasha David, who claims her children are vaccine injured, and has built a public profile on the same, despite never substantiating her baseless claims:

Hammond 59 public post Tasha David hero

The day after glorifying Tasha David, Hammond shared a post via Meryl Dorey, originating from the Facebook page of the AVN, in which Meryl Dorey again makes her hideous claim vilifying parents who have lost babies to vaccine preventable disease; or as Dorey calls it, “so-called vaccine preventable illness”:

Hammond 60 Dorey share Feb 25 2016

Here is the unspeakably callous text from Dorey:

What happens when your child dies after contracting a so-called vaccine preventable illness? You become a national hero – darling of the media, feted by the government, paid tribute to and comforted by the nation.

What happens to the few people who speak out about vaccine injuries or who lose children to vaccination? If they are not ignored or treated as though they are invisible or crazy, they are told that their children are the bottom of the gene pool and their deaths or injuries are just ‘nature’s way’ of controlling bad seed. Or else, they are labelled as anti-vaxxers and abused by the government and the media, they go broke trying to care for their families and, as we saw less than 2 weeks ago, they become subject to malicious complaints by members of the anti-choice brigade and internet trolls from groups like SAVN and suffer from midnight raids and physical abuse. Thank you again to Allanah MacTiernan for her courage in raising this issue in Parliament.

AVN 7116 Dorey so called VPD deaths

Need we remind Tanya Hammond, over and over, that, apart from the utter grubbiness of the AVN’s claims and accusations, the AVN has a public health warning against its name?

The same day that Hammond was sharing that post from Dorey, on February 24 2016, she was in the Unvaccinated Australia Facebook group telling Wendy Lydall how wonderful it was that a news segment featured the veteran anti-vaccination activist, Lydall, lying to the camera about the Melbourne measles outbreak:

Lydall 20 Hammond UA 7 News Melb amazing

The day after the Lydall post, Hammond was sharing her family’s story in Unvaccinated Australia so as to warn another person from getting the whooping cough booster:

Hammond 52 UA no jab no visit

Hammond 55 UA

This is when we start asking serious questions about the ethics of Hammond’s anti-vaccination activism and its effect on public health and the health of other members of our community. I understand Hammond is appropriately aggrieved. I get it. But, that doesn’t give anyone the right to dissuade others from immunising themselves, especially when a consultant immunologist has specifically stated the rarity of her husband’s injury, whilst specifically alluding to the possibility that her husband is not contraindicated from future immunisations. I understand why someone might become anti-vaccine, given the Hammonds’ story; but, that doesn’t make it right, or ethical.

After the Mullumbimby event, Tanya Hammond ventured to Canberra to meet with senators and members, so as to argue for the no-fault compensation scheme. Hammond traveled to both Mullumbimby and Canberra with anti-vaccine thug, Brett Smith. If anyone has any doubts as to this person’s character, just look at his Twitter stream. Hammond played along – obliviously, granted – with Smith’s puerile denials that he has nothing to do with the “Lucas Jackson Kelly” Facebook profile, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary (see addendum for a collection). Smith is a man who thinks that these death threats are hilarious:

Brett Smith 241 death threats hilarious

And Smith likes to think it would be “karma” if some “unstable” individual was to carry out one of these threats. Remember this one, for when we reach the end of this post:

Brett Smith 241 death threats karma

Smith also thinks misogynistic attacks against journalists are appropriate; and he also thinks that homophobes like Tim Bolen are appropriate sources of information:

Brett Smith 238 Bolen homophobia tweet

“Odd homophobia”, Smith waves away, as though it never existed. This is an example of Bolen’s homophobic rants. And this is by no means a solo shout-bubble. This is standard Bolen:

BOlen 2 homophbic excerpt

Tanya Hammond took Brett Smith to meet senators and members of our Federal parliament. This is the same Brett Smith who rage-disgraced himself at the No Jab No Pay Senate Inquiry, held in Brisbane, only three months ago. This is the same Brett Smith who yelled conspiracy theories at Senator Richard Di Natale during this public meltdown.

Tanya Hammond took Brett Smith to meet Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley, Federal Social Services Minister Christian Porter, Greens Leader Senator Dr Richard Di Natale, Alannah MacTiernan MP (pictured below, with Smith and Hammond), Stephen Jones MP, and Rick Wilson MP:

Hammond 45 photo Brett Smith RDN Ley Porter Jones Wilson MacTiernan

Was it appropriate for these members and senators to meet with Tanya Hammond about a no-fault vaccine injury compensation scheme? Damn right it was. Was it appropriate for members and senators to allow someone with Smith’s vitriolic online notoriety for trolling into the building? Well, that’s for the members and senators to mull over, in retrospect. We can be sure that members and senators weren’t aware of exactly who was gracing them with his presence.

