Judy Wilyman responds to the Illawarra Mercury (11.6.12)
July 31, 2012I would like to correct the misinformation that has been placed on the internet by the Illawarra Mercury about the research presented by PhD research student Judy Wilyman. On the 11th June Dr. Mathew Berryman, a Research Fellow in the SMART Infrastructure Faculty at Wollongong University and a subscriber to the Skeptics lobby group, misrepresented my comments about the promotion of vaccines to the public and took these comments to the media. The actual comments that I made can be found on my website: Vaccination Decisions.
Dr. Berryman, a specialist in infrastructure technology (and not health policy or vaccination) made 3 comments that I would like to correct:
1. He stated ‘the arguments I am presenting are unscientific’. This is untrue. The research I am presenting on whooping cough was completed as part of a research project for my Master of Science degree (Population Health) and has been published by the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) and other peer-reviewed organisations. This research can be found on my website.
2. The comments I made with reference to the promotion of vaccines to the public stated the government has been promoting the whooping cough vaccine on ‘anecdotal evidence’ and I gave an example. Anecdotal evidence is the evidence from one individual – it is their experience and it is not representative of the community. This is not the type of evidence that is used in a public health policy and the public is entitled to see what evidence is being used to suggest a particular vaccine is for the ‘good of the community’. There are other children that have died from vaccines therefore we cannot use individual cases to promote the need for a vaccine to the public.
3. To suggest that “I had misused the case of 4-week-old Dana McCaffery’s death from whooping cough against the wishes of her family” is a complete fabrication. The McCafferys agreed to promote the vaccine to the Australian public and received an award ($1000) from the Skeptics organisation in 2009 for doing this.
The public must be able to openly debate this topic and be consulted on the policies that are implemented. It is important that researchers in universities who are bringing you a different perspective should not be criticized by members of lobby groups for presenting their scientific arguments.
Posted by Judy Wilyman.
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