For immediate release - Monday, September 9, 2002:

The Australian Vaccination Network, a national non-profit charitable association, today begins a campaign to raise the awareness of the media in this country to the terrible toll recommended vaccines can take on the lives of Australian families. We propose to make these vaccine victims real by sending their pictures to print and broadcast media outlets. Whilst the AVN is not anti-vaccine, we are absolutely opposed to the blase attitude of so many in the government and medical community when it comes to testing of vaccines.

A prime example of this is the recent introduction of Meningitec, a Meningococcal vaccine, to the Australian Childhood Vaccination Schedule. This vaccine, like others before it, has never been tested in Australia by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the government body charged with ensuring that medical products are safe and effective.Almost all studies done to date have been funded by the same pharmaceutical company which produces the vaccine - an obvious conflict of interest. It has been associated with tens of thousands of serious adverse reactions overseas and many deaths as well. Despite this, the government has approved $41 million for its use, increasing to 40 the number of vaccines a child will get by the time they start school.

ADRAC and the SAEFVSS, the government departments which track and collect data on vaccine reactions, have admitted that less than 10% of these reactions are ever reported. This means that the official statistics on the safety of vaccines are at least 90% incorrect.

The AVN maintains a national, toll-free number to allow parents and health professionals to report reactions when they occur. These reactions are then forwarded on to ADRAC to be added to the official statistics. In the past 12 months, we have registered more than 800 serious reactions and deaths. Coincidentally, since this time, this data has no longer been included in the CDI Bulletin, published on a quarterly basis by the Dept of Health and Human Services.

A life is a life. A child killed by a vaccine is just as tragic as a child killed by illness. Why has the media chosen to ignore these injuries and deaths whilst focusing on the much rarer occurence of injuries after disease? Australian parents need to know that they have a choice and that they must be fully informed before making any vaccine decision. Anything less would equate to medical tyrrany.

A picture of a vaccine injured child will be sent every week-day for nine months. If you would like to receive one by email, please contact the AVN at meryl@avn.org.au.

Meryl W. Dorey,

President

The Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.

PO Box 177 02 6687 1699 Phone

Bangalow NSW 2479 02 6687 2032 FAX

"All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."

(Schopenhauer)

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Any information obtained here is not to be construed as medical OR legal advice. The decision to vaccinate and how you implement that decision is yours and yours alone.

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