Santa Claus for adults: Why do 'we' hate truth?

I had an interesting encounter recently with a colleague. It's not really the first time something like this has happened it's just that this time I really felt a sudden jolt of "what's going on here?".

We've all received those spam emails telling wonderful tales of human ingenuity, personal endeavour, love, battles with health or bureaucracy and the wonders of the natural world. You know, emails that dress fiction up as fact and hope you swallow it in tear-filled amazement and forward it to "everyone you know". Emails that have made hoax-busting website snopes.com what it is today.

The email in question in my recent encounter told a wonderful story of a captive tigress in California whose premature cubs had died, leaving her depressed and in a state of failing health. Ingenious veterinarians, unable to find replacement cubs to suckle on her, instead dressed piglets up in tiger skins, introduced them to the unhappy mum and all was well with the world so - "Please forward this to everyone you know." Chances are you've seen it before.

Okay, it's a sweet tale. There is even an element of truth to the story in as much as the pictures are genuine and there really are tigers suckling piglets. But's that's where the truth ends and the fiction begins. As snopes tells us, the real story is that a zoo in Thailand does this with pigs and tigers as a form of entertainment. Elsewhere they apparently have a pig mothering tiger cubs.

That story brings a different sort of tear to the eyes of compassionate people though. Suddenly a sweet story of saving lives and making depressed animals healthy and happy again becomes a relatively sour tale of animal abuse.

My colleague is a mother of three, in her early forties. She's experienced the world at a variety of levels from growing up poor to experiencing success, raising a family and travelling overseas. She is by no means a closetted individual ignorant of the world at large. She is also usually quick to correct other people's errors of fact or opinion, taking pride in spreading education.

She showed me this tiger email she'd received and expressed her amazement at the way nature had allowed a depressing situation to be saved by the vets. That's fine. On the face of it (other than this being one of "those" emails), there was no reason for her to dismiss the story as nonsense.

I, however, had my doubts about the email's "facts" - mainly because it was one of those emails that tugs your heart strings and insists you forward it on to everyone. I'd long ago adopted a policy of dismissing and deleting any email that carried that demand. Whether it's the recipe for Neiman-Marcus cookies, washing planes or the hands of God, I've reached the point where I usually just shrug and hit delete or, if I'm mildly interested, head to Google and snopes to see what I can find out about the story and images before me. Almost invariably, I'm not surprised to find out the email is, at least in part, pure fiction - as was the case again here. Sometimes I'll reply to advise the sender of the facts of the matter. Once I received thanks for this.

I pointed out to the facts of the tiger's situation to my colleague and her response was astonishing. Whilst I might have expected an "oh damn, why do people make up stuff like this?" or even "it's despicable doing that for entertainment", what I actually got was something like "oh why do you always have to spoil everything?"

I didn't lie to her. I didn't try to pass off a case of animal abuse as a tale of animal husbandry. I didn't trick her into believing something I'd made up for my own amusement. Yet it was as if I'd told her Santa wasn't real.

Have other people experienced this? Was it mean of me to expose her own short-lived Santa as a lie? As adults, do we have an inbuilt need to believe almost anything offered up as fact, even if we can easily know it's fiction? Is the world such a bad place that we'll happily be lied to about it actually being happier than we might otherwise think? Do email lies make the world a better place - really?

As I said before, I can understand the initial credulity, especially for someone relatively new to email and therefore unfamiliar with the sheer volume of nonsense that travels around the world's mail servers. But is the "don't inform me with facts" response "normal"?

Given the amount of fictional, potentially dangerous, health facts that are spread by similar "send this to everyone" emails, from parasitic breast rashes, to cough CPR and alternative cancer advice, should we just let people believe whatever the hell they want to or is there an obligation on each of us to try and spread a dose of sceptical rationality when and where we are able?

Aus Government to regulate Homeopathy

Homeopaths will have to prove they can cure people long-term as the Federal Government cracks down on the $414-million-a-year industry.

The Rudd Government's Preventative Health Taskforce is understood to have called for the alternative medicine industry to be regulated in a report handed down last month.

Well, that's what the news article probably should have said. But it didn't. Here's the real thing...

WEIGHT-LOSS programs and products will have to prove they can help people keep off the kilos long-term as the Federal Government cracks down on the $414-million-a-year industry.

The Rudd Government's Preventative Health Taskforce is understood to have called for the weight-loss industry to be regulated in a report handed down last month.

