About Stop the AVN
The Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), formerly known as the Vaccination Awareness Network, is an Australian anti-vaccination lobby group registered in New South Wales.
It is dedicated to the idea that one's health can be maintained without the use of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. The organisation has lobbied against a variety of vaccination-related programs, downplayed the danger of childhood diseases such as measles and pertussis, championed the cause of alleged vaccination victims, and promoted the use of alternative medicine such as homeopathy and chiropractic.
The AVN has been described as a provider of "misleading, inaccurate and deceptive" vaccination information by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission and has been heavily criticised by Doctors and other experts on immunisation. The group has been called the "stronghold of the anti-vaccination movement" in Australia and is subject to widespread criticism from medical professionals, scientists and other proponents of vaccination.
AVN representatives have stated that vaccination is used to implant microchips, (See "Meryl Dorey's Trouble With The Truth Part 2" Items 10 and 11)
They have credulously reposted the insane conspiracy rantings of David Icke in their official blog. AVN members also sent hate mail to the grieving parents of a 4 week old baby who died of pertussis, with AVN President Meryl Dorey attempting to access the child's medical records in a vain attempt to prove the baby's death was not from pertussis, labelling the Director of Public Health at the North Coast Area Health Service a liar.
On October 14, 2010, the organisation's right to fundraise was stripped from it by the New South Wales Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing, stating that its appeals had "not been conducted in good faith for charitable purposes".