Guess who just turned 30?

Highlights of the AVN's 30th birthday party

(Open this one in your browser; it’s too long for email.)

Gratitude practices have become quite a ‘thing’ in the last few years, ever since positive psychology researchers discovered that one of the key behaviours that increases life satisfaction is frequently feeling grateful for one’s blessings.

But there are some times when you don’t have to practise gratitude; it just spontaneously wells up inside you, until it bursts forth into tears of joy. Last Saturday night was one of those occasions for me. At the 30th birthday celebration of the Australian Vaccination-Risks Network (AVN), my husband John and I had cause to reflect on just how profoundly this organisation - which comprises a small band of volunteers endowed with unearthly courage, fortitude and stamina - has shaped the trajectory of our family’s life.

For those who don’t know, the AVN was formed back in 1994, by a small group of parents, and a handful of health professionals, who were concerned that the public was only ever presented with one side of the vaccine story: the narrative that vaccines are safe and effective, and are one of the greatest achievements of public health (sound familiar?). The founding parents all had vaccine-injured children, who found out the hard way that vaccines were not safe, at least for their kids.

One of those founding parents, and the first president of the AVN, was Meryl Dorey. I first met Meryl when I was in my very early 20s, and still in naturopathic college. I attended a seminar that presented the suppressed side of the vaccine story: not the feel-good fairy story of ‘The Science™’ triumphing over the scourge of contagious illness, but the rigorous evidence that vaccines played virtually no role in the precipitous decline of mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases in the twentieth century, and that they had unleashed a host of chronic illnesses - from allergies to autoimmune diseases to behavioural and neurological disorders - that were previously unknown or exceedingly rare.

Meryl was one of the speakers at that seminar, and I was blown away by her encyclopaedic knowledge of the published scientific literature that demonstrated that vaccines were neither safe nor effective. By the time I left the seminar, I was already adamant that if and when I had children, they would not be taking any of the vaccines on the childhood schedule, nor any other vaccine that had not undergone double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials in a large cohort with long-term follow-up to assess the overall impact on health (hint: no vaccine currently in use fulfills these criteria.)

So that’s the first thing I’m grateful to Meryl and the AVN for: Because of the tireless, selfless work of parents whose lives had been irrevocably altered by the vaccine injuries of their children, my children never had to suffer like theirs did. My two completely unvaccinated kids grew up without ever suffering from allergies, asthma, eczema, middle ear infections or tonsillitis, let alone tics, seizures or autism, which have become so common as to be accepted as ‘normal’.

I met John when I was 25. By our second date, we had already decided on the names of our future children, and by our third, I had told him that no child of mind would ever be vaccinated. At first he was taken aback, but as soon as he began reading my trove of vaccine research, he was totally on board with my stance.

And that’s the second thing I’m grateful to the AVN for: Unlike the doctors and public health authorities who mindlessly parrot the ‘safe and effective’ mantra without presenting a single shred of supporting evidence, the AVN has always had a strong focus on providing the scientific research that demonstrates the dangers and ineffectiveness of vaccines, both through their bookshop and online library of resources. Anyone with the courage to challenge their preconceptions about vaccination will quickly find that the ‘safe and effective’ narrative is a house of cards.

Fast forward several years, and our first child (who, like his younger sister, was born at home, with the help of a midwife, and with no ‘welcome to the world, here’s your vitamin K and hepatitis B shots’) was ready to start preschool. And here’s where my third debt of gratitude to the AVN comes in: Concerted lobbying of crossbench politicians by a determined band of AVN volunteers had ensured that a conscientious objection provision was inserted into 1998 legislation that linked receipt of childcare benefits and family tax credits, to being ‘up to date’ with the ever-expanding childhood vaccine schedule. (Read all about it in Meryl’s speech.) Without this legislative win, we could not have afforded to send our son to preschool while I returned to part-time study and work.

Fast forward another decade and a half, and the COVID scamdemic was unleashed upon us. And once more, the AVN was in the vanguard, organising rallies and protest marches, lobbying against vaccine mandates, and launching legal action against the criminals who plotted and schemed to squander our taxpayer dollars on unsafe, ineffective products that they then illegally forced upon the majority of the population, on pain of loss of their jobs, freedom of movement and the right to engage in normal activities of living like shopping and dining out.

My fourth debt of gratitude to the AVN is that, throughout that period of utter societal madness - which too many people seem eager to forget… although not this guy…

… I knew that Meryl and the AVN gang would remain an island of rock-solid sanity, tenaciously fighting to restore the rule of law upon our rogue politicians and public health bureaucrats.

As Meryl confessed, when she first launched the AVN thirty years ago, she figured that its mission of educating the public about the dangers and ineffectiveness of vaccines would be accomplished in around three years, at which point she would disband the organisation and go back to her regular life. So much for that plan!

The presidency of the AVN has passed through several capable pairs of hands since Meryl stepped down (all but one of whom was able to attend the birthday bash - see photos below), and I’m grateful to every one of them for their boundless generosity of spirit.

Think of the impact that having a vaccine-damaged child - a child who has uncontrollable seizures, severe developmental delays, life-threatening allergies, or devastating neurological conditions - would have on your family. Now imagine yourself volunteering your time to educate other parents and lobby politicians, so that other families don’t have to go through what yours has suffered. That’s what AVN’s small crew of mama and papa bears has been doing for thirty years. Whether you’ve ever heard of them before or not, they’ve been fighting for your right to determine which medical treatments you and your children will receive. They deserve your support:

John and I will be eternally grateful for what AVN has done for our family. We only hope that Meryl’s dream - that all the work of waking up the public will be accomplished, and all those lion-hearted volunteers can go back to living their lives - will come true soon.

And now, some pics from the event:

It wasn’t hard to find the venue when the Vaxxed bus was parked right outside :). You can watch interviews with people adversely impacted by vaccines, who told their stories on the Vaxxed bus, here. Have the tissues ready.

Greg Beattie recounts some of the hits and misses of his tenure as past president of the AVN.

As current president of the AVN, Aneeta Hafemeister has big shoes to fill, but fill them she does!

The woman, the myth, the legend - founder and past president of the AVN, Meryl Dorey.

The Pocket Rocket himself, Senator Malcolm Roberts. No one has fought harder than Senator Roberts for the inalienable rights of the Australian people.

Ya just couldn’t make this stuff up! John Larter and Graham Hood (aka Club Grubbery) have been helping to keep us sane since the scamdemic broke out.

Current AVN president, Aneeta Hafemeister, and past president, Meryl Dorey. Feel the power!!!!

And they can play guitar and sing, too! Is there no end to the talents of AVN past presidents?????

Retired barrister Julian Gillespie delivered an impromptu speech on the total corruption of the Australian judiciary. Julian is as mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it any more… and neither should you!

With one of my biggest heroes, Meryl Dorey!

Every name on the Vaxxed bus is a story of a family who suffered vaccine injury… but it’s also a story of resilience and triumph over adversity.

And some bonus pics from our bushwalk in Noosa National Park. John and I spent a couple of days at Noosa Heads before the AVN’s birthday bash, to celebrate his birthday. How old did he turn, you ask? There may be a little prize for the first person who correctly guesses John’s age :).