If the government truly believe in this new-found "prove it or lose it" ideal, who will be next? Homeopaths, chiropractors, detox, reiki, acupuncture, magnets, prayer...?

The problem with "weasel words"

Here's another of my infamously "short" articles. If you plan to read to the end, grab a coffee and a three-course meal first...

In my articles discussing the recent visit to Australia by science writer Simon Singh, I took the Chiropractors' Association of Australia (CAA) to task for using what I described as "weaselly words". So what are weasel words and why are they a problem?

Wikipedia defines weasel words as follows:

Weasel words is an informal term for words that are ambiguous and not supported by facts. They are typically used to create an illusion of clear, direct communication.

Wikipedia goes on to imply an intent to mislead though that is not how I've applied the term in the past or here. I think people can easily fall foul of weasel words without realising it or when they just can't be bothered backing up their claims. Uncertainty about an assertion can also cause someone to resort to weasel words without their ambiguous claims being intentionally deceptive.

Wikipedia offers a list of examples which includes...

• "People say..." (Which people? How do they know?)
• "There is evidence that..." (What evidence? Is the source reliable?)
• "Experience shows that..." (Whose experience? What was the experience? How does it demonstrate this?)
• "It is known that..." (By whom and by what method is it known?)
• "Studies show..." (what studies?)

As you can see, what the wikipedia authors are looking for in each of these cases is evidence to back up the assertion. But why is this important?

Simply claiming that "there is evidence" for something is not, in itself, an indication that the evidence is worthwhile or conclusive. You might see this phrase when reading about dubious medical claims where the best evidence might well be the opinions of some patients and practitioners (anecdotal evidence). But anecdotal evidence can be problematic.

For example, men begin to grow facial hair around the same time as they get their driver's licence. Based solely on this knowledge, one could state, quite rightly, that there is evidence that drivers' licences cause the growth of facial hair in men. But is the evidence useful? Has it been tested? Were the tests positive for the assertion that licences do indeed cause facial hair to grow? Is the claim even plausible?

Similarly, you may feel you are getting a cold, take a "remedy" then not get the cold. It would be easy to assume the remedy worked but it's also likely that you weren't getting a cold in the first place. I've almost had at least five colds this year, each following contact with relatives or colleagues who were infectious, yet not one of my "colds" has come to fruition despite no active intervention on my part.

Weasel words are not necessarily lies or incorrect - they can be absolutely true and useless at the same time.

Let's look at some examples of claims related to complementary therapies. Here's one I discussed last month, from a story on Today Tonight. I've bolded some weaselly words...

Professor Clarke says mainstream medicine has had success with cancer vaccines and improvements in radiation therapies, but some of the most exciting work is being done with natural therapies -- like Chinese herbs -- to see if they can help chemotherapy patients avoid nasty side effects. "I am sure there are some that are beneficial. The Chinese have been using many of these treatments for thousands of years with efficacy", he said.

Working with Professor Clarke, is fourth generation Chinese herbalist Maria Wu. Maria is convinced herbs like agrimoniae, patrimiae, hedyotis, ganoderma spore (mushroom) and diffusa, have reduced deadly inflammation in cancer patients and assisted in recovery, in concentrated doses. "Building energy and building the immune system, then go through to doing the chemotherapy, people didn't have side effect. Hair no falling down, no vomiting, no tired, no diarrhoea -- all gone", Maria said.

Weasel words like those bolded above can easily slip by the uninitiated who fail to pick up on the fact that no conclusive statement was made about the usefulness of the "remedies" being discussed. One person "is sure" they're beneficial and the other "is convinced" they "assist" in recovery but no evidence is provided to explain how they reached these assumptions of efficacy except that apparently many of them proved efficacious (for what?) for thousands of years (but if that's known for a fact, why are they being tested now?). If you read or hear this and don't note the conditional nature of the statements, you could be forgiven for believing there is sound scientific evidence for Chinese herbal "medicine", yet no such evidence was offered.


Another example comes from the CAA's response to a Lateline story featuring Simon Singh...

“It is important to realise that chiropractic doesn't "treat" any condition, pain or symptom. Chiropractic care reduces interferences to the body's ability to function optimally, and works to restore complete normal function. Chiropractors fundamentally see themselves as diagnosing and taking care of patients with dysfunctions in the neuromusculoskeletal system, including the spine and joints.

