Some worry that the venue gives undue legitimacy to the group’s claims
By Sheila Bissonnette
Photos by Sanofi Pasteur / Flickr
Given the extensive media coverage surrounding Vaccine Summit: Vancouver 2013, an event held last Tuesday night in the Fletcher Challenge Room at SFU Harbour Centre, the turnout may have left the Vaccine Resistance Movement organizers disappointed.
The scant attendance of approximately 55 participants at the large venue may be indicative of the lack of support in numbers for the anti-vaccine movement. An estimated 93 per cent of the population routinely chooses to get vaccinated in order to prevent infectious outbreaks.
Eliza, who preferred to keep her last name out of print, is the parent of two-year-old Bailie and seven-year-old Jessica, and falls within the majority category of parents who choose to vaccinate their children. “I don’t think the issues they are addressing are improvement of vaccine quality in a collaborative effort with the pharmaceutical companies, or even the fact that we may be over-vaccinating our children. It is such an extreme stance to say you are completely anti-vacination.”
The panel of experts at the event consisted of parents with autistic children and several naturopathic representatives who spoke about the negative impacts of vaccination and the alleged scientific link to autism spectrum disorder.
“The reality is that we cannot prove vaccines are not related to autism numbers spiking in the past 10 years or so,” stated one parent (who prefered to remain anonymous), who uses natural immunity methods such as breast-feeding for extended periods of time and probiotics to prevent infectious diseases.
“We have to be more careful about vaccinating our kids every chance we get without knowing fully the effects of what we are injecting into their bodies. I know people who have kids with autism and believe me, it is not easy.”
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition that impacts normal brain development and affects social relationships, verbal communication skills, and developmental milestones. ASD common characteristics include, difficulties with communication and social interaction, repetitive interests and activities, inability to tolerate sounds and unusual attachments to objects or routines.
“These parents want answers,” stated Joel Lord, the head of the Vaccine Resistance Movement.
Although advertised as an open debate, questions from the pro-vaccine attendants were met with laughter and heckling. The efficacy of the polio vaccine was questioned by several presenters, as was the use of vaccinations for preventing the spread of smallpox.
In his closing speech, Lord made a plea for parents to use natural immunity as a means of protecting against infectious outbreaks and to resist vaccines. When asked why he chose SFU as a venue for the event, Lord stated, “We respect SFU and obviously our work infuriates a lot of people, we chose SFU because this work deserves what a university offers.”
The event had originally been advertised at a suggested donation rate of $25, however those who were unable to pay were turned away, “because we need to make the money back paid for security,” mentioned one event organizer.
A Simon Fraser spokesperson confirmed that the group was charged an additional $760 in order for the university to beef up security for the event.
Recently the university has come under fire from the media regarding the decision to rent space to the anti-vaccine resistance group. Major media outlets have been keen to cover concerns over SFU’s decision to allow the Vaccine Resistance Movement to hold the anti-vaccine rally at the downtown campus.
The SFU rental agreement holds no clauses preventing groups from renting the meeting space on the university grounds. In an interview with The Peak, SFU president Andrew Petter defended the decision to rent space for the event, stating “The university is a public forum, where any groups can rent space to hold events.” He continued, “The university has a policy which supports freedom of expression. This does not mean that we agree in any way with the views expressed.”
SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences spoke out on the issue, posting an open statement saying “The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) was surprised to learn that SFU has rented space to the ‘Vaccine Resistance Movement’ for their Summit 2013 on our Harbour Centre Campus.
“Renting space to outside organizations for events such as these is done without any academic oversight. FHS disavows any support or affiliation with this event, which we believe to be anti-science and contrary to good public health practice.”
The official statement was followed by a link to the BC Centre for Disease Control page on vaccine safety, and a personal statement of FHS dean Dr. John O’Neil, who expressed concern that “the public may interpret this as an indication that SFU supports the perspective of the VRM. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
He went on in his statement to declaim the scientific evidence used by the VRM to assert that autism is caused by vaccines, pointing out that the scientific paper on which the claims are based was written by a researcher with a plain conflict of interest, and the evidence falsified. The paper itself was later labelled as an “elaborate fraud.”
