The Health Australia Party (HAP) has been wrongly accused by some of being an anti vaccination Party.   Some of the accusers are simply being dishonest. Some are simply confusing the difference between calling for informed choice between evidence-based immunisation options, and opposing an option.

This is an important post so please take time to read it fully.

One of the co-founders of HAP, Dr Isaac Golden, was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from Swinburne University in 2004/5. His thesis topic was “The Potential Value of Homoeoprophylaxis in the Long-Term Prevention of Infectious Diseases, and the Maintenance of General Health in Recipients”.

Dr Golden’s work was used by the Cuban Government in 2007 and 2008 when deciding the homoeoprophylaxis (or homeopathic immunisation) protocol to deal with Leptospirosis outbreaks following severe hurricanes in the three Eastern regions of the country. Over 2.2 million citizens were immunised in each year with great success. Dr Golden was invited by the Government to Cuba in December 2008 and visited again in 2010, 2012 and 2014, working at the Finlay Institute, which is Cuba’s infectious disease institute, and their vaccine manufacturer.

Dr Golden has also worked with senior medical officers from the Ministry of AYUSH in India, and has visited the country 5 times from 2015 to 2020. He has personally met the Vice President of India and the Minister of AYUSH, and has cooperated with Government officials in a number of States and at the CCRH on a number of homeopathic immunisation programs. He has collected and published significant data on the massive homoeoprophylaxis programs in India in literally hundreds of millions of doses.

In his own clinic he has regularly treated both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and always takes the position that it should be every Australian’s right to choose whether to vaccinate or use other evidence-based options. And this is the Health Australia Party’s position in this, and in all health related issues.

False media accusations:  The false claims about the Health Australia Party came to a head in the 2018 Victorian election. Its reporter, Tim Colebatch referred to “the anti-vaccination Health Australia” party in an article published on 12/11/18.

HAP strongly supports immunisation against potentially dangerous diseases such as whooping cough in infants, meningococcal meningitis, etc. Vaccination is the principal and almost exclusive method of immunisation used in Australia. HAP does not oppose its use.

HAP simply calls for all citizens to be given access to the evidence base of all options and allowed to make a genuinely informed choice.

In an attempt to put an end to false claims, HAP lodged a formal complaint with the Press Council of Australia in relation to two articles claiming HAP was “anti vaccination”

The Councils adjudication on 10/2/2020 was as follows:

“While the Council considers that the party does favour homeopathic immunisation over vaccination, the headline in referring to the party as “anti-vaxxers” was inconsistent with the body of the article. On balance the Council considers that in describing the party in the headline in absolute terms as “anti-vaxxers”, the publication failed to take reasonable steps to ensure the headline was not misleading and was expressed with reasonable fairness and balance. Accordingly, the Council considers the publication breached General Principles 1 and 3. Given the issues involved and the positions of the complainant and the publication the Council considers there was no breach of General Principles 2 or 4.”

HAP is NOT an anti-vaccination Party