This one takes a slightly different approach in that there's an apparent attempt to redifine what "treatment" is. In a medical sense, according to dictionary.com, the appropriate definition of "treat" is...

• 3 - to deal with (a disease, patient, etc.) in order to relieve or cure.

If a chiropractor performs an action with the intent to alleviate some problem - like removing interferences - then it is hard to see how it could be argued that the action does not amount to "treating" that ailment. If we accept the CAA's definition of what they do to be something other than treating, then I'd argue no medical practitioner, mainstream or alternative, treats any condition at all in which case the CAA's objection seems redundant.

I consider this to be weaselly wordage because it would confuse the reader who is not familiar with weasel words. It appears authoritative but is ambiguous. I might add that a quick search of Australian chiropractic websites will show that few chiropractors have a problem with claiming to treat a whole range of ailments so some might argue the statement is also plain wrong.

Another example, also from the CAA, followed on from the previous quote...

In doing so, this could potentially have corresponding effects in the nervous system that may impact on the patient's general health and well being. These outcomes may be experienced in addition to an individual's primary complaint or reason for consultation.”

As I understand this statement, it's arguing that while the chiropractor deals directly with "neuromusculoskeletal" problems, some seemingly unrelated problems (ear infections, bed wetting, infant colic?) might also be relieved. Weasel words like "could potentially" and "may be experienced" leave the door wide open for no patient to ever enjoy any implied secondary benefit yet the statement would remain fundamentally true since no benefit was promised.

"We fix cars, not mechanical problems!"

If you took your car to a mechanic to have the brakes fixed and he changed the engine oil and said "that may improve your brakes", I imagine you'd be lodging a complaint forthwith - yet I'm having difficulty seeing how the CAA are not making a similar claim in regards to spinal manipulation for non-neuromuscoskeletal problems like infant colic (assuming colic was the reason for presenting the baby to the chiropractor in the first place).

I should add that there are times where weasel words are likely acceptable. In casual conversation, for example, it would be ridiculous to expect the citation of studies. Where weasel words become a significant problem is when a statement appears to be authoritative, especially when it is apparently intended to affect decision making.

Here's a few random "weasel word" phrases found on Australian websites promoting various alternative "therapies"...

• Homœopathy aims to treat the whole person (what does that mean?)
• [Homeopathy side effects?] ...Sometimes there is an immediate improvement. Sometimes healing begins with an increased feeling of well being, even though symptoms initially remain. In some cases, old symptoms recur as part of the healing process. Occasionally there is a temporary worsening of the symptoms prior to improvement. (no evidence cited and it sounds like the general course for a range of ailments even when not treated at all. It barely counts as a claim for anything.)
• Reiki can assist in shutting down stress responses... (no evidence cited. What does it mean?)
• [Reiki patients] Some experience relief immediately; others find that within a week or two their symptoms have diminished or disappeared. (no evidence cited and again, it sounds like the normal response for a wide range of self-limiting ailments)
  
• Reiki can assist the physical, emotions mental and spiritual balances. (no evidence cited. What does it mean?)
• However, since ADHD appears as a neurological disorder and chiropractic care helps reduce nervous system disturbances, many parents who want a natural, non-drug solution for their child have found chiropractic care helpful, even miraculous. (no evidence cited. Sounds anecdotal.)
• Chiropractic, however, has shown to be highly effective in reducing the amount of times babies with colic spend crying. (no evidence cited. The question of efficacy remains open, at best. Plus, if it works why don't they claim to treat it?)
• Chiropractic care has shown to be effective in alleviating the symptoms related to asthma. (no evidence cited. Plus, if it works why don't they claim to treat it?)
• Chiropractic corrections to problems within the spine or vertebral subluxations (nerve interference) in babies have long been acknowledged as an excellent therapeutic tool for calming infants. (no evidence cited - long been acknowledged by whom? Chiropractors? Accountants? Bloggers?)

You get the idea. These are largely authoritative statements and most were taken from sites actively engaged in promoting the therapy being discussed - that is, they are intended to affect decision making on matters of health - yet they use weasel words. It's not just that the claims themselves are not explicit so much as the fact that they are not coupled with supporting evidence.

But do the purveyors of complementary "therapies" realise they are using weasel words? It appears in some cases they do. David Colquhoun tells us on his blog about some teaching material from a UK university course in Chinese herbal "medicine". One example of a slide used in the course says:

Cancer Treatment and the Law:

• Legally, you cannot claim to cure cancer
• This is not a problem because:
  'we treat people, not diseases'.

