those pro-vaccine are this way because of conditioning. who is to say those of us who are anti-vaccine or who are pro-choice re:vaccine but choose not to vaccinate our children, are not also conditioned by our environment.
what i can tell you is this - doctors have only ever assured me vaccines are completely safe, effective and necessary, and they have often accused me of bad parenting because i chose not to stick my child with needless needles. meryl has only ever offered me full information and links to more information on all the pros as well as cons of each vaccine being tested on kids these days, as well as the risks of getting the disease in question, how one might contract it (eg: dog bite not commonly causing tetanus), whether you can treat the disease effectively and without harm to the child if they do get it, and what symptoms to look out for. now if doctors are only giving the positive light, who taught them to believe these things? i'm not a doctor, but i think perhaps medical school; and/or the large pharmaceutical companies who regularly offer all GPs sample drugs to test on their patients. i have been tested on before i became wise.
i think i am a better parent for researching for all the days and nights i spent....before deciding not to vaccinate my children. better than being horrified "your baby is going to die if you don't let me do this right now!" and without even thinking or looking into it, allowing your judgement to be clouded by doctors with a god complex. people ought not just trust their doctors, blindly, simply because they went to med school.
and yeh the alternative medicine scene is big now too, everyone's cashing in - but when do you ever hear any of them using emotional blackmail, bullying tactics, and all of the other methods doctors use? the only thing i can think of is the naturopaths who almost always say to all clients that we mustn't eat wheat or dairy because it is making us sick - and you know what, maybe they're right anyway.

Ms Cyndeigh, people are indeed free to research alternatives, but just because you find someone who claims they have an alternative does not mean the treatment they are selling IS an alternative. Homeopathic vaccines are one example of this. Every homeopath I have spook to has told me that homeopathy does not work in large studies because it is a very individualized approach. If that is indeed the case then homeopaths and their supporters need to raise their voices against the large companies like Boiron who mass produce remedies that anyone can buy and self dose since this approach would appear to be contrary to the claims of homeopathic medicine.

As for vaccinations, yes those who are vaccinated are given some measure of protection by the vaccine, but just as no vaccine can ever be perfectly risk free, no vaccine can also ever be totally effective, that is just not reality. A public health vaccination program relies on a sufficient number of people being vaccinated in order to be successful and provide the 'herd immunity' you alluded to.

The other problem with the approach of relying on those who do vaccinate to be protected against those who don't by the vaccine is that it ignores a third category - those who cannot be vaccinated. This includes, for some diseases, children under six months of age, people allergic to an ingredient of the vaccine and people with immunodeficiencies of a significant nature.

Public health programs are precisely that, a program designed to giver the maximum level of protection to the largest portion of the population either through direct vaccination or protection through herd immunity.

The freedom to research alternatives should be available to anyone. There is bias in presentation on both sides of this arguement.
Surely the vaccinated people would be "protected" from those that don't by their vaccination?? It therefore shouldn't matter what other people choose to do. There seems to be flaw in the logic.

The issue of vaccination is a human rights issue. Children's Human Rights are being violated by the number of medical experiments being conducted on them today in the form of vaccination. As a post war baby boomer, I have enjoyed good health, which children are being denied today due to the large number of assaults they are taking in the form of vaccinations. Do we as parents have the right to subject our children to an endless number of medical interventions that we were not subjected to as children? As an early childhood teacher, I see the tragedy of this unfettered medicalism everyday. Eleven of my current 25 students requires some form of medication at school. When I first started teaching in the early 1970's this number may have been 1 student requiring medication every few years. These children have had their health stolen from them by well-meaning parents who were not subjected to such widespread medicalism as children. It has to stop now! We need to find out why so many children are sick.

It was recently reported in the mainstream press in Australia, that greater than 40% of health care workers do not receive vaccinations against influenza.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/medics-ignoring-jabs/story-e6frea83-1225889991894

One can only speculate why these same people are then publicly advocating injecting this hazardous product into children as young as 6 months of age. The conduct of the pharmaceutical and medical industries would be better described as criminal rather than mere negligence, and I'm sure the parents of the 2 year old who died 12 hours following this years withdrawn influenza vaccine would agree with me. These people are criminals, period.

The complaint against the AVN was undertaken by a a skeptic devotee Mr Ken Mcleod, a retired air traffic controller who until recently identified "shit-stirring" as one of his hobbies on his Facebook page. One can only wonder why Mr Mcleod would feel the need to wave his flag for the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. That's right, Ken Mcleod holds shares in Big Pharma.

