Go Away AVN

So it turns out that if you google vaccination on google.com.au, Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) comes up as the second result, right after wikipedia.

Search results from google.com.au for
"vaccination" as of 20th of May 2013

As some of you may know, AVN is an anti-vaccination organisation, part of the anti-vaccination movement, whose core beliefs rests on a retracted paper published by a doctor who was struck off the UK medical register after been found guilty of unprofessional and unethical conduct.

Vaccination is a corner stone of public health policy, and the only means of protection for the most vulnerable amongst us who are unable to receive vaccinations. Through vaccination smallpox was eradicated in 1979, and no child was ever again killed or maimed by it.

A child with smallpox

Due to the efforts of groups like the AVN however, there has been recent decline in the number of children receiving vaccinations against common childhood whooping cough, leading an outbreak of whooping cough in Queensland, and sadly, the death of several infants.

While the Australian Government is taken action against the AVN, the fact it has such a prominent position in Google's search results is undermining the overall effort. Thankfully this is something you and I can do something about, and that is what this blog post is for: part of an effort to increase the PageRank of legitimate sources of vaccination like

• http://www.vaccination.org.au/ 
• http://www.immunise.health.gov.au/

If you have a blog, make a post like this one, google vaccination on google.com.au and click on every result that is NOT AVN.

Cheers,
Steve