Yes, the last statement is in quotes and italics, almost as if to reinforce that this is a mantra the graduate should repeat if challenged. It has a familiar ring to it but it's like a mechanic saying "We fix cars, not mechanical problems!"

I use weasel words a lot. Sometimes this is out of laziness. Sometimes it's out of an assumption that I'm preaching to the choir and have no need to elaborate. A lot of times it's because I'm trying hard to phrase things in such a way as to reinforce that I am expressing an opinion, not stating facts, and don't want to be sued for defamation by people who can't take criticism or engage in debate.

There is some evidence that suggests that it's likely that up to 85% of bloggers apply similar rules a lot of the time - and if you believe that then I've failed to get my message across.

Australia: National Science Week, 2009

Next week, 15th-23rd August, is National Science Week, 2009 across Australia. Schools, museums and other science-related organisations will take part in the festival.

From an early press release:

This August, a NASA astronaut, palaeontologist, theoretical physicist, environmentalist and mathematics comedian will help ignite the imagination of budding scientists throughout Australia as part of the annual National Science Week celebrations.

Running from 15 – 23 August, National Science Week will feature over 800 events right across the country, from Davenport to Darwin and everywhere in between.

This year, activities will include science festivals, music and comedy shows, interactive hands-on displays, open days and online activities, hosted at museums, zoos, pubs, universities and schools.

Among the exciting guests touring for National Science Week are NASA Astronaut Katherine Megan McArthur, international palaeontologist Scott Sampson, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss and leading environmentalist Tanya Ha.

These international guests will be visiting every State and Territory giving public presentations, participating in panels and debates and promoting science throughout Australia.

There will also be the opportunity to uncover the night sky through the Aussie Star Hunt, an interactive activity supported by the ABC. The Aussie Star Hunt is a website-based project that helps members of the public locate constellations such as the Southern Cross and Scorpio, as well as providing Indigenous Australian astronomy stories.

Now entering its twelfth year, National Science Week has well and truly cemented itself as Australia’s largest festival, with last year’s calendar offering over 800 events throughout Australia, reaching an audience of over a million people.

The festival is proudly supported by the Australian Government, as well as partners CSIRO, Australian Science Teachers Association and the ABC.

National Science Week 2009 will run from 15 - 23 August.

Visit the National Science Week website for information on events taking place near you.

Is Whooping Cough fatal?

Pertussis, also known as the whooping cough, is a highly contagious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It derived its name from the "whoop" sound made from the inspiration of air after a cough. [wikipedia]

Can children die from whooping cough?

Meryl Dorey, president of the Australian Vaccination Network, claimed on TV earlier this year that “You didn’t die from it 30 years ago and you’re not going to die from it today”.

Last month, Queensland's Gympie Times newspaper carried a story about this winter's health risks and included the following information...

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh yesterday announced the provision of free whooping cough vaccine for new parents to help combat a nationwide outbreak of the disease.

She said the disease, also known as Pertussis, was now four times higher nationally and in Queensland than was the case this time last year.

She said that three babies with whooping cough had died in Australia so far this year and more than 15,000 adults and children had been diagnosed with the disease.

Ms Bligh said the $3 million program would run for an initial six months from August 1, followed by an assessment of its effectiveness and whether the current outbreak had subsided.

You read that correctly...

"three babies with whooping cough had died in Australia so far this year"

Apparently, Meryl Dorey was wrong about whooping cough and that is just one reason why the Australian Skeptics, backed by businessman Dick Smith, ran an advertisement in yesterday's national newspaper The Australian.

UPDATE:

ABC Online have more to say on Dick Smith's involvement in the advertising campaign...

Dick Smith criticises anti-vaccination 'misinformation'

Businessman Dick Smith says a local anti-vaccination lobby group is misrepresenting the issue of immunisation.

Mr Smith has thrown financial support behind a campaign to boost vaccination levels in Australia.

He says vaccination is about risk management and the risks of an illness far outweigh that of the vaccination.

Mr Smith says the Bangalow-based Australian Vaccination Network distributes misinformation and presents itself as an authority.

"They are actually anti-vaccination and they should put on every bit of their material that they are anti-vaccination in great big words," he said.

...