The skeptics are made up of self-interested agents of Big Industry, which includes Big Pharma, as well as their susceptible, black-and-white thinking followers who "wanted to be scientists when they grew up". Far from having a compassion for humanity, they are ruthless defenders of their taxpayer-funded territory, who mercilessly target and character-assassinate any person who challenges the established orthodoxy. Many of the skeptic followers are computer geeks who are incapable of understanding the flawed nature of epidemiology as it applies to the subject of vaccination and biological systems. After all, not all science is created equal. Clinical studies regularly show links between vaccines and a range of chronic disease which includes autism, where epidemiological studies do not. These people are fascists, who represent a real threat to democracy. Their unethical, sociopathic, hounding, bullying and likely illegal behaviour should send a chill down the spines of all free-thinking Australians.

How typical of silly extremist groups like this to resort to the "conspiracy theory" position.
Actually the so-called "alternative medicine" industry is making huge bucks out of selling water and placebos.

In paragraph four you describe an international lobby (the skeptics) and then outline how the person who made the complain was "a lay person with no standing in medical or government". This seems an odd contradiction as it appears as if the person who has made a successful complaint against the AVN did so without any of the corporate backing you suggest should have existed and used only public ally available data to make the complaint.

This must mean the AVN has very poor supporting data to base it's claims on. I recall now on two occasions on television when Meryl has been asked to provide evidence to support her claims and produced nothing but excuses ("I mailed it to the studio and you must have lost it")

The AVN does not provide a balanced view, or sound information to parents, sound information is based on facts, not conspiracy theories and evidence not wishful thinking.

And as for skeptics, perhaps you should go along to a skeptic meeting in your city and find out the real truth. It's just a bunch of people who's only common link is that they value reason and have a compassion for humanity based not in magical or religious beliefs but I the awareness that this life is valuable because it is the only one we get.

Typical conspiracy theorising, characteristic of extremist groups. Ironically,
some 'alternative medicine' companies are now big business.

Just who exactly is this "Big Pharma"?

Motivated by money? Aren't all business the same? One can include the entire alt-med community in that too.

The one thing this "big pharma" behemoth has to undergo that alt-med doesn't is the meatgrinder of science.

As far as AVN is concerned, its rhetoric about toxins and vaccines contributing to autism is just nonsensical. Worst of all is that its leader, Meryl Dorey, is so scientifically illiterate that she has put forward studies that actually go against her claims. Yes, it's sadly true.

Science is not a religion, it is not a belief system. It's about setting a standard of evidence for which a claim needs to be supported.

As for this article, it's just plain rubbish. To assert that any sector of the public must be getting paid and have a hidden agenda not to support this unsubstantiated conspiracy theory is silly.

Ilijas.

Just who exactly is this "Big Pharma"?

Motivated by money? Aren't all business the same? One can include the entire alt-med community in that too.

The one thing this "big pharma" behemoth has to undergo that alt-med doesn't is the meatgrinder of science.

As far as AVN is concerned, its rhetoric about toxins and vaccines contributing to autism is just nonsensical. Worst of all is that its leader, Meryl Dorey, is so scientifically illiterate that she has put forward studies that actually go against her claims. Yes, it's sadly true.

Science is not a religion, it is not a belief system. It's about setting a standard of evidence for which a claim needs to be supported.

As for this article, it's just plain rubbish. To assert that any sector of the public must be getting paid and have a hidden agenda not to support this unsubstantiated conspiracy theory is silly.

Ilijas.

Demonstrate your claims are valid and all the skeptics go away.

Can you believe the septics trying to get at Meryl by saying the 'scientific' studies she cites don't actually support her? Who cares what the establishment says, of course big pharma isn't going to let anyone publish 'studies' that say anything bad about vaccines. Wakefield is a hero for exposing the TRUTH about these toxic deathjabs.

There's no need for all the toxinz in so called "medicine" anyway, any form of inbalance in the body or dis-ease that does occur can be healed easily using Wateropathy. It's all natural and completely organic.

I'm just flabergasted. I think that be the right word. How can something like this happen in Australia the hub of civility in the Northern Hemisphere? Go Dr. Wakefiled. He will prevail and he and Meryl will rule the world. And, please, vote John Best for President.

Big pharma is really an evil monster to be erased from the face of the earth. That situation in australia is similar in philippines.