Letter to Simon Fraser University concerning “Vaccine Summit: Vancouver 2013” at SFU Harbour Centre.
March 05, 2013
The following is a letter sent to Simon Fraser University with regards to the university renting out room at its Harbour Centre campus to the Vaccine Resistence Movement for their "Vaccine Summit: Vancouver 2013"
CFI Vancouver has also sent out a press release, seen after the letter.
Andrew Petter, President and Vice-Chancellor
President’s Office
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada V5A 1S6
Dear President Petter,
We are deeply disappointed to see Simon Fraser University (SFU) lend its credibility to dangerous anti-vaccination propaganda by renting space to the upcoming “Vaccine Summit: Vancouver 2013” at SFU Harbour Centre.
University campuses are, and should be, venues for the free exchange of ideas. We recognize that one of your vital duties is to be a place where controversial ideas are allowed a fair hearing; but a university also has a duty to educate the public.
The “Vaccine Summit” is billed as a “transparent discussion about vaccines”. It actually promises to be nothing more than a platform for discredited scare-mongering about vaccination.
Vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions of the modern world. The benefits of vaccinations are clear: smallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the verge of eradication, and infectious diseases that were endemic are now in retreat. Billions of lives have been saved because of vaccination. Vaccines are safe: the known minimum risks are greatly outweighed by the benefits.
This is not the message that the attendees at the “Vaccine Summit” will hear.
They can expect to be told that vaccines cause autism—despite this claim having been comprehensively refuted. (Andrew Wakefield, the champion of this claim, was found to have committed wilful research misconduct including falsification of data and misappropriation of funds. Wakefield was barred from medical practice in the UK, and his 1998 publication in The Lancet was retracted.)
They will be told that vaccines are dangerously toxic, and that unproven naturopathic and other alternative treatments are more effective.
Most tragically, they will be told to deny their children the protection provided by vaccines.
As misinformation has spread, vaccination rates have declined. Regionally-eliminated diseases, such as measles, are making a swift return to North America and Europe, including an outbreak of pertussis (“whooping cough”) here in Vancouver just last autumn. B.C. has also seen recent outbreaks of measles: in most cases, directly attributable to falling rates of childhood vaccination.
SFU is a respected centre of learning, and it should be doing everything in its power to educate the public about the vital importance of routine vaccination. It should counter the falsehoods spread by those who confuse correlation with causation and insist on unproven links between vaccination and autism. It should be concerned with, and actively campaign against, the types of misinformation and ignorance that put the province’s children at risk of preventable disease. It should listen to its own colleagues in SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences, who, on their website, have unequivocally denied endorsement of the Vaccine Resistance Movement or its activities.
It should not, for the pittance of a space rental fee, implicitly endorse an event dedicated to the spread of misinformation that will help create a Canadian public health crisis.
We call on Simon Fraser University to strongly and unequivocally declare that it does not support the anti-vaccination message of the Vaccine Resistance Movement, and to acknowledge its mistake in allowing the promotion of inaccurate information and dangerous quackery to happen on its grounds.
Signed:
Ethan Clow
Director, Centre for Inquiry Vancouver
Michael Payton
National Director, Centre for Inquiry Canada
Iain Martel, PhD, & Steve Livingston, BSc, MA
Co-Chairs, Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism
Pat O’Brien
Board Member, Centre For Inquiry Canada
Nienke van Houten, PhD
Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, SFU
Joshua Nero, BSc
MD Candidate, Class of 2015
Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia
Robert Tarzwell, MD, FRCPC
Clinical Assistant Professor
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Monika Naus, MD, MHSc, FRCPC, FACPM
Medical Director, Immunization Programs and Vaccine Preventable Diseases
BC Centre for Disease Control
Associate Professor, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia
Ian Cromwell, MSc
Health Economist, British Columbia Cancer Agency
PhD Student (Population and Public Health), University of British Columbia
Logan Trenaman, BSc
MSc Student (Population and Public Health), University of British Columbia
David Scheifele, MD, OC
Director, Vaccine Evaluation Center, BC Children’s Hospital
Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
Thomas Kerr, PhD
Director, Urban Health Research Initiative
British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
Associate Professor, Dept. of Medicine
University of British Columbia
Jeremy Snyder, PhD
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Scott Lear, PhD
Professor
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Kate Tairyan, MD, MPH
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Charlotte Waddell, MSc, MD, CCFP, FRCP
Associate Professor
Canada Research Chair in Children’s Health Policy
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Mark S. Lechner, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Director, Undergraduate Programs
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
****
March 05, 2013 11:00 ET
Medical Experts Outraged Over Anti-Vaccination Event at Simon Fraser
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - March 5, 2013) - 'Vaccine Summit: Vancouver 2013', to be hosted at Simon Fraser University's Harbour Centre (Vancouver) campus is billed as a "transparent discussion about vaccines", but according to medical experts it is just a platform for anti-vaccine activists to spread dangerous misinformation which could harm the public. Even SFU's Faculty of Health Sciences was disturbed that the university would associate itself with such an event and described it as "anti-science and contrary to good public health practice".
An open letter to the SFU president calls for SFU to repudiate an anti-vaccination conference. The letter was co-signed by the Centre for Inquiry (CFI) Vancouver, Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism, and a number of Vancouver-area medical experts.
CFI Vancouver's Ethan Clow thinks that isn't enough: "Simon Fraser University needs to make a clear public statement about the overwhelming medical evidence in support of vaccination, and disavowing the message of the Vaccine Resistance Movement," he said. "The university made a mistake, and needs to fix that mistake through science-based public outreach and education about vaccination."
Contact Information
Centre for Inquiry
Ethan Clow
(604) 616-1311
eclow@cficanada.ca