ABC: Skeptics vs AVN Anti-Vaxxers

ABC Online carries the story about the Australian Skeptics' advertising campaign warning parents about alleged misinformation spread by the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).

Sceptics take aim at vaccination doubters

A group known as the Australian Skeptics have stepped [up] their campaign against the New South Wales north coast-based Australian Vaccination Network.

The network is run by Bangalow woman Meryl Dorey, and aims to warn parents about the potential side effects of vaccination.

The sceptics group placed a quarter-page advertisement in a national newspaper today, with Australian businessman Dick Smith footing the bill.

Spokesman Tim Mendham says the AVN is spreading misinformation and putting children's lives at risk.

The campaign was announced yesterday on The Skeptics' Book of Pooh-Pooh blog and the advertisement appeared in The Australian newspaper today. Podblack has a copy of the advertisement for download in her coverage of the story.

The ABC article continues with a comment from AVN president Meryl Dorey but her comment relates to an investigation into the AVN by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), not to the advertisement.


More coverage at:
LiveNews.com.au: Dick Smith pushes immunisation
itWire.com: Vaccinations - no, they don't cause autism

Dick Smith & Australian Skeptics vs AVN

The following is a media release from the Australian Skeptics (via Skeptics' Book of Pooh-Pooh) announcing funding support from Dick Smith for an advertising campaign warning parents of vaccination claims spread by the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN)...

---

Australian parents urged to get the real facts on vaccination

Businessman, aviator, and explorer, Dick Smith, has funded an Australian Skeptics’ advertisement to urge parents to access factual information on vaccination, in the wake of the country’s largest Whooping Cough epidemic.

The advertisement warns people to avoid advice from groups such as the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), which state that they are ‘pro-choice’ but are opposed to vaccination and spread misinformation about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

“Dick Smith Foods has funded this advertisement in the public interest, to ensure parents access unbiased, accurate advice from reputable medical sources. The Australian Vaccination Network is no such source,” said Mr Smith.

The advertisement – placed in the Thursday, August 6 edition of The Australian newspaper – warns parents that the AVN is spreading false claims including that vaccines contain toxic quantities of mercury, aluminium, and formaldehyde; that vaccines cause conditions such as autism, and that the AVN is providing incorrect information about the risks of childhood illnesses.

Following the tragic death of three babies to Whooping Cough, Australian Skeptics has established an information page with information on the myths and realities of vaccines and links to reputable sources.

The parents of four-week-old Dana McCaffery, who died from Whooping Cough in March, have welcomed the Skeptics’ actions.

“We implore parents to access reputable sources for information about vaccination. We thank the Australian Skeptics for presenting this information, which informs parents about the risks of preventable illnesses, addresses fears of vaccines with proven evidence, and debunks common myths. It is vital all Australian governments act now and implement comprehensive education campaigns to fully inform parents about the importance of vaccination,” said Toni and David McCaffery.

Eran Segev, president of Australian Skeptics Inc, said: “Australian Skeptics believes strongly that the public should have access to full and factual information so that they can form their opinions and choices in life, not half-truths, mistruths and fantasies.”

The Australian Skeptics has several thousand members across Australia, and investigates paranormal and pseudo-scientific claims from a responsible scientific viewpoint.

Further information: Australian Skeptics

Media contact: Tim Mendham, 0432 713 195

---

The Australian Skeptics have published vaccination information on their new-look website.


UPDATE:
Podblack has a bit more information on the Skeptics vs AVN advertisement in The Australian plus a pdf copy of the ad for you to download.


Read more about the AVN:
AVN against the lizard people
AVN under investigation by HCCC
Vaccination Dangers
Vaccination, whooping cough debate
Vaccines cause Autism?
Stop the Australian Vaccination Network


I am not a doctor or health professional. I'm just a blogger with an opinion on things. If you need or want health advice, see a doctor - preferably a real doctor who has some grounding in science and reality.

AVN under investigation by HCCC

The Skeptics' Book of Pooh-Pooh have announced details of an investigation that has been launched into the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).

Health Care Complaints Commission to investigate the AVN.

Today it was revealed that the AVN will be investigated by the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission for breaches of the Public Health Act of 1993.

The Skeptics' Book article carries a response from AVN president Meryl Dorey in which she argues that she and the AVN just "disseminate information ... so that people can make informed choices".

