Sherri Tenpenny: Sydney venue cancels seminar of US anti-vaccination campaigner

Updated

Pressure is mounting against a planned speaking tour by American anti-vaccination campaigner Sherri Tenpenny, with at least one venue now cancelling a seminar.

Dr Tenpenny, an osteopath who believes vaccines cause autism, asthma, ADHD and auto-immune disorders, is planning a series of lectures against vaccination in March aimed at parents of babies.

But she has been criticised by the Stop The Australian Anti-Vaccination Network for "endangering people's health" and "targeting vulnerable parents".

Kareela Golf and Social Club in Sydney has cancelled a seminar, while a group of doctors cancelled their own workshop at a Melbourne venue, angry the place had also booked Dr Tenpenny next month.

General manager of the Kareela club, Dennis Skinner, said the venue did not want to be associated with such a controversial subject matter.

"The club as a venue, we don't have a position for or against this, we just decided the subject matter was too controversial for us to be involved in," he said.

An organiser of the tour, Stephanie Messenger, said those opposing the series of talks were trying to hide things from the public.

"They say they want parents to make an informed choice, but you can't do that if you don't have all the information. So they are trying to suppress the information," she said.

A pro-vaccination group has asked Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to deny the anti-vaccination campaigner a visa to speak in Australia.

Thousands of Australians have now signed a petition lobbying Canberra to deny the visa.

Ms Messenger said cancelling the visa would set a worrying precedent.

"It would set the precedent that they can just cancel visas for anyone who hasn't done anything wrong," she said.

"All of Dr Tenpenny's information is referenced by medical and scientific papers ... so I don't know what they're trying to stop the people from seeing."

Mr Dutton is yet to respond.

"The Minister is taking advice on this matter and will make further comment when appropriate," a spokesman said.

Tenpenny 'peddling a belief disguised as medical advice'

Mr Skinner said there was no indication it was an anti-vaccination booking when it was made.

"You know it was booked as a health and wellbeing seminar for a 'get rid of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)' project," he said.

"It did take two or three phone calls to get through to the organisation to cancel the booking and they did say that they had made our function department fully aware of who the guest speakers were, however we have had a change of personnel so I can't confirm or deny that."

Dr Tenpenny's supporters have posted messages on Facebook, urging her to "stay strong" and that "many kids will thank her one day".

"It's very unfortunate that they caved into this sort of pressure, but it's understandable ... it's unfortunate because when they do this sort of thing they allow people who want to suppress free speech to get their way," said Ms Messenger.

Stop The Australian Anti-Vaccination Network member Dave Hawkes said he helped start the petition calling on Mr Dutton to deny Dr Tenpenny a visa.

"Sherri Tenpenny has a belief that vaccines are bad and she will twist any bit of information to suit her own needs and beliefs," he said.

"She's peddling a belief and disguising it as essentially medical advice."

Topics: vaccines-and-immunity, health, child-health-and-behaviour, family-and-children, children, diseases-and-disorders, government-and-politics, immigration, australia

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