'You peanut': Aussie sporting hero savages Anthony Mundine
Paralympic champion Kurt Fearnley has hit back at Anthony Mundine after the former boxer encouraged people not to vaccinate their kids.
Mundine posted the controversial anti-vaccination rant on Twitter, telling his followers “don’t vaccine (sic) your kids period!”
“The government bully you into vaccine! Do your research on the sh*t,” he wrote.
“All I’m saying is research and check what they giving you or ya baby!
“When they start mixing it like a cocktail that’s where it’s going wrong!”
Don’t vaccine your kids period! The government bully you into vaccine ! Do your research on the shit & watched the documentary vaxxed … https://t.co/PKX6qSYtm5
— Anthony Mundine (@Anthony_Mundine) April 10, 2019
A lot of talk bout this vaccine stuff ! All I’m saying is research & check what they giving you or ya baby ! When they start mixing it like a cocktail that’s where it’s going wrong ! That’s my opinion & other people have the right to there’s !
— Anthony Mundine (@Anthony_Mundine) April 10, 2019
Mundine was condemned by hundreds online, including a response by disability advocate Fearnley.
He accused Mundine of promoting apathy over diseases that should be feared.
“You got many mates with Polio? I do. A heap. From countries that didn’t have the luxury of vaccinations you peanut,” the paralympic champion wrote.
He said it was “bad faith” for anti-vaxxers to say do your research when medical professionals had already done so.
“So do your research.. Consult your GP. Not Dr Google.”
The “Do your research” argument from anti-vaxxer is in bad faith. Most people don’t have the time required to adequately research. Such as PhD’s etc. so we rely on the combined knowledge of the medical profession. So do your research.. Consult your GP. Not Dr Google.
— Kurt Fearnley (@kurtfearnley) April 11, 2019
‘Measles can kill’
Prominent indigenous activist and academic Marcia Langton also hit back.
Professor Langton holds the Foundation Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies at the Melbourne University Faculty of Medicine.
“The science is in. Everyone must be vaccinated. Measles can kill and cause lifetime disabilities,” she wrote.
The comments come a month after a study found no link between autism and the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine.
Anti-vaxxers have long claimed the MMR vaccine can cause autism, but researchers who studied more than half-a-million babies born in Denmark over 11 years found there is absolutely no association in a study released in March.
The federal government has launched a national television advertising blitz to counter the misinformation spread by anti-vaccination campaigners.
The federal government committed in February an extra $12 million over the next three years to reinforce the health benefits of the nation’s immunisation program.
