Wollongong University Researcher Writes to Australian Government Officials

Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 11:41 AM
To: Honourable Nicola Roxon
Cc: peter.collignon@act.gov.au; attorney@ag.gov.au; Anna Salleh; enquiries@sweetcommunication.com.au; bitan@theaustralian.com.au;r.manne@latrobe.edu.au; senator.bob.brown@aph.gov.au; andrew.wilkie.mp@aph.gov.au; pbarr@rtrfm.com.au; mediawatch@your.abc.net.au;complaintsinfo@humanrights.gov.au; cathy.oleary@wanews.com.au; julian@jjlaw.com.au
Subject: Steven Hambleton President of the AMA
Importance: High

To the Federal Health Minister,

I am writing in response to the article ‘A Noble Cause’ aired on Background Briefing on the ABC radio 16.10.11. In this article the President of the AMA, Dr. Steven Hambleton, made his position on the transparency of government health policies crystal clear. He stated that:

 ‘A register could jeopardise the reputations of the doctors on it’. In another words, the public interest is not a priority. The need for ‘balanced, unbiased and evidence-based science’ is clearly not a goal to be achieved by the AMA.

This statement was made with respect to the following activities of doctors and institutions:

• doctors being paid to give presentations using pharmaceutical company slides and pharmaceutical funded research and statistics
• doctors given free international trips and paid to give presentations for drugs
• Pharmaceutical sales representatives given large bonuses to sell a drug even after concerns were raised about the side-effects of the drugs
• The hidden industry ties of academics in universities and similarly in government advisory boards.
• The conflicts of interest in the media presentation of drugs and their side-effects
• The conflicts of interest in Australia’s National Immunisation Conference presented by the Public Health of Australia (PHAA) and fully funded by the pharmaceutical companies
• The hidden ties between industry and the chief-editors on peer-reviewed journals, who are selecting against articles with negative findings on drugs/vaccines.
• Little research funding being provided for research in the public interest. In particular, the possibility that the chemicals in the 13 vaccines now recommended to infants under 12 months of age, are causing the steep increase in chronic illness in our children.

These activities of the health department are all occurring without an adequate surveillance system for adverse reactions to drugs and in particularto vaccines (which are for healthy people). Australia has a passive post-marketing surveillance system for adverse reactions that is not designed to determine causal relationships with the vaccine. This is a significant failing of the health system and means that chronic illness in the population will continue to increase – despite all the money that is being put into healthcare. It also means we will need to put millions of dollars into disability insurance schemes for long-term carers created by a fraudulent health system. Please contact Professor Peter Collignon (ANU) for confirmation of the inadequate surveillance system set up for determining the rates and causal links for adverse events to vaccines.

If you (as the Health Minister) are unaware of the ingredients of vaccines and if you have never used 13 vaccines in yourself in a one year time frame, can I please ask why you would be recommending that 13 should be used in a developing infant? These questions have been put to Professor Fiona Stanley and the Telethon Institute but they have not been answered. Instead the academics and scientists who are speaking out on this issue are being attacked by faceless people on twitter and blogs. The consumers are wanting this policy supported by evidence-based science but consumer organisations have become toothless as advocates and health professionals protect their jobs.

I have attached a picture for you to see the implications of the current immunisation schedule and in the words of Professor Fiona Stanley ‘many educated people are no longer vaccinating their children’.

Please could you address these issues in your department as consumers would like some accountability. I am happy to provide references for any of the claims made in this email. I will forward this email to the community.