Breaking news! The complaint to the NSW State Government-funded Health Care Complaints commission (HCCC) has been successfully upheld! Now the AVN has to feature disclaimers on their website.
Best of all, a well-regarded national current affairs program is going to investigate the group and show it on TV tonight!
It’s only just showing on ABC1′s Lateline program over in the Eastern States – if 
you’re in Western Australia, it’ll be screened at 10.35pm. There’ll be a transcript, vodcast and details on their official site, if you’re unable to see it today.
In addition, the ABC website has a short news item by Steve Cannane, which you can see in the picture: ‘Anti-Vaccine Group Accused of Harassing, Misleading Parents’.
‘In Australia vaccination is a key plank of public health strategy. It is thus extremely important for individuals, especially parents, to be able to make informed decisions about vaccination. The AVN provides information that is misleading for the average reader by inaccurately representing information, selectively reporting information, and giving non-peer reviewed and anecdotal material the same authority as peer -reviewed literature’. The NSW State Government-funded Health Care Complaints commission (HCCC).
The final report, in pdf format, may be downloaded at HCCC: AVN Final Report (PDF) - it includes the following:
The Australian Vaccination Network should include an appropriate statement in a prominent position on its website which states:
- the Australian Vaccination Network’s purpose is to provide information against vaccination in order to balance what it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere;
- the information provided should not be read as medical advice; and
- the decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.
As the 6 Minutes website summed up:
An anti-vaccination group has been found guilty of providing misleading information on immunisation in Australia and ordered by the Health Care Complaints Commission in NSW to include disclaimers on its website.
After investigating a complaint against The Australian Vaccination Network, the HCCC has ruled that the information provided to the public by the AVN “is misleading in that often information is omitted which does not provide the reader with an accurate picture of vaccination issues.”
…The AVN’s founder, Meryl Dorey, has posted the judgment online, in which the HCCC says the AVN should include a disclaimer to this effect in a prominent position on its website, stating that the AVN should not be regarded as medical advice and that decisions to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I would hope that this would bring Meryl and he supporters to their senses. I doubt it will, however, she will i think, keep heading towards the lunatic fringe, that’s if she’s not their already.
She’s certainly on the lunatic fringe. I hope this outcome helps others, mostly parents, recognise that.
Great news but will it slow her down?
I expect Meryl feels skeptics/media people who disagree with her view are part of the illuminati or are in fact lizard people…
I have emailed the HCCC report to a few home ed groups I am sure I shall now be shunned LOL .
Does she have anything on her blog … I am off to check it out now
Is this binding? I’ve heard on the Zone that a lot of rulings don’t have enough teeth when it comes to voluntary disclosure of charlatanry.
HJ
Not a bad outcome except for this requirement on the notice…
the decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider
The terms “health care provider” and “health practitioner” appear, to me, to have been invented to allow homeopaths and naturopaths to bask in the glow of real medicine without knowing the first thing about it. Parents who ask their naturopath for vaccination advice will likely be told the AVN are right.
Sorry, I thought this was the ABC story you linked above but now I see it’s different…
Steve Cannane article on AVN-HCCC ruling
(found via Vaccination AIS)
I think I’m getting randomly spam-trapped
Re #3: “the decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.”
How droll. A “health care provider” could be anyone…a witchdoctor, a crystal healer, a homeopath.
Why not “your medical doctor”?
Great report Lateline but Meryl said in the interview “We do not agree that the HCCC has any jurisdiction over us and we have been telling them this from the very beginning and we are seeking legal advice on this issue.” …so what will happen if she ignores the findings?
Congratulations to Ken, Toni & Dave for taking a stand. xox
Sorry to everyone who has been caught in ‘spam’ on my blog and some got accidentally deleted – part of the much-needed updates on my site, is not intentional.
Re #3: “the decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.”
Regarding the “health care provider” aspect, given that the AVN fall under the jurisdiction of the HCCC doesn’t that mean the AVN _are_ considered a health care provider?
When are the nutters due back in Perth?
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