Why do Aussies write books like this?

[tentofield]

There is a strong anti-vax movement in Australia particularly in certain areas. Northeast NSW is one and the Adelaide Hills is another. The misnamed Australian Vaccination Network is the main anti-vax organisation with its own website in Australia.

The NSW Department of Fair Trading has ordered them to change their name "because the title is “against the public interest”

" In a December 12 letter to AVN public officer Meryl Dorey, Fair Trading commissioner Rod Stowe adds that the name is “undesirable and therefore unacceptable pursuant to section 18(1) f of the [Associations Incorporation] Act [2009].

"Stowe said that “NSW Fair Trading has received complaints that the Association’s name is confusing, misleading and has misled the public as the operational intention of the Association. … I hereby direct Australian Vaccination Network Incorporated to change its name.”

"The Department gives the AVN until February 21, 2013, to apply for registration of a change of name."
http://www.skeptics.com.au/latest/announ...able-name/

There have been three deaths of babies in northeast NSW from whooping cough (pertussis) in recent times and there is an epidemic of pertussis in the area. Babies should be protected by herd immunity but the number of people not having children vaccinated is so high that herd immunity has failed. Adults are getting what is often called the "hundred day cough". It is whooping cough.

Stop the AVN is an organisation set up to counter the misinformation being put out by the AVN. It has a website here http://www.stopavn.com/ and uses Facebook and Twitter as well. Stop the AVN was awarded Skeptic of the Year in 2010.

It is a continuing battle to fight the anti-vaxxers but at last the news media are learning that a report on vaccination does not need a "balanced" report from anti-vaxxers any more than a report on astronomy needs input from astrologers or a report on evolution needs "balance" from creationists.