For the benefit of media who think it's worth consulting anti-vaccine lobbyists for "their side" when writing about the serious issue of immunisation, I'd like to suggest a few points, if I may:
1. Right now in Australia we're battling outbreaks of measles and whooping cough.
2. Evidence has shown that creating false balance by providing anti-vaccine speakers (who have opinions based on opinions) a platform alongside medical experts (who have opinions based on evidence), makes people give more credence to the anti-vaccine view than if it was presented in isolation.
3. As I see it, if you include an anti-vaccine lobbyist alongside an expert in a story about vaccination, you are hindering the success of public health initiatives and contributing to the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.
4. This:
Who says epidemiologists
know nothing of disease?
Who says having
eyes to read stuff with trumps medical degrees?
Who says doctors murder
babies? Yes, it’s (tut, sigh) Meryl Dorey.
Who says people
who shake babies aren’t to blame for fractured ribs?
Who says death from Whooping Cough is just
some mother’s made-up story?
Who says measles
is a gift? That’s right, it’s (head-desk) Meryl Dorey.
Who says AIDS might not be real because she’s not seen HIV?
Who says foetuses are sold and
turned to vaccines secretly?
Who says polio’s still rife, but in a different category?
Who says vaccines cause autism? Same old (face palm) Meryl
Dorey.
Who says Meryl Dorey’s incorrect? My state’s HCCC.
Who says Meryl’s claims are bulldust? People at the ABC.
Who says Meryl is misleading? Why, the Office
of Fair Trading.
So don’t put her in your story, ‘less your story needs
degrading.
Who makes vaccination ouchies seem horrendous and gory?
ReplyDeleteWho seeks to turn child death into her own personal glory?
Who says "the coffers are bare, so give me some morey"?