Comments on: Meryl Dorey’s Disaster – AVN Returns To Perth (Minus An Audience)!

By: One for MediaWatch: anti-vaccination nonsense on ABC Science! #StopAVN – Dave The Happy Singer

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:40:25 +0000

[...] student making the claims, Judy Wilyman, is no stranger to #StopAVN. She has appeared on a double-bill of crazy with Meryl Dorey on more than one occasion, credited somewhat dubiously as a ‘PhD researcher at Murdoch [...]

By: The Twilight of Australian Vaccination Network? «Sean the Blogonaut

The Twilight of Australian Vaccination Network? «Sean the Blogonaut — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:59:14 +0000

[...] it’s not censorship when the general public begin to ignore your irrational bleating, it’s people exercising choice, and their intelligence. The bleatings will continue as no doubt [...]

By: Dan Buzzard

Dan Buzzard — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:46:32 +0000

I think Fiona Stanley took Meryls audience. Apparently people value truth more than paranoid conspiracies.

By: Kevpod

Kevpod — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:19:20 +0000

Is that the woman Richard was interviewing on the last show, who kept going on about her “20 years of research?” I’d like to know what this “research” really consisted of. I’m guessing it probably didn’t involve anything resembling serious academic discipline.

By: Sean the Blogonaut

Sean the Blogonaut — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:16:55 +0000

@podblack,

The re-education camps jibe or my appalling spelling which I assure you only happens here ?

By: Elliot

Elliot — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:28:30 +0000

I don’t know much about this “AVN” group or what ever you call them…All I know is that THAT is the BEST t-shirt I have ever seen and I am not sure why !

By: AndyD

AndyD — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:03:24 +0000

What heartens me most about your summary is not so much the low turnout but that people left before it finished. It’s interesting to speculate their reasons and the anticipation of Meryl’s “rationalisation” of it is overwhelming.

By: podblack

podblack — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:19:59 +0000

I wondered about the impact of Sattler as well? I mean, I thought (if anything) that might have boosted numbers… perhaps it was a deterrent, maybe it was ‘too little, too late’. Hmm.

One thing is for certain – the audience for the free (and I’ll mention that again – FREE, as opposed to $10 the first time and then $15 for essentially the same lecture the second time by the AVN!) Telethon Health lecture was significant. It was absolutely packed. There were people everywhere, loads of parents and I was lucky to run in ten mins before it started and nab a seat in the third row so I could get blogging. And they made a point that the material would be online ASAP, which was nice.

By: Ausduck

Ausduck — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:33:35 +0000

Well done to all And to Perth for ignoring the AVN.
Meryl really is becoming her own worst publicity nightmare, and I for one welcome that. The more that she shows her true self and actions, the less chance she has of ever being taken seriously again.
And that’s a good thing for public health, and for children.

By: lisa

lisa — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:59:36 +0000

It’s fantastic that you were able to get people on the ground at both seminars. Getting material out at the same time as the AVN’s material is really invaluable. Thanks to everyone who made it there.

I also wonder whether guest-starring on Sattler attracted a core of nutters (I don’t know too many parents of young kids who listen to him) to turn off ordinary punters even further.

By: Deb

Deb — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:42:15 +0000

Well done everyone. I like the interpretation that all the anti-vaxxers in Perth turned up to the first one, and the rest of Perth is sane.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:30:44 +0000

Another possibility is that the first time around the W.A. vaccination scare was still pretty fresh, and parents were super worried and the AVN fed of that. Now, however, it’s all in the past, and everyone seems to be OK, actually, so most parents are no longer especially concerned about vaccination safety and hence no longer amenable to the AVN scare tactics.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:45:14 +0000

Thank you so much for all the hard work you have put in to keeping us informed about this topic, which has sparked lots of discussion in our house.

By: podblack

podblack — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:35:39 +0000

Bugger spam trapping! Will release it, don’t worry Andy!!

By: podblack

podblack — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:35:18 +0000

Okay, I laughed out loud at that one, Sean!!

By: Grendel

Grendel — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:28:27 +0000

Occam’s razor is an approach not beloved by conspiracy theorists to whom the only explanation for an event must be the most improbable and convoluted. So I think Sean is right, it will be interesting to see what rationale they have.

By: Sean the Blogonaut

Sean the Blogonaut — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:14:10 +0000

or guarantee if you prefer real English

By: Sean the Blogonaut

Sean the Blogonaut — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:12:50 +0000

I can garuntee you that Ms Dorey will have a peculiar explanation for why there weren’t many people there. Maybe they were herded into unmarked vans and taken to re-education camps?

Good work Kylie, Dan and the WA skeptics

By: AndyD

AndyD — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 04:06:04 +0000

Oh no! Did I get spam-trapped or are you moderating?

By: AndyD

AndyD — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:59:18 +0000

As Meryl wrote on her own blog two days ago – “All I know is that there is no public vaccination debate”. So she can get some things right.

Not to water-down the likely impact of all that’s happened in recent months, applying Occam’s Razor I’d suggest they attracted almost their entire support base (plus friends colleagues and a handful of intrigued onlookers) the first time around. Who needs to hear the same message a few weeks later?

Actually, it would be interesting to know how many of this week’s visitors were card-carrying members and repeat visitors.

No matter what the real reasons are for the dismal turnout – you’ll be blamed. How did you do it this time Kylie? Bomb threats? Barricades? Mind implants? Or did you just bring the AVN bad luck by “crossing their path”?