Vaccination update -- Mandatory Vaccination, its here, its real!

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Mandatory Vaccination, its here,  its real!

 

Read more ....

http://www.avn.org.au/news/81A186E2-1B40-420A-A9EF-9C2A6BE1D83B.html

 

Sigh the Petition ....

http://www.petitiononline.com/avnivm/petition.html

 

 

Dear Health Freedom Advocate,

 

 

Below is the latest news letter from Meryl Dorey at the Australian

Vaccination Network (AVN). Meryl recently visited and talked with politicians at

Government house here in NSW. This is an update of what she has encountered. We

need

to work with the AVN and we need to send emails to the various politicians

Meryl writes about.... Please read the whole email, it is long but we really

have

to know this information.

 

If you are a student studying health sciences at university or you are a

nurse then this information is especially important right now.

 

Lobbying update:

 

I meant to send you all through an update after my last email which covered

the first couple of days in Sydney but as soon as I got back to the office, the

magazine had to be mailed out so there just was no time to sit down and give

this the attention it needs. This is going to be a bit of a longer Doing the

Rounds so make yourself a cup of tea (herbal, of course!) and get comfortable.

But please read this all the way through as the information is very important

for all of you!

 

<FONT COLOR= " #000000 " BACK= " #ffffff " style= " BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff " SIZE=3

PTSIZE=12 FAMILY= " SANSSERIF " FACE= " Verdana " Thursday, 31 May 2007:

 

Our first meeting was with Fred Nile who was probably the biggest surprise to

me! Politically, I am a bit left of centre and his Christian Democratic

Party, is pretty far to the right. So whilst we probably would not agree on many

issues, on this particular one, there was a real understanding that this measure

was anti-democratic and should not be allowed to continue – at least not

without some pretty strong resistance!

 

On a personal note, Fred told us that he has been in Parliament since 1983 or

1984 and in all that time, he has never missed a day in the Chamber when a

vote was being held. This is pretty amazing considering the fact that I twice

went into the Chamber when I was there and there were never more than 4-5

MPs/MLCs there either time! Fred told us that a few years ago, Parliament tried

to

sneak through their own pay-rise by holding the vote at 1:30 in the morning.

Fred got wind of it and made sure he was there and stopped it from going through

which did NOT make him a very popular fellow. But to me, that was an

indication of the sort of man Fred is. Someone who is not afraid of doing

something

that others don’t like if he thinks it’s the right thing to do.

 

Anyway, Fred told us that from memory, there was a bill coming up which we

might be able to tack an amendment onto. Every 5 years, the anti-discrimination

act must be debated in Parliament and the time for that debate was soon (I am

hoping it hadn’t already happened – waiting to hear back) so Rev Nile would

be willing to see about adding medical choice to the wording of the bill.

Currently, you can’t be discriminated against on the basis of race, sex,

religion

or disability and we were told that the only way to fight against the policy

requiring vaccination for hospital workers and students was by claiming that

they were disabled because they could be carrying diseases in their body so not

letting them work or go to school was discriminatory. This is a path I do NOT

want to go down. To my mind and from almost 18 years of research in this area,

those who are unvaccinated are far healthier and apart from that, we are

talking about medical professionals who have made a choice – not just done as

they

were told. Therefore, they should be allowed to work if their own medical

research has indicated that their health would be better-maintained if they

don’t

vaccinate.

 

An amendment to this Act would be the best possible outcome we could possibly

have. In one fell swoop, it will take care of the people affected by this

policy and in addition, it will give those in the military who are currently

unable to choose not to be vaccinated, a leg to stand on when fighting to

protect

their rights to protect our nation without putting their own health at risk.

 

There are lots of other benefits to this and I am hopeful we will be able to

at least get the issue raised in Parliament. As Rev Nile says – we may not

have a chance of getting this passed, but it will certainly raise the profile of

the issue.

