Tag Archives: Dr. Lance O’Sullivan

Press releases, Vaccination in the Media

Scandalous: Prominent NZ doctor continues to advocate for a “coercive vaccination policy”

Kaitaia G.P.  Dr. Lance O’Sullivan who controversially advocated linking children’s vaccinations to benefits in 2015 [1] recently renewed his support for a coercive vaccination policy.

In an interview with Don Rowe of Spinoff on May 24, 2017 he said:

“Two years ago I talked about how we should be tagging our benefits to immunisation – so if you’re on the benefit and you have a child who isn’t immunised, there should be a financial consequence for that…I believe that’s the way we should go forward.”

Lance O’Sullivan took the opportunity to promote his coercive vaccination policy after jumping onto the stage during the middle of the Kaitaia screening of the documentary Vaxxed:  From Cover-up to Catastrophe.  During his interruption of the screening, to which he had been invited to attend, he made a speech in which, according to a TVNZ report, he told the screening organisers: “Your presence here will cause babies to die”.

In the interview, Dr. O’Sullivan admitted that he had not bothered to watch Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe.

The documentary is based on information supplied by a US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) scientist (Dr. William Thompson) who provided evidence that showed the agency had covered up a link between early age MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccination and increased risk of autism. The film was produced by Del Bigtree, producer of the popular medical talk show “The Doctors” and Polly and Jon Tommey, whose son Billy suffered a severe seizure after MMR vaccination and subsequently became autistic.

Responding to Dr. Lance O’Sullivan’s comments, Katherine Smith, spokeswoman for No Forced Vaccines stated that it was “very disappointing” that Dr. O’Sullivan was again promoting the idea that children’s vaccinations should be linked to parental benefits.

“As a doctor he needs to keep in the forefront of his mind that his patients (or in the case of children, their parents) need to be able to make free and informed treatments about any medical procedure, including vaccinations.

“Any policy that ties vaccination to any sort of government benefit is obviously unethical because it uses the threat of financial hardship to try to influence the parents’ decisions about their children’s vaccinations.

“I would question Lance O’Sullivan’s commitment to the ethics of his profession, given his continued advocacy of a coercive vaccination policy.”

Smith also stated that data from NZ showed that while children living in impoverished communities were more likely to die from some illnesses, such as pneumonia, than those from wealthier families, vaccination rates were very similar in both the wealthiest and most impoverished families. [2] “Under the circumstances, it appears that poverty is a much more important factor in children’s vulnerabiIity to severe infections than whether or not a child is vaccinated”, Smith said, adding that “Any government policy that makes families poorer is likely to make children sicker.”

Smith noted that there are simple, low cost treatment strategies that are not routinely used in New Zealand that could prevent much illness and save lives, regardless of the income level of a child’s family.  These include “supplemental vitamin C which was shown many decades ago to be able to prevent rheumatic fever”. [3]

“Providing supplemental vitamin D to babies, children and pregnant women over the autumn and winter months when sunshine levels are not sufficient to maintain good vitamin D status also provides a way to support the immune system in producing the antimicrobial peptides [4] needed to help the body resist infection”,  Smith said.

For infants and children who do develop severe infections, “intravenous vitamin C could be used to treat viral pneumonia,” Smith added, citing the case of NZ farmer Allan Smith who survived an “expected-to-be-fatal double pneumonia” after high dose intravenous vitamin C was added to his treatment programme. [5]

Intravenous vitamin C had also been shown to significantly reduce the death rate in patients with sepsis [6], she added.

 

References:

[1] http://www.noforcedvaccines.org/news/call-for-compulsory-vaccination-by-prominent-gp-alarming/

[2] http://www.noforcedvaccines.org/submissions/no-forced-vaccines-submission-on-nsw-public-health-act-consultation/

[3] “The administration of vitamin C in a large institution and its effect on general health and resistance to infection.” A. J. Glazebrook and Scott Thomson cited in  http://militarymedicine.amsus.org/doi/pdf/10.7205/MILMED.169.11.920

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2821804/

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrhkoFcOMII

[6] http://pulmccm.org/main/2017/critical-care-review/vitamin-c-save-lives-sepsis/

News, NZ Government Vaccination Policy, Press releases

Call for compulsory vaccination by prominent GP “alarming”

Call for compulsory vaccination by prominent GP “alarming”

PRESS RELEASE

No Forced Vaccines,

April 19, 2015

 

The statement by GP Dr. Lance O’Sullivan who won the “New Zealander of the Year Award” in 2014 that parents should be “compelled” to have their children vaccinated is “frankly alarming”, according to Katherine Smith, spokeswoman for No Forced Vaccines.

 

“I have no doubts that Dr. O’Sullivan is a dedicated doctor who cares about his patients and the community, and his recognition is well deserved given the initiatives he has taken to improve the health of people in Kaitaia, such as the Kainga Ora healthy housing initiative,” Mrs Smith says.

 

“However, his misguided advocacy of compulsion with regard to vaccination is frankly alarming, given that he is a doctor, and should therefore understand that medical ethics demand that except in extreme circumstances (such as an unconscious patient who needs emergency treatment to save his or her life), patients must be able to make a free and informed decision about their medical care.”

 

In practice, Mrs Smith explains, given that vaccination is a medical procedure that has serious risks, as well as potential benefits, health professionals who offer vaccination to their patients need to provide information about the benefits and risks of the vaccine. This allows people to make an informed decision about whether to be vaccinated.

 

In the case of vaccinations for children, their parents need to have this information to make a decision on behalf of their child, she says.

 

“For a doctor to advocate for vaccination to be compulsory, or to favour the use of financial penalties to try to coerce parents into vaccination their children shows a worrying disregard for basic medical ethics.” Mrs Smith continues.  “Dr O’Sullivan’s statement that parents should be ‘compelled’ to have their children vaccinated suggests he has very little regard for the basic human right of people to make their own decisions about medical treatment for themselves and their minor children.

Noting that Prime Minister John Key had ruled out linking children’s vaccinations to benefits, Mrs Smith adds that it is reassuring that the government recognises that trying to coerce parents into vaccinating their children would be an infringement of the rights of both parents and children.

 

“Most Kiwi parents support vaccination, as evidenced by the fact that 94% of children here are now vaccinated – a record for NZ,” she adds. “Any type of compulsion with regard to vaccination is not only unethical but unnecessary.”

ENDS