EDITORIAL
Prominent US anti-vaccination campaigner Sherri Tenpenny. Photo: Facebook
Doctors are calling on the federal government to prevent a high-profile American anti-vaccination campaigner from entering Australia for a planned speaking tour. Sherri Tenpenny, a physician and osteopath, is due to begin a series of lectures warning that vaccines cause autism, asthma, ADHD and auto-immune disorders in Sydney and Melbourne in March. One Sydney venue has cancelled and her supporters are now looking elsewhere. Meanwhile, opponents have started a petition asking the Minister for Health Peter Dutton and the Minister for Immigration and Border Control Scott Morrison to refuse her entry.
It is perhaps passing strange that some still oppose vaccination. The science is undeniable. In the years before vaccination became widespread – as late as 1980 – measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organisation. The highly contagious viral disease remains a leading cause of death among the young despite the ready availability of effective vaccines. Of its 145,700 victims in 2013, most were children under the age of five. But without comprehensive immunisation programs, such as those common to Australia, this figure would no doubt have been even higher.
Smallpox, a scourge that claimed the lives of as many as 500 million people, has been eradicated as a serious threat due to a global vaccination program. There was a time when polio stalked the Australian childhood but it has largely been eliminated thanks to international immunisation programs. The efforts of scientists and health professionals have, at the very least, partially mitigated the impact of these and many other diseases. Millions have been saved.
Australia has already lived through one vaccinations war. Opponents of the anti-vaccine lobby, the Australian Vaccination Network, in 2013 appeared to have won a battle in their long-running fight with the resignation of Meryl Dorey as president of the controversial Bangalow-based group. Like Tenpenny, AVN claimed vaccines cause autism, brain damage and cancer but the then Minister for Fair Trading Anthony Roberts forced a name change following complaints that it confused or misled the public and did not present a balanced case for vaccination nor present medical evidence to back up its claims.
On occasions, governments have stopped overseas lecturers talking in Australia. The Holocaust denier, David Irving, was denied entry by both the Keating and the Howard governments. The Immigration Minister, Mr Morrison, recently cancelled the visa of Julien Blanc, a self-styled dating coach from the US who reportedly advocates violence against women as legitimate social behaviour. Given Mr Blanc’s espousal of such potentially illegal acts, it was correct to refuse him entry.
The Sun-Herald believes the case for immunisation has been made – emphatically so. People like Dr Tenpenny who seek to campaign against it are misguided at best and, by refusing to draw on its well-documented benefits, they are putting their own health and that of the community, at risk. But unlike violence against women, there is nothing illegal about a person chosing not to immunise his or her child. It is testment to the work of the Australian government and medical profession that most Australians accept the importance of immunisation. But Dr Tenpenny’s opinions, while disproved by science and criticised by medical experts, are not against the law and should be allowed a forum.