As previously noted, Hammond also appeared on the conspiracy podcast, The Crazz Files, on the weekend. She appeared with Rima Laibow – yes, “depopulation” Laibow – and agreed to appear on Laibow’s podcast at some time in the near future. I want to give you a clear idea of The Crazz Files, a forum which Hammond is content to promote, along with her family’s story.

Anti-Semitic blog posts from The Crazz Files website:

Crabb 57 Crazz anti semitism 1

Anti-Semitic blog post:

Crabb 58 Crazz anti semitism 2

Anti-Semitic, homophobic blog post (continued below)

Crabb 60 Crazz homophobia

Crabb 59 Crazz homophobia

Anti-Semitic, homophobic blog post:

Crabb 61 homophobia anti semitism

Anti-Semitic blog post which can only be classed as evil hate-speech:

Crabb 62 anti-semitism

Homophobic, xenophobic blog post:

Crabb 63 homophobia anti semitism

And even hideous Port Arthur Massacre Denialism, which is an acceptable post in the Anti-Vaccination Australia Facebook group:

Crabb 65 Port Arthur Truther Crazz AVA March 6 2016

The Crazz Files interview from host Adam Crabb went for almost two hours. All I will do is include some excerpts to give you the flavour of this stolen time:

Crabb (0:06:30): forces known and unknown [are trying hard to stop the Hammonds telling their story]… Every single vaccine dose is  dangerous. Not one vaccine is safe. They are all  potentially deadly.  0:06:30

Laibow (0:22:00): [vaccine reactions are] horrifyingly common [when you inject poisons into the body.

Laibow (0:50:44): adult onset autism [is a vaccine injury]. [Children are] molested by vaccination [which is] pus and poison.

Hammond (1:02:30): [I am] not part of the anti-vaccine movement.

Laibow (1:03:50): Moulden was probably murdered [edit: Andrew Moulden unfortunately committed suicide due to his bipolar illness, which his sister stated “consumed” him]

Crabb: [Moulden is] another one who got murdered

Hammond: I’d like to walk up to them [referring to Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy, and citing her husband’s injury] and put a knife in their spine – not out of violence – and go “now you live with it”.

Crabb (1:07:00): Murdoch journalists are drug pushers.

Laibow (1:10:11): No Jab No Pay is a crime against humanity.

Crabb (1:11:15): Murdoch troll columnists are drug pushers.

Crabb (1:11:40): the entire pro-vaccination movement are trolls.

Crabb (1:15:15): [provax trolls are] chronic masturbators

Crabb, Hammond and Laibow: [all laugh and agree]

Hammond (1:24:30): I’m antivac, mate. My kids are not getting any

Hammond (1:31:35): [referring to past views on immunisation] we always did what they say [these] medical professionals – retards – whatever you want to call them.

Laibow (1:41:45): [Hammonds have been] victimised by an industry and by a set of lies that is beyond cruel and beyond cynical, because the people who make these things know fully well that they are destroying lives, know full well that they are dissembling, and disseminating hideous, hideous propaganda and  lies and that’s okay with them because they have another agenda; maybe it’s the money; maybe it’s the depopulation; maybe it’s the control; who knows what their thing is…vaccines are unnecessary,  unsafe, inexcusable and absurd. Putting pus and poison in a body does not generate health.

Oh boy. She said that.

Tanya Hammond also said this, in the Crabb interview (1:17:05):

I didn’t even know anything about Hank or Peter Tierney until three weeks ago.

This was said not long after the “chronic masturbators” slurs.

Defamatory accusations that Reasonable Hank and colleagues are responsible for assaults and police raids on the Hammonds

In the YouTube interview I mentioned above, Tanya Hammond makes the claim (at 10:05) that Western Australia police are part of some conspiracy – along with alleged violence perpetrated by others against Tanya Hammond, personally – targeting the Hammond family due to their campaign for a no-fault vaccine injury compensation scheme:

I don’t  think it’s a coincidence

On January 21 2016, several blog posts and Facebook posts started appearing which purported to outline a raid which was conducted on the Hammond house, by WA Police. I am not going to discuss the allegations made by Hammond against the WA Police Service – beyond including pertinent text, below – as it is improper, at this time; I believe charges have been laid against Ben Hammond – rightly or wrongly – for the possession of cannabis and smoking implements, for which it is alleged he uses for pain relief. Hammond states as much in one of her interviews.