 

Please write to Rev Nile to thank him for his help and to encourage him to

work hard for us to prevent this gross invasion of our liberty by vested

interests and those who don’t have the knowledge or the understanding about

this

issue. f.nile

 

Our next meeting was with Noreen Hay, member for Wollongong. I have to say

that this meeting was a bit of a disappointment! Noreen was in the middle of

lots of things and we didn’t get in to see her until late and she had very

little

time. We basically explained our position shook hands and left. Noreen is the

Labor Party member for Wollongong. The only good thing about this meeting was

thata she agreed to raise this issue with Reba Meagher, the Minister for

Health. We have not heard back from her yet so a letter to her would be very

good.

Her email address is wollongong

 

Next was a very important meeting and one that will require letters, letters,

letters! You can of course send the same letter to everyone so don’t panic!

Write one – send many – the joy of email.

 

Our meeting was ostensibly with Michael Daly, Labor Party member for Maroubra

who was really only acting as a conduit to the Minister for Health who ‘couldn

’t ‘ meet with us. Sitting in on the meeting was Claire McWilliam who is

Reba Meagher’s (the Minister for Health’s) advisor and Dr Kerry Chant whose

details I will paste here so you can all spread them around to anyone who has

been

affected by or cares about this policy. I would like to see her FLOODED with

emails guys – this is an important one!

 

Dr Kerry Chant Health Protection and

Deputy Chief Health Officer

NSW Health Department

Phone:  (02) 9391 9288

Fax:  (02) 9391 9682

Email:  kecha

 

 

I wish I had either a photographic memory or a tape recorder for this meeting

because there were some ‘beauties’ that came out of it! I said our meeting

was ostensibly with Michael Daly and he did have input and ask questions, but

the two ladies from the Minister’s office and the Health Department were

really

the focus.

 

We started off with our, by now well-practiced spiel, about rights, the live

virus vaccines putting patients at risk, Andrew and Esther talking about

getting kicked out of nursing school and Roger discussing the fact that there is

more than one path to health.

 

Claire McWilliam said very little though Michael did interject with several

questions which showed quite clearly that he was truly paying attention. It was

really Kerry Chant who was the focus of this meeting however. Some of the

comments she made were interesting – especially from someone in her position

and

with her access to what should be correct and well-referenced information.

 

In response to my statement that people who receive live-virus vaccines

should stay away from the immunocompromised and those undergoing

immunosuppressive

therapies for up to 90 days because they can be infectious for that period of

time, Kerry stated that this was not the case. She said that I was misreading

what the manufacturer says and that the actual statement was that live virus

vaccines were not to be given within one month of each other because the

body’s

ability to make antibodies against the diseases could be less if they were

administered more closely than that.

 

Well! Hang me for an ignorant and ill-informed fear mongerer! I quote from

the current edition of MIMS – the accepted source for information on all

currently licensed drugs and vaccines in Australia:

 

(From the package insert for the Varicella or Chicken Pox Vaccine – Varilix)

–

“Transmission of the Oka virus to seronegative contacts of a vaccinee has

been shown to occur at an extremely low rate. The mild nature of the rash which

developed in the healthy contacts indicates that the virus remains attenuated

after passage through human hosts. Vaccine recipients should attempt to avoid

contact with susceptible high risk individuals for up to six weeks, where

possible.â€

 

The information is similar for the MMR (Measles, mumps and rubella) and Oral

Polio vaccines. What I would like to know is – where does she get her

information from?

 

Kerry also said that nobody would lose their jobs as a result of this policy

but she had no answer when confronted with Andrew and Esther’s stories of

nurses who have basically be told that if they don’t vaccinate, there will be

no

place in the hospital for them. If you are a nurse who is in this position,

please write to her to let her know.

 

After being told how wrong her information was when it came to the safety of

nurse’s jobs, she said that we should be talking with Sue Campbell-Lloyd, a

woman whose details I put into an earlier edition of Doing the Rounds and

someone who has never returned any of my phone calls or emails. If any of you

wrote

to her, please let me know if she replied.

