Anti-vaccine campaigner Meryl Dorey has resigned as leader of the Australian Vaccination Network (also known as The AVN.) The anti-vaccine lobby group – with an extremely misleading name – has also announced it will stop publishing its newsletter.
In recent years, Dorey and the AVN have been active in propagating vaccination myths to sway parents against vaccinating their children.
The resignation of Dorey, who founded the organisation in 1994, comes just weeks after the NSW Minister for Fair Trading announced that the AVN would be required to change its misleading name before February 21 this year.
At the time of the announcement, Minister Anthony Roberts said: ”NSW Fair Trading has received complaints that the Australian Vaccination Network’s name is confusing and has misled the public as to its operational intention… The Australian Vaccination Network does not present a balanced case for vaccination, does not present medical evidence to back up its claims and therefore poses a serious risk of misleading the community.”
Dorey, will be replaced by Greg Beattie. The father of seven told Fairfax he would not change the AVN’s name until “a plebiscite of members was conducted.”
