More venues have cancelled appearances from a US anti-vaccination campaigner, prompting a supporter of the seminars to compare opponents to the gunmen who targeted French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
At least five venues have now ditched bookings for Sherri Tenpenny, who is due to visit Australia in February and March.
An online network opposing her visit, the Stop the Australian (Anti) Vaccination Network (SAVN), has called for venues to refuse bookings and is demanding that Peter Dutton, the immigration minister, reject her visa.
Meryl Dorey, a former president of the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network, drew a comparison with Wednesday’s attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead.
“The organisation that is pushing this censorship is a hate group and they are very much like the groups in France that have been carrying out these actions,” she told 3AW.
“No one is forcing people to attend but when you say in a democratic country that you can’t discuss an issue, that’s a problem. There’s an imbalance – 99% of what appears in government brochures is the benefits of vaccination, but not the risks. When someone talks about the risks they are downplayed or ridiculed.”
A dinner with Tenpenny on 28 February, with tickets costing up to $200, is now without a venue after the Amora Hotel Riverwalk in Melbourne pulled out.
A full-day event in Melbourne on 1 March, called Birth, Baby and Beyond, has also been left without a venue, although organisers are urging people to pay for $77 tickets in the expectation a replacement will be found.
The event, previously due to be held at the Bayview Eden hotel, will feature Tenpenny and Isaac Golden, a homoeopathic practitioner from Victoria, discussing a range of topics including “ultrasounds, cord clamping, vitamin K injections, vaccination risks, benefits and alternatives, chiropractic adjustments after birth, Sids and the toxic gas theory and nutrition for babies and children”.
In NSW, the Concord function centre in Narooma had deemed a Tenpenny event “too controversial” and Kareela Golf and Social Club in Sydney said it didn’t want to be associated with a planned seminar.
Online listings of each event include a message from organisers that states the “venue has cancelled our booking due to bullying by vested interests who do not believe in informed consent, free speech and respect for other’s rights, and who appear to support censorship of thought and science.”
Tenpenny has courted controversy by claiming that vaccines cause asthma, autism and auto-immune disorders.
Dorey defended the credentials of Tenpenny, who is an osteopath, saying: “She’s an osteopathic physician, which is completely different from an osteopath.”
John Cunningham, an orthopedic surgeon and spokesman for SAVN, said Dorey and Tenpenny spread “lies and misinformation” and called the comparison of the group to terrorism “disgusting”.
“All we want to do is promote science and evidence-based medicine,” he said. “I think free speech is important, but there are limits when it comes to impacting public health.”
Cunningham pointed to the substantial body of science that shows there is no link between autism and vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, or the MMR shot for measles, mumps and rubella.