 

When I told Kerry of Sue’s unresponsiveness, she was very surprised and just

told me that we should try again so – here is her email address. Please send

copies of all correspondence to her – scamp

 

The one good thing that came out of this meeting was a commitment by Kerry

Chant that she would work with all students on a case-by-case basis to ensure

that they could complete their practical work and go on to finish their

education. We are yet to see evidence of this since both Andrew and Esther have

written to her without a response.

 

If you are a student who can’t get into practicum or know of someone who is

in this situation, please be sure that they write to both Kerry and Sue and

send copies of that letter to me at meryl.

 

Michael Daley can be contacted at his NSW Parliament email address -

maroubra

 

Next was Ian Cohen of the NSW Greens. Ian lives locally here near Byron Bay

and is very well-known for his commitment to the environment and to rights

issues. He is an advocate of natural health himself and though he did not have a

position on the subject of vaccination per se, he did not understand why this

would be made compulsory. He has promised to ask questions on notice and should

definitely get a letter from you at  

ian.cohen

 

Later was a meeting which I thought was a fizzle but it turned out to be

excellent (though I didn’t know it at the time…). Clover Moore must be a

dynamo

though we didn’t get to meet her. Instead, we got to meet with her assistant,

Tammy, who took volumes of notes while we spoke, asked us a few questions and

thanked us for coming to see her. Clover Moore is not only the Lord Mayor or

Sydney, she is also an Independent Member of Parliament – how she does both

jobs

is beyond me but looking back, I am so happy we were able to reach her via

Tammy.

 

Today, I got a copy of a letter that Clover Moore wrote to Reba Meagher on

our behalf and it shows that not only is she interested in this issue, but Tammy

actually heard and took in every word we said!

 

Here is that letter:  

 

Dear Minister,

 

I write on behalf of  members of the Australian Vaccination Network, the

Natural Health Care Alliance, the Natural Health Society and the Australian

Homoeopathic Association, who have contacted me about the recent decision to

introduce mandatory vaccination for health services students and staff.

 

Members tell me that the NSW government introduced a new policy in February

that requires students of health professions and hospital staff to be

vaccinated against ten diseases. They inform me that students refusing to be

vaccinated

will not be able to do the practical component of their course and cannot

finish their course, and that hospital staff refusing to be vaccinated will lose

their jobs. They say that the policy will have an effect on nursing and allied

health staffing shortages.

 

Members of these bodies tell me that they are opposed to compulsory

vaccination, not vaccination itself. They say that vaccination is a medical

procedure

that involves risks and that there are many reasons why some people would

choose not to be vaccinated.

 

According to those members who contacted me, the stated aim of the policy is

to protect patients, yet the policy does not require that staff and students

recently vaccinated with live viruses such as measles, mumps and rubella, are

kept away from immune-compromised patients. They also state that there is no

evidence of patients contracting diseases on the list from students or hospital

staff.

 

Members of the groups also inform me that they policy was introduced in NSW

without adequate consultation. They say that while the Nurses Association was

involved in drafting the policy, they did not contact members, and that

hospital staff and health profession students were not given the opportunity to

make

submissions.

 

I share concern that policy changes should involve public consultation and

that mandatory measures require a cautionary approach.

 

Could you please review the mandatory vaccination policy and consider the

concerns raised by the Australian Vaccination Network, the Natural Health Care

Association and the Australian Homoeopathic Association?

 

Could you please inform me what action you have taken?

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Clover Moore,

Member for Sydney  

 

 

This is an excellent letter and deserves our thanks!

Please write to sydney to let Clover and Tammy know

that you appreciate their efforts!

 

Our last meeting for the day was with Marie Andrews, Labor member for

Gosford. Marie was a lovely lady and very nice to chat with. We had a nice talk

and

she promised to raise our concerns with Reba Meagher.

 

Here is the letter I received from her today:  

 

 

Dear Meryl,

 

I refer to our recent meeting in Parliament House during which we discussed

the concerns which the Australian Vaccination Network had about the Department

of Health’s policy relating to vaccination.

 

I am now advised by Minister Meagher’s office that the Iemma Government

supports immunisation and strongly encourages all parents to take advantage of

this

life saving medical service. The Government does, however, recognise that

immunisation is a matter of personal choice.

