THE group that pedals alarmist links between vaccines and autism, cancer and SIDS, has been slammed by a Health Care Complaints Commission investigation.

The draft report into the investigation has been posted on the Australian Vaccination Network’s website.

The HCCC has found the AVN guilty of providing information that is misleading, incorrect, inaccurate and ‘entirely taken out of context’.

The group is now known as the Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network because it was ordered by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to change its previous name because it was misleading. It still goes by the acronym the AVN.

The HCCC began investigating the group in 2009 after receiving complaints about its anti-vaccination activities however they could not act until legislative change in 2013 allowed the health body to further investigate complaints with a broader scope. The HCCC concentrated on the information disseminated by the group on their website.

The HCCC found misleading information relating to the effectiveness of Gardasil. They also found statistics on pertussis (whooping cough) were taken out of context; they gave inaccurate information on vaccine ingredients and inappropriately and wrongly linked autism to vaccines.

They were also criticised for using fear to influence people.

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“They need to focus on raising concerns about any real risks of vaccinations, rather than relying on the use of fear that is unfounded (for example the link between vaccination and autism) to influence people into making misinformed decisions about vaccination,” the draught report said.

An expert studied the 68 ‘studies’ that the AVN said showed vaccines caused autism and concluded that none make a “claim of causality”.

In a rebuttal, AVN President Greg Beattie admitted the studies they relied on were mere conjecture.

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“Our article does not state that the 68 studies establish vaccines as a cause of autism: merely that they support the notion,” Mr Beattie said.

The investigation also found that the AVN recommended a lotus birth, where the placenta remains attached to the baby until it naturally drops off up to five days later, was a better than anti-D injections for mothers who have a different blood rhesus factor to their babies.

The HCCC’s expert found “contrary to what AVN has stated, it is not the case that late cord clamping and lotus birth completely eliminates the exchange of blood after birth. He stated that there still can be contamination of the maternal system by foetal blood and in fact there is an increase in post-partum”

The HCCC recommended the group remove and keep permanently removed their misleading statements.

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David McCaffery, the father of Dana McCaffery who died of whooping cough in 2009 and whose family was the subject of abuse by members of the group was pleased with the findings.

“We welcome the HCCC findings and hope that people continue to access reputable medical sources when researching vaccination, our families lives depend on it,” Mr McCaffery said.

In his response to the Commission’s report, Mr Beattie said “the complaints addressed here are without substance. Please amend your report according.”

The Australian Vaccination Network also surrendered it’s charitable fundraising licence this week. The licence expires on the 16th of April according to the Government Licensing Service website.

The group surrendered its charity licence last week before authorities stripped it from them this week amid serious questions about where the 1.7 million raised since 2002 has gone.