On that score, I should direct you to my last article in which I noted the AVN's apparent promotion of an article written by David Icke. Here, again, is just one sinister quote from Icke's article about swine flu vaccination...

I am not saying that people will die in large numbers immediately. This is certainly possible, but it would hardly encourage others to continue to be inoculated. The effects may be immediate in some, probably medium or longer-term in most, to hide the true source of their problem. What we do know is that we are seeing a long-prepared plan for mass vaccination by people who could not care less about the health of the population. That says everything about the real motivation, but only those in the shadows know what the effect is designed to be.

Icke appears to be of the belief that swine flu was engineered for the sole purpose of forcing the world population to be forced into a vaccination program that is actually designed to disable the immune system as a pre-cursor to a global genocide (a "mass cull", as he calls it) and to implant microchips in survivors. Why?

The Illuminati plan for the world includes a mass cull of the population and the microchipping of every man, woman and child. Microchips would allow everyone to be tracked 24/7, but it goes much further than that.

Computer technology communicating with the chips has the potential to manipulate people mentally, emotionally and physically. This could be done en masse or individually through the chip's unique transmitter-receiver signal. Killing someone from a distance would be a synch.

AVN president Meryl Dorey posted a link to a copy of the Icke article (albeit published under a different name at Pakistan Daily) on the AVN blog, here.

I don't think this counts as "disseminating information". I'd call it conspiracy theory of the highest order and it is unlikely to lead to "informed choice" except the extent that people might see the anti-vaccination lobby as somewhat less than rational and look to science for their information instead.

While the Icke article might be the most demonstrably ridiculous article posted on the AVN blog, it is not the only one that suggests that vaccinations form part of a conspiracy. Money-grubbing "Big Pharma" (and for some inexplicable reason this excludes the multi-billion dollar alternative "medicine" industry) are apparently behind the vaccination conspiracy.

On the official AVN website, the medical profession is referred to as "the sickness industry" and members were warned almost two years ago of plans to shut down alternative medicine. I guess that conspiracy is yet to come to fruition since skeptics seem to face an uphill battle to get authorities to take charge in that department.

In another article the AVN complains of mains-water fluoridation, though what this has to do with vaccination is anyone's guess except, possibly, that it helps build the notion of a conspiracy to mass-poison the population. As is usually the case with scare campaigns, the article is liberally spiced with nasty sounding chemicals like "sulfuric [sic] acid". Ooooh, oooh. They mention that the fluoride is made from "fertilizer" [sic] - oh no, we're drinking fertiliser! Run for the hills!

Perhaps my favourite examples of the AVN's neutral stance on vaccination and their positioning as disseminators of information are the T-Shirts they advertise on their website which declare:

Love Them.
Protect Them.
Never Inject Them.

So much for advocating choice. That looks like explicit, one-sided advice to me.

I don't want compulsory vaccination for swine flu or anything else and, at this stage, I doubt it will happen. I'd more expect a massive advertising campaign urging people to vaccinate, especially young and old. I would only expect compulsory vaccination to be initiated if swine flu deaths become commonplace. Maybe I'm being naive but the AVN are looking increasingly bizarre and are doing nothing to add a rational voice to the libertarian side of the issue.

Unfortunately, this HCCC investigation will only fuel their notions of conspiracy and if they are silenced, I'd be concerned that splinter groups will open up making the job of denouncing their anti-vaccination messages all the more difficult.

A copy of the HCCC complaint against the AVN can be downloaded at The Skeptic's Book of Pooh-Pooh.

See David Icke at 0:49 in this video...




I am not a doctor or health professional. I'm just a blogger with an opinion on things. If you need or want health advice, see a doctor - preferably a real doctor who has some grounding in science and reality.

AVN against the Lizard People

According to writer David Icke, 7-foot (2.1 m) tall, blood-drinking, shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from the star system Alpha Draconis are the force behind a worldwide conspiracy directed at humanity. He claims that the reptilians maintain their control through the generation of fear and negative emotion, which is food to these entities, by manufacturing conflicts, primarily wars. He contends that most of the world's leaders are in fact related to these reptilians [wikipedia]

No, this isn't an article about Lizard People but you will need to have your tinfoil hat ready.

For some time I avoided offering a view on the vaccination "debate" because, to be honest, I sympathise with the general idea that vaccinations aren't normal and, to be honest, I wish we didn't need them. I wish the AVN was right. I wish I could risk leaving my children unvaccinated. Who really wants to have needles?