I have created this 100-page PDF of four separate Facebook fora posts – made in VINE, Unvaccinated Australia, Vaccine Free Australia, and on the fake profile used by Olivier Vles – which also includes a blog post written by Adam Crabb, on The Crazz Files website. The document also contains accusations of corruption by WA Police, made by several people, as well as accusations that Reasonable Hank is responsible for and has acted in collusion with WA Police, and with others for the violence which was allegedly perpetrated against Tanya Hammond.

Tanya Hammond herself shared these grubby, defamatory accusations on the anti-vaccination VINE Facebook page. I believe the original text was written by anti-vaccination activist Courtney Hebberman, the creator of the Vaccine Free Australia group:

The Hammonds are used to the bullying by now. In fact, in November last year, Mrs Hammond was dragged from her car and bashed by locals. But they didn’t see what was coming next.

Two days ago, at 6am, the Hammond family home was raided by police. They slammed Mr Hammond on the floor and pinned him down with a gun to his head because he could not get down on the floor due to his disability from the vaccine injury. Every time Mrs Hammond lifted her head from the floor to see where her three year old was they slammed it down and yelled at her. For ten minutes, pinned to the floor with ten policemen and guns pointed at them, the Hammonds waited for cameras to arrive. After this happened they were told the police had a warrant to search their home for CRYSTAL METH and equipment for its manufacture. Of course, they found nothing- expect for Mr Hammond’s medical marijuana which he uses for his constant pain, as pharmaceuticals cause him to urinate blood. Of course, they confiscated that, and he is still bed-ridden as a result of the violent raid.

Am I the only one who can see just how unjust this is? Is this really what it has come to now? Vaccine traumatised families are being accused of possessing/ manufacturing illegal hard drugs, simply for wanting a vaccine injury compensation scheme?

It’s time for those who sit on the sidelines and watch the vaccine controversy from a safe distance to come out from their hiding places. Your silence is deafening. If you live in Australia, you can start by contacting your MP and demanding that this case be investigated (it shouldn’t take them long to trace this back to the pharmaceutical- funded thugs from reasonablehank. com) And you can donate to the Hammond family here…

Hammond 56 VINE RH thugs Jan 22 2016

Hammond also commented upon and condoned this public Facebook post, made by Olivier Vles of Brighton, Melbourne. Vles is also the owner of the juvenile attack page, The Unreasonable Wank. Remember, to the best of my knowledge, at this stage I had never even mentioned the Hammond family, nor their campaign:

Well Hank and mates. You done it. You have shown to the whole world that you are nothing more then a piece of shit hate mongering ass wipe. Your campaign of fear towards pro health/choice people and especially the Hammond Family has taken its toll. Are you proud of your work?? Do you really think that sending cops to innocent people’s houses and scaring their children is a tactic that is putting you above our healthy and informed families. Do you still believe you are fighting for the cause. You go off in your blog at us being a cult. Well your people are criminals. Because falsifying evidence and making false statements is criminal. Why don’t you write a blog about that?? Fuck you and your hateful blog. I hope that the Hammond Family will find a way to put you into their lawsuit for starting this climate that got them into this mess. At least now they will hopefully be financially compensated and get some money for their ordeal.

Vles 21 profile Jan 21 2016 Hank piece of shit Hammonds

Vles 22 profile Jan 21 2016 Hank piece of shit cont Hammonds

Hammond joking about physical violence against Jill Hennessy, Jane Hansen, Mia Freedman, and Reasonable Hank

This post was made available to me by someone who was concerned about what they saw on the Lucas Jackson Kelly Facebook account which is used by Brett Smith. It ties in precisely with Smith’s admiration for “unstable people” who send death threats, and his desires for such threats to be carried out as some form of “karma”. Smith is joined by Wayne Baird, Olivier Vles, and Tanya Hammond in this troubling exchange:

Hammond 62 LJK Baird Vles Smith PT JH MF JH

Tanya Hammond needs to have a very good look at her colleagues, and how they have affected her legitimate campaign which has now become, unfortunately, nothing but another anti-vaccination conspiracy. It didn’t have to be this way.

It is a tragedy what has happened to the Hammond family since Ben Hammond’s injury. It is a tragedy that the Hammonds have been duped by anti-vaccination liars of staggering disrepute. The Hammonds were warned what would happen. They were warned by “provac” people who had rallied around the family in 2014 and 2015 only to be attacked by anti-vaccination activists, and then banned by the Hammonds.

