AVN president Tasha David vilifies public health hero with offensive slurs

Dr Paul Offit is a global public health hero:

Paul A. Offit, MD is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a recipient of many awards including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics from the University of Maryland Medical School, the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Offit has published more than 150 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC; for this achievement Dr. Offit received the Luigi Mastroianni and William Osler Awards from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the Charles Mérieux Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; and was honored by Bill and Melinda Gates during the launch of their Foundation’s Living Proof Project for global health.

Because Dr Offit is a global public health hero, to anti-vaccination activists he is the devil incarnate.

A little over two months ago I published a post in which I showed how anti-vaccination activists had dishonestly edited a video from Dr Offit to infer that Dr Offit was advocating that the state should have the right to remove unvaccinated children from their parents’ custody: see Antivaxers call for execution of public health hero.

Dr Offit was not advocating anything of the sort:

On March 26 2016, the anti-vaccination website, Vaxxter, shared this lie on its Facebook page. Vaxxter turned Dr Offit’s statement – that the state will defend a child’s rights to access health care, when their parents will not –  into a claim that Dr Offit is advocating for the state to remove children of anti-vaccinationists.

The dishonest anti-vaccination post has been doing the rounds again in the last few days. And the same abuse and violent rhetoric is also doing the rounds.

On June 18 2016, president of the anti-vaccine Australian Vaccination-skeptics Network,  Tasha David*, shared the dishonest post to her Facebook profile, adding her own words:

What a scumbag!

But, “scumbag” wasn’t the worst of it; leading Canberra antivaxer, Shayla Plosko joined in:

Shayla Plosko Will he die already? Asshole! 😠

Tasha Dāvid He would make a great anti-Christ 😡

Shayla Plosko He is one.

Tasha Dāvid You are so right lol

Shayla Plosko He reminds me of the war criminals and the likes of Henry Kissinger the same kind of evil vibe.

Of course, this is rather timid compared to the usual death threats and other violent rhetoric which are regularly leveled against Dr Offit, always incited by anti-vaccine lies about what they believe he has said, rather than what he has actually said. The leaders of the anti-vaccination movement know that this is a tried-and-true tactic to whip up the hate in their acolytes.

So, why is it important to highlight David’s ugly Facebook post, right now?

Well, Tasha David is the president of the AVN (an anti-vaccine organisation which rightly has a public health warning against its name, forever); a person who has lamented the use of precisely this type of awful behaviour in the past.

From July 2012, before she was the AVN president:

From March 2015, when she was already AVN president:

We find that David only derides this offensive behaviour when her ilk is the perceived target; when David can make hay from any perceived oppression. This, she has learnt from Meryl Dorey.

Why is it important to highlight David’s ugly Facebook post, right now?

Tasha David, as the AVN president, is at the forefront of fundraising activities being conducted by the AVN, so as to raise money for (reportedly pro bono) legal counsel for a planned High Court challenge against the Commonwealth’s No Jab No Pay legislation. This is just one post of many:

Why is it important to highlight David’s ugly Facebook post, right now?

Tasha David and her AVN are at the forefront of the promotion of the anti-vaccination, anti-chemtrails, political micro-party, the Health Australia Party:

Why is it important to highlight David’s ugly Facebook post, right now?

Tasha David and her AVN are at the forefront of the push to have the dishonest, Andrew Wakefield anti-vaccination documentary, Vaxxed, brought to Australia. David even traveled to the US, to meet the Vaxxed team, on the AVN’s members’ dime:

Why is it important to highlight David’s ugly Facebook post, right now?

Because, this is only the latest in a long history of threats, abuse and intimidation, used against public health advocates and professionals by the anti-vaccination movement.

On May 30 2016, Tasha David was championing the outrageous behaviour of anti-vaccination activists at the Telethon Kids immunisation seminar, held in Perth:

David was also using the official AVN Facebook page (one of them) to name and congratulate the activists:

We must remember that Shawn Dhu, named by David in many posts, is the same person who made violent threats against me, on video. Dhu also threatened journalist, Cathy O’Leary.

On June 1 2016, the public officer of the AVN, Meryl Dorey, also congratulated the disruptive, intimidating anti-vaccination activists:

As noted above, this violent rhetoric, and its incitement, can be traced back to antivax leaders such as Dorey and, in the US, Barbara Loe Fisher. Dorey has a long history of vilifying doctors as rapists, and researchers as the equivalent to paedophiles.

Dorey also has a pastime of lying about Dr Offit, and wishing harm upon him; she has been doing it for years, along with the other leaders of the AVN, regardless of how many times she is corrected. This is default behaviour for the AVN. David is just continuing the tradition.

Veteran AVN member, and former committee member, Jane Beeby – another supporter of the Health Australia Party – has always desired harm upon those with whom she disagrees.

On June 19 2016, commenting in the Bring Vaxxed to Australia/New Zealand Facebook group, on another of the very same posts vilifying Dr Paul Offit, Beeby reverted to form once more:

All of the above is why it is important to highlight Tasha David’s ugly Facebook post, right now.

Especially, right now.

_________________________________________

*Tasha David was contacted for a response and/or opportunity to retract her comments and offer an apology. David deleted the post from her profile; but, no response was provided by 17oo hours today, as requested.