 

Your organisation can be reassured that the NSW Government has no intention

of introducing compulsory vaccination for the HPV or any other disease.

 

The NSW Government is committed to providing free vaccines to public

healthcare workers throughout NSW. I am advised by the Minister’s office that

the

major health representative bodies were involved in the development of this

policy

including:

 

The NSW Nurses Association;

The Australian Medical Association, NSW;

The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation NSW;

The Health Services Union; and

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

 

The policy is based on well established scientific evidence on the public

health benefits of vaccination and is not compulsory.

 

I am advised that NSW Health employees who choose not to consent to

immunisation or screening for tuberculosis may be transferred to work in lower

risk

clinical areas.

 

NSW Health recognises that this policy may create difficulties for student

nurses who cannot complete all the necessary placements without immunisation and

has agreed to work with students and universities to develop an alternative

approach.

 

NSW Health’s primary concern is ensuring the health and safety of patients –

particularly newborn babies and other very vulnerable patients – and the

health service’s workforce.

 

It was pleasant meeting with you and I trust the above information will help

to clarify the issues raised with me.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Marie Andrews MP

Member for Gosford  

 

 

<sigh> where do we begin?????

First of all, whilst it is lovely to know that the government isn’t

contemplating making HPV or any other vaccination compulsory – what part of

“

compliance with this policy is mandatory†doesn’t Ms Andrews understand?

Mandatory and

compulsory are the same thing and this policy is mandatory so therefore,

compulsory.

 

And whilst it is so good that all of those big names were involved in the

development of this policy, where were the stakeholders when all of this

consultation was going on? Did any of those representative bodies bother to poll

their

members (the word member means that these people pay the bills for the big

wigs in these groups, don’t forget!) to ask for their input before rubber

stamping the word ‘approved’ on the paper? I think not!

 

Lastly, the idea of transferring people to lower-risk areas is laughable! The

only low risk area where they will not be in contact with vulnerable patients

would be mental health and how many nurses do we REALLY need in mental health

and with the chronic shortage of nurses which we already have in this

country, can we really afford to have caring, talented and experienced staff

unable

to work with patients?

 

Please write to Marie, thanking her for her time and setting her straight

about this policy. If you need some information, please look at the facsimile

letter on page 9 of this quarter’s issue (volume 5, number 1) of Informed

Voice.

If you are not a r – sign up now on our website and you will get this

information posted out to you because baby, we need your help just as much as

you need ours!

Marie’s email address is marie.andrews

 

Friday, 1 June 2007:

 

Our first meeting was with Jillian Skinner, the Shadow Minister for health. I

have to say that I was extremely impressed with her! She exuded power,

intelligence and energy and considering that she had to be at least 15 years

older

than me, I was just left feeling that there was a lot of WOW factor going on

there!

 

Jillian said that she was aware of this policy – the ONLY person we spoke

with who had actually heard about it before (other than the representatives of

the NSW Dept of Health, that is). She said she had read about it in the media

about a year ago and was not surprised that the Labor Government was doing

something like this – but then again, she IS the SHADOW Health Minister,

right? She

did not approve of compulsory health measures and told us that quite plainly,

though in no way was she anti-vaccine.

 

It was incredibly fortuitous that we met with her when she did however

because she was leaving Parliament that afternoon to attend a meeting with every

State and Territory’s Health and Shadow Health Minister and she assured us

that

she would be raising this issue at that meeting.

 

I have tried to follow up with her but haven’t yet been able to get through

so your emails would be very much appreciated. Her email address is

northshore

 

The next and second last meeting was with Gerard Martin and I was absolutely

amazed that we got in to see him because he is the Government Whip which is a

very powerful position! In fact, he is the only Labor front bencher we were

able to meet with and he gave us a very good hearing. He asked lots of questions

about why this policy came in in the first place and when we told him that we

didn’t know but would love to have the answer to that question ourselves, he

said that he would make inquiries on our behalf.

 

We were with him for somewhere in the area of 20 minutes and I was very

grateful that he gave us such a good block of time.

