The controversial poster has since been removed. Photo: Facebook
The Australian Vaccination Skeptic’s Network (AVSNI) circulated a controversial image on social media this morning, comparing childhood immunisation to rape.
The post, which has since been removed from the organisation’s Facebook page, featured a disturbing image of a woman in distress, with a man who is covering her mouth with his hand. The accompanying text reads:
“FORCED PENETRATION: Really- no big deal, if it’s just a vaccination needle, and he’s a doctor. Do you really ‘need’ control over your own choices?” Almost immediately, supporters expressed their disgust at the image.
It’s not the first time the controversial group have likened being pro-vaccination to rape. According to the Sydney Morning Herald the organisation compared the court ordering a five-year-old girl to be immunised to “court orders rape of a child” in a tweet in 2011.
More: Measles outbreak fuelled by parents who failed to vaccinate children
In this latest post, the group responded to one comment, defending its decision. “This post isn’t tasteless – it’s honest. What truly IS tasteless is our elected government trying to tell us that we have to vaccinate our children even if we don’t believe it’s the best for their health,” the organisation said.
The anti-immunisation group has been rallying against pro-immunisation views of the wider medical community by claiming that vaccination can lead to autism and should be a personal choice. It’s potential influence has led to government intervention and them being ordered to change from their previous name, the Australian Vaccination Network, after the Administrative Decisions Tribunal deemed it misleading.
While the group were obviously trying to use a provocative campaign to spread their message, it has clearly backfired. Quite apart from the trigger effect on women who have been assaulted or raped – a point they apparently ignored – the picture is not just tasteless, it is insulting to people’s intelligence. As one commenter wrote:
“This is disgusting. And here is a reason people will not listen to AV supporters. If you can’t have your argument respectfully, you’ve already lost.”
Parents in the “third world” know what internet-fueled idiot parents in the West have forgotten – preventable diseases kill. Here, mothers in Zimbabwe queue for MMR vaccine in 2006 after a measles outbreak killed 16 children and maimed others. Measles still has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of children annually, and is currently held at bay by UN health campaigns.
We heartily agree.
And for the record, we believe not vaccinating your children against preventable diseases that can maim or kill – when there is NO evidence that vaccination can cause harm except in a miniscule number of cases worldwide, far outweighed by the millions of children’s lives saved – is akin to child abuse. And when the direct result of your propaganda is that preventable diseases are returning, communal child abuse. When will you be satisfied? When we have iron lungs in our hospitals filled with children again?
Zero tolerance. Not interested in discussion. Anti-vaxxer comments will not be approved for publication, please don’t bother.
(Yahoo and others)
Well, This Is What I Think 
Very well put Yolly. I’m forever getting memes and other things on FB by anti-vaccination forces, and for the life of me, I don’t understand them. Both my brother and I were vaccinated, my wife was vaccinated, my children were all vaccinated and (I hope) my grandchildren have all been vaccinated. Are the anti-vaccination folks conspiracy-theory fanatics? Where, if any, are the solid scientific studies that a back up their claims?
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There are none. Literally none. One report which was falsified and has since been utterly discredited. It would make one weep with frustration.
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partly because there’s a database set up for people to volutneer if they feel they’ve been affected by a vaccine. But it’s not sientific and doesn’t differentiate between correlation and causation. Personally I think anti-vaxxers should stop drinking water and anything that contians it since over 90% of people die within a day of ingesting water
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Lol I will use that!
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My grandparents were all killed at the age of 5 by smallpox. Oh wait, hang on a minute…
More seriously my headmaster at my primary school has a pronounced limp caused by childhood polio. I tihnk my daughter cnna cope with 5min of crying from a needle.
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Reblogged this on The Last Of The Millenniums.
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I was vaccinated, my daughter was vaccinated. However, that said, babies and children get more and more vaccinations and the medical system admits not enough is know about the immune system. Why are autoimmune disease on a sharp increase?
1. Allergy and immune diseases (immunodeficiency and autoimmune diseases) are among the fastest growing chronic conditions in Australia. – http://www.allergy.org.au/ascia-reports/allergy-and-immune-diseases-in-australia-2013.
Why has my daughter been ill for 14 years with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, a devastating, life destroying illness I had never heard of. And why wI as there a sharp increase in this illness during the 1980’s worldwide? Just food for thought.
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The growth in autoimmune diseases is partly due to better diagnosis. But if we are seeing more cases I would suspect it’s highly likely that it’s to do with ingesting environmental toxins – plastics, oil, pesticides etc, which are now abundant everywhere.
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As Yolly notes, better diagnosis, in some cases actually giving a syndrome a name can ‘create’ diagnoses. Environmental stuff and diet may well not help. In the case of Multiple Sclerosis (an auto-immune disease) the rate for women has increased markedly, but not for men. A recent study showed that women who have a baby following one relapse reduce by 50% their chance of a second relapse, and the second baby reduces by a further 25%. The authors note that when carrying a baby, some of the baby’s DNA escapes into the mother’s blood stream. The mother’s immune system is lowered because of this so her body won;t reject the baby, and that some of this lowering remains post-pregnancy. It’s a known phenomenon that people with MS often have remission of symptoms during pregnancy. The authors posit that getting pregnant may provide some defence against auto-immune diseases and that with women having babies later nowadays, some of this protection may be lost. Reference: Ponsonby, AL and Lucas, RM, et al, Offspring number, pregnancy, and risk of a first clinical demyelinating event: The AusImmune Study, Neurology-, 78, (12) pp. 867-874. ISSN 0028-3878 (2012)
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