OK, this is the last time, I promise.

Melba wonders why I keep banging on about the dangers of “alternative medicine” and this is why.

The ABC report notes

The New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) has compiled a damning report into Australia's most prominent anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN).

The HCCC accuses the AVN of providing inaccurate and misleading information and selectively quoting research out of context to argue against vaccination.

The report has also noted accusations that the AVN harassed the parents of a child who died of whooping cough last year, after the parents advocated the importance of childhood vaccination.

The baby, Dana McCaffery, died at 32 days, too young to be vaccinated against whooping cough.

I’ve been following the whole vaccination debate pretty closely and I think there are a couple of pretty clear points that arise.

First. Whooping cough or pertussis is a bacterial infection that can kill very young children in a very horrible way.

Second. It can be prevented by a vaccine, freely available across Australia.

Third. Although children can be vaccinated at two months, the vaccine is not fully effective until the final round of vaccinations at four years old. For babies younger than six months, the danger is particularly acute.

Fourth. New parents can protect their child by receiving a pertussis booster, which will reduce the chance of passing the bacteria onto their child.

For parents to refuse to have their child vaccinated, as the AVN advocates, is the height of madness.