I hope the Hammonds are successful in obtaining compensation. And I hope people still donate to the Hammonds’ gofundme page.  In my eyes they are owed compensation. But, that’s for others to decide.

I wish the Hammonds well; but, I will  not stand by and say nothing whilst false accusations are leveled against good people, whilst threats of violence are laughed off by Hammond and her thuggish, unhinged colleagues.

And just as I was finishing up this post, Tanya Hammond demanded respect from me:

Hammond 111 tweet show me respect

____________________________________________

Addendum

The following is a series of compilations I created to show that Brett Smith uses the “Lucas Jackson Kelly” Facebook profile. It is irrelevant whether or not Lucas Jackson Kelly is a real person, whom Hammond has met. That is not at issue. It is clear that Smith uses the “Kelly” Facebook profile. Smith’s denials are puerile, and he should not drag the Hammond family into them, for any reason.

Smith confirms he has seven children,just like “LJK”:

Brett Smith 226 compilation LJK 7 kids same as BS

Smith made comments to me which “LJK” claims he made:

Brett Smith 188 compilation LJK RH blog read by anti vaxxers Nov 2015

Both Brett Smith and “LJK” attempt to  intimidate “lippy” critics:

Brett Smith 187 compilation LJK lippy

Both Smith and “LJK” have the same issues with “Trekkies”:

Brett Smith 186 compilation LJK trekkies

Both Smith and “LJK” like to ensure that critics have had their – harmful – “flu shots”:

Brett Smith 185 compilation LJK flu shots

Brett Smith spoke at the No Jab No Pay Senate Inquiry, just like “LJK” said he was going to:

Brett Smith 184 compilation NJNP senate inquiry LJK

Brett Smith’s friends believe he is “LJK”, and vice versa:

Brett Smith 183 compilation LJK identified as BS by friends

Smith and “LJK” have the same fixation with alcohol, diabetes, and odours:

Brett Smith 182 compilation LJK diabetes alcoholic PB

Smith and “LJK” claim  the same degrees, from the same institution

Brett Smith 181 compilation LJK 2 degress 6 kids

_____________________________________________

About reasonable hank

I'm reasonable, mostly.
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25 Responses to The Hammond Dilemma – adverse events and anti-vaccination activism

  1. wow you really are a nasty little keyboard warrior! you have been working on this for a while haven’t you because all the cutting and pasting out of text etc would have taken some time. I’m not going to lower myself to your level Hank except to say if you are going to quote someone then do it in the way it was intended, not in pieces to fuel your own agenda. We stand by our petition, story, page, etc because none of it is false and we have nothing to hide! and fyi the date on the information that Ben generously provided to you is 15 Feb 2013 not 4 days ago. If being wary of vaccinations for many heart breaking reasons makes me an ‘antivac’ then I’m happy to wear that. personally I’m pro choice but that’s my choice. And lastly, Benjamin Thomas has been a great help from the very beginning and I value his input and still keep in contact with him so go peddle your crap elsewhere. You are very predictable …..

    • reasonablehank says:

      “I’m not going to lower myself to your level Hank”

      Yet, here you are.

      I didn’t say the immunologist’s report was four days old. It obviously has the date on it. I said it was first published four days ago. Feel free to read the post again.

      You are also welcome to apologise to all of the people who attempted to help you only to be burnt by you and your anti-vaccination colleagues and your daughter, who appears to have a convenient habit of misremembering the past.

      You claim that “nothing” on your fora is false. This is a perfect example as to why people tried to help you. You burnt them.

      • Tell me what is false in Bens story Hank which part I’m very interested to know!

        • reasonablehank says:

          Where have I said that anything in Ben’s story is fake? Time to buck up and start substantiating your accusations. Do it. Shit or get off the pot. Or even make the slightest attempt to read the god damn post and understand it.

          • reasonablehank says:

            This is your last chance to directly answer a question or you are being removed. I have given you much more leeway than anyone else who comes onto my fora to call people names.

            You are accusing me of inferring that Ben’s story is false. I’m requesting that you point out anywhere in this post where I have even remotely inferred this.

            My post is extremely clear about my support for the Hammond family, despite yours and your daughter’s behaviour.

            I am saddened that your situation has been made worse by associating with disreputable individuals. It didn’t have to be this way. One day, when you all have a bit more experience about antivax activists, you will come to see their true nature.

            When that day comes you will still find people waiting and ready to help you, despite the shabby way in which they have been treated in the past.