But, following the story about baby Dana McCaffery, who died from Whoophing Cough, it's been difficult to remain silent on the matter. I must confess too that The AVN, with their scare-mongering and claims to be neutral (whilst selling T-Shirts shouting "Never Inject Them") have made it a little easier to take sides in the issue.

Yesterday, my commitment to the pro-vaccination campaign was cemented by an article promoted by the AVN.

The Young Australian Skeptics have been following AVN's blog and noticed a recent item posted by AVN president, Meryl Dorey. As with all other items the AVN promote, this article carries a strong anti-vaccination message. The article, apparently written by a Farooq Hussain, was published at Pakistan Daily and starts out in a very reasonable tone...

Flu is not the Biggest Danger it’s the Vaccine

These are challenging times and we need to stay calm and think things through – not just panic and react. Fear, panic and emotional reaction got us into this mess and it is certainly not going to get us out of it.

Few would disagree with that. I harbour concerns about both the Swine Flu and the fast-tracking of a vaccination for it (I do not hold that medical science is infallible). So, this sounds like an article I could agree with. The next paragraph continues...

We also need to realise – here, now – that we have long crossed the line into a fully-fledged fascist dictatorship. It has hidden itself to most people this far, but it is about to lift the veil.

Okay, maybe not. Suddenly that call to stay calm, think, don't panic or react has become a warning that we're all victims of a massive conspiracy.

It is no longer an option to do nothing or passively acquiesce to authority out of fear or apathy. Or, at least, it’s not if we care about our freedoms and, most importantly, those of our children and grandchildren who will have to live almost their entire lives under a global jackboot of sheer, undiluted evil.

Right, so forget about staying calm and thinking things through. It's too late for that. Doing nothing is "no longer an option" - we need to panic, we need to react. Evil has come - and it's in that very next injection.

Okay, so you think you've got the picture. The author of the article thinks there's a bit of a conspiracy of control and you can probably guess that vaccination is one of the more public displays of that control. But seriously, you have no idea of just where this article is going if you haven't read it yet.

In just over 4000 words, the author stretches credibility and launches into a massive tale of conspiracy that will leave you either completely shell-shocked, or laughing your arse off. Here's just a few semi-random snippets...

I have been warning of what was coming for nearly 20 years and it is not ‘coming’ any more – it’s here. No more excuses from anyone, please. We have to deal with it. We have to draw a line in the sand and say no more. Never was this more important than with the conspiracy to force swine flu vaccination upon the global population. The swine flu virus was created in a laboratory to generate mass panic with the specific intention of forcing everyone to have the vaccine. Problem-Reaction-Solution. This ‘natural’ swine flu virus apparently contains genes from humans, birds and pigs from several continents.

Sorry, short interruption... If they developed the swine flu for the sole purpose of forcing us to have the vaccine, why in the hell didn't they develop the vaccine first? Idiots. No reason for this vaccination conspiracy is offered. Okay, more snippets...

Those administering the vaccinations have no clue what is in them or their potential effect. They are just repeaters thinking what they are told to think and doing what they are told to do. Only those at the core of the conspiracy, and those who bother to research it, know what the game is. ‘There is evidence that an international corporate criminal syndicate, which has annexed high government office at Federal and State level, is intent on carrying out a mass genocide against the people of the United States by using an artificial (genetic) flu pandemic virus and forced vaccine program to cause mass death and injury and depopulate America in order to transfer control of the United States to the United Nations and affiliated security forces (UN troops from countries such as China, Canada, the UK and Mexico).

Oh, sorry, they do give a reason for the vaccination campaign - it's to kill us all. I can only assume this is some new sort of carbon trading scheme. Let's continue...

The motivation for the crime is classical robbery followed by murder although the scale and method are new in history. The core group sets its strategic goals and operative priorities in secret using committees such as the Trilateral Commission, and in person to person contact in the annual Bilderberg meeting.’

Their vehicle is a secret society network structured like a transnational corporation. The operational headquarters is in Europe, in places like Rome, London, Paris, Brussels and Berlin. I refer to this as ‘the Spider’ and it dictates to the global web.

There are subsidiary networks of secret societies in every country that answer to the ‘Spider’. Their job is to control their country’s politics, banking, business, military, media, medicine, and so on, and introduce in their sphere of influence the global agenda dictated by the ‘Spider’. Those on the inner levels of this structure are collectively known as the ‘Illuminati’.

