Post by Willow on Mar 19, 2014 12:25:56 GMT 9.5
Australian Vaccination Network ‘used fear’ to mislead parents in anti-vaccination campaign, Health Care Complaints Commission finds
THE group that pedals alarmist links between vaccines and autism, cancer and SIDS, has been slammed by a Health Care Complaints Commission investigation.
The draft report into the investigation has been posted on the Australian Vaccination Network’s website.
The HCCC has found the AVN guilty of providing information that is misleading, incorrect, inaccurate and ‘entirely taken out of context’.
The group is now known as the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network because it was ordered by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to change its previous name because it was misleading. It still goes by the acronym the AVN.
The HCCC began investigating the group in 2009 after receiving complaints about its anti-vaccination activities however they could not act until legislative change in 2013 allowed the health body to further investigate complaints with a broader scope. The HCCC concentrated on the information disseminated by the group on their website.
The HCCC found misleading information relating to the effectiveness of Gardasil. They also found statistics on pertussis (whooping cough) were taken out of context; they gave inaccurate information on vaccine ingredients and inappropriately and wrongly linked autism to vaccines.
They were also criticised for using fear to influence people.
Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network loses charity status for spreading misinformation
“They need to focus on raising concerns about any real risks of vaccinations, rather than relying on the use of fear that is unfounded (for example the link between vaccination and autism) to influence people into making misinformed decisions about vaccination,” the draught report said.
An expert studied the 68 ‘studies’ that the AVN said showed vaccines caused autism and concluded that none make a “claim of causality”.
In a rebuttal, AVN President Greg Beattie admitted the studies they relied on were mere conjecture.
THE group that pedals alarmist links between vaccines and autism, cancer and SIDS, has been slammed by a Health Care Complaints Commission investigation.
The draft report into the investigation has been posted on the Australian Vaccination Network’s website.
The HCCC has found the AVN guilty of providing information that is misleading, incorrect, inaccurate and ‘entirely taken out of context’.
The group is now known as the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network because it was ordered by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to change its previous name because it was misleading. It still goes by the acronym the AVN.
The HCCC began investigating the group in 2009 after receiving complaints about its anti-vaccination activities however they could not act until legislative change in 2013 allowed the health body to further investigate complaints with a broader scope. The HCCC concentrated on the information disseminated by the group on their website.
The HCCC found misleading information relating to the effectiveness of Gardasil. They also found statistics on pertussis (whooping cough) were taken out of context; they gave inaccurate information on vaccine ingredients and inappropriately and wrongly linked autism to vaccines.
They were also criticised for using fear to influence people.
Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network loses charity status for spreading misinformation
“They need to focus on raising concerns about any real risks of vaccinations, rather than relying on the use of fear that is unfounded (for example the link between vaccination and autism) to influence people into making misinformed decisions about vaccination,” the draught report said.
An expert studied the 68 ‘studies’ that the AVN said showed vaccines caused autism and concluded that none make a “claim of causality”.
In a rebuttal, AVN President Greg Beattie admitted the studies they relied on were mere conjecture.