          • reasonablehank says:

            Nice. This is Lois Vitler in Anti-Vaccination Australia, at 23:17 last night, after commenting on this blog post:

            http://i.imgur.com/KxrvsvO.jpg

  2. Great piece Hank, sensitive and factual. Such a shame these people have fallen down the anti-vaccine rabbit hole.

    I’m not surprised the anti-vaxxers have latched on to them to further their agenda. Sadly that will destroy any chance the family had of doing any good.

  3. Lucy says:

    Good work. Must have been difficult to write this.
    We read it still feeling empathy for them in their time of need, and sorry for them having fallen victim to the callous, despicable antivax crowd.
    A no fault compensation scheme remains critically necessary.

  4. Jane says:

    I feel a lot of empathy for Ben Hammond and the family’s financial struggles. However, I feel nothing but sadness that Tanya has chosen such an unstable group of ‘friends’ – very reminiscent of an unpopular teenager that changes their character to be accepted by the school bully.

    This will not end well for that family.

  5. @advodiaboli says:

    An excellent piece of work Hank.
    It’s disappointing that Tanya Hammond can’t see what you’re doing here, particularly for her and Ben.
    You’ve done much to re-establish her credibility, which thanks to the usual suspects and the conspiracy parasites exploiting her, has taken a huge beating.
    Brett/Lucas/Brett and Bernie Smith are probably hoping she’s a few screams short of a tantrum so they can keep using her to peddle threats and falsehoods.
    As for Crazz and Enigma I hope reality dawns. She must wake up, ditch all links to the anti-vaccination lobby and publically own facts about the police raid.
    Or the train wreck will continue.

  6. Coran says:

    To my mind, this is an example of one harm that anti-vaxxers cause. We know that, as safe as vaccines have been demonstrated to be, any time millions of doses are administered sooner or later one will have an adverse reaction. It’s only fair that we should, as a society, look after those who have suffered in the course of performing that duty we all have to protect each other.

    This is what makes it so tragic that when someone is genuinely injured; the lunatics and sociopaths of the anti-vax movement swoop in to create a credibility-destroying miasma. Through their overblown claims of harm and conspiracy ideation, the anti-vaxxers actually make it harder for genuine injury to be taken seriously and justly compensated.

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  14. Bec says:

    See – this is the problem – I’m fairly new with my pro vax activism.. I’ve always believed in vax and never let anyone unvaxxed near my bubbas etc, but I was not aware of the growing anti vax brigade until the last 18mths or so
    I only heard about the Hammonds recently because they were having issues with other AVERS and because Tanya is associated with those nut cases I wrote her off as a looney too – I didn’t believe her story because straight away I’ve come to see all “vax injuries” as fake because of the anti vaxxers and “everything and everyone is a vax injury”!!!
    So that’s the damage she’s done to her credibility – I could’ve donated but I won’t because to me she’s simply a lunatic with a disabled hubby – sad yes, but because of her associating with AV undesirables I have problems with sympathising with her…. She really needs to stop alienating those that have it within their power to help! Those loopey loos she’s hanging out with just won’t do it!

  15. TLPG says:

    I only became aware of this entry from a tweet I saw this morning from you, Hank. I can safely say that in my opinion, not all the options of the injury were investigated. I don’t believe the issue is within the qualifications of the immunologist which is why he missed it in his report that you mentioned.

    It’s simple. Ben worked in the mines prior to the injury in Kalgoorlie (off the top of my head – I could be wrong about the location). Mining is a very hazardous job and can carry considerable medical risks of an exponential nature. THAT I believe is where the answer is, and what the pertussis booster reacted against – therefore it was not the vaccine’s fault alone, as is almost always the case with situations like this.

    Because of her behaviour in more recent times, Tanya is already on the AV Name Check. I said this on Twitter and I’ll repeat it here. She’s been driven round the twist because she won’t admit the problem was her husband’s job, not the vaccine itself. In my opinion.

  16. TLPG says:

    Oh and on the compensation scheme – I’m against it, if it follows the US model. I was not aware of any scheme in the UK or New Zealand so I don’t know if they have the same problem, but we can NOT have a scheme that pays out on probability only. Such things must be fully investigated from all angles and only pays out on the same level of certainty as a regular court. Accessibility should be easy – no court fees, I believe there are none in all tribunals for instance – I know there aren’t in the AAT. Bottom line, we have to be as certain as we can be about the cause and all other court rules must apply. Otherwise it will became just as unreliable as the US Vaccine Court and I will oppose that with every fibre of my being.

  17. Mandy says:

    An interesting read. Why does the expert list to polio when referring to the DTP vaccine? Shouldn’t that be pertussis? Am I missing something here or did the expert really include such a rather unfortunate typo?

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