Just a quick reminder - this article was linked from the Australian Vaccination Network blog. Meryl Dorey, who posted the link, did not contest anything in it. I don't know if that proves she believes it but she didn't advise anyone to dismiss it as outright nonsense.

The web controls governments, the pharmaceutical industry, or ‘Big Pharma’, the World Health Organisation and public heath ‘protection’ agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. In short, they control the entire medical system.

The Illuminati cabal established global bodies like the World Heath Organisation, World Bank and World Trade Organisation to transfer power from the many to the few. Their goal is a world government, world central bank, world currency and world army.

I am not saying that people will die in large numbers immediately. This is certainly possible, but it would hardly encourage others to continue to be inoculated. The effects may be immediate in some, probably medium or longer-term in most, to hide the true source of their problem. What we do know is that we are seeing a long-prepared plan for mass vaccination by people who could not care less about the health of the population. That says everything about the real motivation, but only those in the shadows know what the effect is designed to be.

For sure, it will involve targeting the human immune system. Once that has been disabled, it’s over as we see with the immune-destroyer we call AIDS. People don’t die of AIDS, they die of diseases the immune system would normally deal with.

The next bit is particularly interesting...

All this will sound way out in the Twilight Zone to those new to this sort of information, but what they need to understand is that these Illuminati families are utterly insane. They don’t think like most of the rest of us, so please don’t judge what they would do by what you would do. It’s not the same, because they’re not the same.

Stop laughing.

If you listen carefully, the dark suits tell you what is going to happen. As I said in a recent newsletter, I kept hearing the mantra from different agencies and countries about the dangers of a massive increase in swine flu in the autumn and that is now their target for mass vaccination to really get moving.

Now I am hearing that the virus could become more deadly in the same period and it could well be that they are planning to increase the numbers who die from swine flu to generate more panic and demands to be vaccinated.

We must not succumb to compulsory vaccination, nor pressure from those who lack a mind of their own. If we concede our freedom to stop the state enforcing vaccination upon us and our children, what the hell freedom is left?

So, what has all this got to do with "Lizard Man" conspiracy theorist David Icke? When I first read this article at Pakistan Daily, I wanted to see how many other sites were linking to it or referencing it. What I found was that the original author is actually David Icke. You can see the article here - BUT BE WARNED this version of the article comes with some damned hilarious pictures to illustrate the horror of what lies ahead.

So Meryl Dorey has, whether she realises it or not, uncritically posted an article on the AVN blog which was apparently authored by David Icke, who also, apparently, genuinely believes the world is controlled by reptilian overlords. Here's a reminder of who David Icke is from his own wikipedia page...

In 1999, Icke wrote and published The Biggest Secret: The Book that Will Change the World, in which he identified the extraterrestrial prison warders as reptilians from the constellation Draco.[25]They walk erect and appear to be human, living not only on the planets they come from, but also in caverns and tunnels under the earth. They have cross-bred with humans, which has created "hybrids" who are "possessed" by the full-blooded reptilians.[26] The reptiles' hybrid reptilian-human DNA allows them to change from reptilian to human form if they consume human blood. Icke has drawn parallels with the 1980s science-fiction series V, in which the earth is taken over by reptiloid aliens disguised as humans.

According to Icke, the reptilian group includes many prominent people and practically every world leader from Britain's late Queen Mother to George H.W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Harold Wilson, and Tony Blair. These people are either themselves reptilian, or work for the reptiles as what Icke calls slave-like victims of multiple personality disorder: "The Rothschilds, Rockefellers, the British royal family, and the ruling political and economic families of the U.S. and the rest of the world come from these SAME bloodlines. It is not because of snobbery, it is to hold as best they can a genetic structure — the reptilian-mammalian DNA combination which allows them to 'shape-shift'."[4]

In Tales From The Time Loop and other works, Icke states that most organised religions, especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are Illuminati creations designed to divide and conquer the human race through endless conflicts. In a similar vein, Icke believes racial and ethnic divisions are an illusion promoted by the reptilians, and that racism fuels the Illuminati agenda.

Anyone who takes the AVN seriously after this is probably beyond help. There is a "Stop the AVN" petition looking for signatories - though, to be honest, one of the benefits of free speech is that we can see exactly what's going in some people's heads.


I am not a doctor. People who want to know more about vaccination should speak with a doctor.