Thursday, December 29, 2011

Things are looking up: Vaccination saves lives

Look up, look up, look up. The massage in the sky is that "Vaccination saves lives".

The appearance of Meryl Dorey at the Woodford folk festival has been a major theme for my recent blog posts. But now it seems to be coming to an exciting climax. Meryl talks today. And the grass roots campaigners have a special surprise in store for the president of the Australian Vaccination Network. All Ms Dorey has to do is look up to the sky.




Above: Ms Dorey's write-up in the online program

At this very moment a "Vaccination Saves Lives" banner is being towed by an aircraft over the festival site. The timing coincides with Ms Dorey's talk, due to start at the blue lotus tent any moment. It should be a treat for the festival goers, while being a poke at Ms Dorey's many cries about attempts to suppress free speech.

We encourage the audience to look up to the sky to see how we used our freedom of expression.

More photos (and a great blog) at Skeptimite 

The pro-evidence, pro-science, medical community have tonnes of literature regarding the efficacy of vaccinations. And with the current rise in vaccine preventable diseases, such as whooping cough and measles, it is vital that children and adults alike are vaccinated to improve herd immunity. Most people don't realise that these diseases can result in hospitalisation, long term health concerns and even death.  This is seriously scary stuff!  There is literally a 'body count' associated with anti-vax lies. Babies dying from something this  preventable simply should not happen in this country. This is why public awareness and education is so important. This is why the Stop the AVN does what they do. This is why the "Vaccination Saves Lives" campaign has been launched.

So Woodfordians, look up to the sky.

Vaccination Saves Lives: Stop The Australian Vaccination Network

In response to the first wave of blogs, mainstream media coverage, public out cry and ministerial condemnation, on Christmas eve the Woodford committee announced a  change to the program.  Dorey is no longer given the privilege of a solo presentation based on her lies about autism. Instead she will now be on a panel with Professor Andreas Subrbier, the head of the immunovirology Lab at Qld Institute of Medical Research. It is so nice to see a real medical mind speaking at woo-ford! Of course, we'd rather the mis-information and nonsense spouted by the Australian Vaccination Network was given no platform at all! This is because we expect Meryl Dorey to lie. Never-the-less, it has provided a wonderful opportunity to promote vaccination. Because they really do save lives.


Festival goers should look up, rather than listen to Meryl Dorey's dangerous mis-information.

Unfortunately, for the festival's PR, I feel that their program change may have been too little too late.
  • Wikipedia already has a "controversies" section on the Woodford folk fest page. 
  • The members of the Stop the AVN Facebook group have banned together to arrange this banner and leaflets to be passed out to those attending the forum.
  • This "vaccination saves lives" message from the heavens is bound to draw even more media coverage. 
  • I also happen to know that an army of tweeters and bloggers are poised computer side- right now!
I think it's time to check the barometers. There's another storm on the way!

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