 

I have not yet heard back from his office either so an email to him asking

what the result of his inquiries are would be a good idea.

You can email him at gerard.martin

 

Last meeting (bet you thought I’d never finish, eh?) was with Lee Rhannon who

is the Health Spokesperson for the NSW Greens. Lee has to deal with some very

strong opinions within her own party and there seems to have been a lot of

discussion amongst the Greens MLCs since our initial cross-bench meeting on the

Tuesday (please refer to my last correspondence for a report on the first two

days of lobbying at Parliament). Lee seemed to be very supportive of what we

were asking for personally, but I think a letter from you will help to remind

her that she needs to do something about this issue. Her daughter had given

birth the day before our meeting so vaccination has GOT to be an issue that is

coming up in her own life. Does she want to see compulsory vaccination come into

Australia? Does she want people to be forced to decide between their job and

their health? Is this the sort of nation she wants her own grandchild to grow

up in? Somehow, I don’t think so.

 

Lee can be emailed at lee.rhiannon

 

To close, I also received a letter from Richard Amery's office. He was one of

the people we met with in our first two days at Parliament and he asked

questions on notice for us on the 31st of May. To date, the government has not

responded but I will keep you informed as more details come to hand. Here are

the

questions:  

 

0202 - Australian Vaccination Network

 

Mr Richard Amery to the Minister for Health -

 

1- Has the group called the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) expressed

concerns about the regulations that require the compulsory vaccination of health

workers in NSW?

 

2- Does this requirement relate to all health workers in all facets of health

care under the authority of the NSW Health Department?

 

3- Is this regulation designed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases

to patients and other health workers?

 

4- Is there any record of a disease being spread by an unvaccinated health

worker to a patient, health worker or other person in :

 

a) New South Wales

b) Australia

c) Elsewhere?  

 

Lastly, someone we didn’t even meet with has written to the Department of

Health on our behalf. Three to four weeks before we went to Parliament, we

emailed every single MP and MLC asking for appointments. Obviously, one of the

Members couldn’t see us but did write a letter on our behalf which is

wonderful.

 

The Member is Geoff Corrigan, Member for Camden and a member of the Labor

Party (wow!). He wrote to the Minister for Health who must have forwarded his

letter to the Department of Health and here is their reply which I also received

today:  

 

Dear Mr Corrigan,

 

The Minister for Health, the Hon Reba Meagher MP, has received your

representations on behalf of Ms Meryl Dorey, National President of the

Australian

Vaccination Network Inc.

 

The Minister has asked me to advise you that the matters raised are being

considered and a reply will be sent to you as soon as possible.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Robert D McGregor AM

A/Director General  

 

 

Geoff Corrigan’s email address is camden and I can’t

find direct contact details for Robert McGregor and when I contacted Reba

Meagher’s office, they were very unhelpful indeed. If you want to snail mail

your

letter to him, the address is 73 Miller Street, North Sydney NSW 2060 or you

can send him an email via the department’s website – www.health.nsw.gov.au

and

then click on the contacts page. Just direct your comments to Robert D

McGregor.

 

Thanks for wading through all of this. I only have a couple of other very

short items to cover so please bear with me for one more minute and then, you

can

finish that cuppa and get back to whatever it was you were doing J

 

Informed Voice – Vol 5 Number 1 out now!

 

Our latest issue has just come back from the printer and was sent out last

week. If you are already a r, you should have it in your hands right

now. It is a huge accomplishment – entering our fifth year of publication as a

magazine and I thank all of our members and rs for their support.

 

I do have to let you know that we have had quite a large and shocking decline

in membership over the last 2 quarters with hundreds of people not renewing

their memberships and subscriptions and dozens of professionals deciding to

drop out too. Janiece is busy even as we speak sending off 360 reminder letters

to lapsed supporters and if we get the same response this quarter as we did

last, it is going to be a pretty dire situation.

