July 09, 2010

Health Fascism in Australia.
By Martin Walker

The sinister Skeptics group, agents of what used to be CSICOP now the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) organised from the US and linked to the major corporate lobby groups, American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and American Council Against Health Fraud (ACAHF), which is in turn linked to the Australian CAHF) are making ground in Australia. Supported by authoritarian ideological influences in government and Big Pharma, the Skeptics are running constant attacks on homeopathy, natural cancer treatments, those who question vaccination and those who support any form of alternative medicine.

[* The first copy of this article that I saw said "Australian Council Against Health Fraud. There is no "American Council", so I suppose the name was changed on the Age of Autism site to fit in with AoA policy of publishing as many lies as possible. PB]

With the present world fiscal crisis, all those linked to Big Pharma and Science are fighting a bitter battle to preserve drug company competitiveness. But where fascist influences in government and health with most force come together is in attacking anyone who speaks out about freedom of choice and expression in relation to vaccination.

Over the last year the international corporate lobby Skeptics, have been behind a campaign against the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). In 2009, one of their trolls, a lay person with no standing in medicine or government complained about the web site of the AVN to the office of the State Government funded Health Care Complaints commission (HCCC) an organisation that accepts complaints against groups found be giving out false information about health.

The remit of the HCCC, did not actually cover parent groups which discussed the pros and cons of vaccination, so the State government slightly changed the remit to satisfy the Skeptics. The government then proceeded with a year long investigation into Meryl Dorey the woman who established and runs the AVN and the AVN itself.

Dorey was asked to answer their first 30 odd page report against her and the organisation, within a few weeks. She did this with a magnificent document that argued every point with brilliance. The complaint investigation actually argued against almost every sentence that had appeared on the AVN web site. If the AVN had said that vaccines contained toxic elements, such as mecury and aluminuim the HCCC argued with pseudo science that this was not true, giving pages of bogus evidence to support the vaccine manufacturers.

Yesterday Dorey received the final 30 page answer from the HCCC to the Skeptics complaint. This inevitably reiterated all the charges brought against and included many gems of Orwellian Newspeak, such as:

'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'.

This is the hub of Health Fascism happily embraced by the HCCC evidently supported not by the votes of their constituents but by Big Pharma. The pharma-skeptics and corporate science geeks, have pushed this censorious line in Britain and America. In Britain they went so far as to draw up a set of rules suggesting that no one other than scientists or doctors should be able to write anything, or say anything in the media; no lay person was to be able to hold a view on their own health or that of others. The next step after ruling that no one other than scientists can speak about health, is the bringing into force of fascism. No discussion about compulsory vaccination – force it on people, no discussion about alternative medicine – ban it, no discussion about what constitutes democracy – bring in scientific and evidence based politics and human behaviour.

In the past Meryl and her co-workers has been subject to authoritarian style attacks by the Skeptics, her web site has been taken down and meetings she was arranged to address called off. She and her co-workers and the AVN, are presently gearing up for the media onslaught on her and her web site. The media, like vultures are circling, asking for special privileges to present her case and tell her story, but Meryl is far too intelligent to fall for any of these parasitic manoeuvres; she's a fighter. Inevitably, however at the moment she feels isolated – as those living in Australia must sometimes do! (LOL). Everyone must rally round and lend her their strength. E-mail the inappropriately named, Health Care Complaints Commission at: hccc@hccc.nsw.gov.au Telephone them on (02) 9219 7444. Fax them on: (02) 9281 4585. Ask the HCCC why they accept complaints from people who belong to the global corporate science lobby group, Skeptics.

Support the AVN (http://www.avn.org.au/) . Contact any independent media, film makers or journalists you know in Australia and ask them to contact Meryl. Bring Meryl and the AVN into the international fold that is fighting to maintain health freedom and stands against Health Fascism.    Martin J Walker is an investigative writer who has written several books about aspects of the medical industrial complex. He started focusing on conflict of interest, intervention by pharmaceutical companies in government and patient groups in 1993. Over the last three years he has been a campaign writer for the parents of MMR vaccine damaged children covering every day of the now two year hearing of the General Medical Council that is trying Dr Wakefield and two other doctors. His GMC accounts can be found at www.cryshame.com, and his own website is, www.slingshotpublications.com