 

Now where you place your support is your own decision and I know that there

are a million good causes out there and only so much money to go around. I

would like to urge you however that if you haven’t renewed simply because

it’s

been something you’ve forgotten to do – don’t put it off any longer. We

need

your help now as we never have before. Never have I been busier between running

off to Sydney twice in 2 weeks, getting the magazine out to you, answering

literally hundreds of phone calls a month from people who need information and

help and the myriad of other things that happen around here. In fact, our whole

office has been run off its feet and we are all struggling to keep it going.

The $44 a year you pay for your subscription and the $22 for membership is the

thing that keeps us active on your behalf. Without you, none of us would be

able to continue.

 

So please, if you haven’t renewed/joined/d, don’t wait. Visit

www.avn.org.au and using our secure website facility or call us on

1300

655 088. You can also fax us on 02 6687 2032 or mail us at AVN, PO Box 177,

Bangalow NSW 2479. However you choose to do it, do it now!

 

Web and newsletter advertising

 

Thank you to everyone who contacted us with expressions of interest after the

last issue of Doing the Rounds to request information on advertising on our

website. We are very close to having some finalised prices/positions and will

be getting back to you as soon as everything has been worked out.

 

One very exciting development that has come out of those contacts has been an

interest in advertising in the Doing the Rounds. I don’t know why I didn’t

think of that myself? We send this newsletter out to almost 5,000 interested

people and it is an obvious choice for anyone trying to reach a group of

health-minded consumers and practitioners.

 

In addition, we will soon be turning this little email broadsheet into a

fortnightly newsletter encompassing the same issues that we cover in our

magazine –

natural health, vaccination, parenting, organics and the environment. So

look to see an updated and more regular edition of Doing the Rounds coming out

soon and if you are interested in finding out about the advertising

opportunities on either this newsletter or our website, please contact Dianne on

02 6687

0469 or email advertising. Remember, current print

advertisers will be able to access great discounts on our virtual ad positions.

 

AVN Seminar – Adjust to the Challenges of Vaccination

 

I am very excited to announce that we are hosting a seminar on the Sunshine

Coast (one of my favourite parts of Australia!) in late August this year. There

will be three speakers other than myself and they are all dynamic, innovative

and incredibly informative people who you will never regret having heard so

if you are able to come – please do as this is a one-off and will not be

repeated in the foreseeable future.

 

The date is Saturday, August 29th and it is at the Lake Kawana Community

Centre in Bokarina QLD (there is a full page ad for this seminar on page 14 of

this quarter’s edition of Informed Voice).

 

The speakers will be:

 

Mark Postles of Coast Kawana Chiropractic whose talk is – It’s a beautiful

life!

 

Sarah Farrant – author of the Vital Truth who will be discussing – Where

does health come from and how can we achieve and maintain it?

 

Cindy O’Meara – author of Changing habits, Changing Lives who will help us

to understand that – Little changes can achieve big results

 

And me, Meryl Dorey who will be discussing the Voodoo Children – why are our

kids getting so many vaccines and how is that affecting their health.

 

All in all – it will be a fantastic day. The seminar is at 12 PM for a 12:30

PM sharp start and finishes at 6 PM. All are welcome and bookings can be made

by phoning 1300 665 088 (cost of a local call anywhere in Australia) or via

our website – www.avn.org.au – just click on the shop link at the top of the

page and then, the seminars/events link on the left hand side of the page.

 

There are discounts for AVN members so make sure your membership is

up-to-date or if it isn’t, you can join while you book and get the discount.

 

Good-bye for 3 weeks

 

You won’t be getting another update for a little while I’m afraid. I am

actually taking my first holiday from the office AND the computer for almost 4

whole years! And whilst I am getting the shakes just thinking about it, it will

be great for me, my long suffering husband and children and my sisters who are

coming in from the US for a visit.

 

So please be patient if you email me and don’t get a response. I will be back

in the office – re-energised and ready to go – on July 12th.

 

Until then, stay healthy, stay informed, stay alert!

 

All the best,

 

Meryl Meryl Dorey

AVN

Ph: 02 6687 1699

Fax: 02 6687 2032

Email: info

 

Postal address:

PO Box 177

Bangalow NSW 2479