Anti-vaxxers deny COVID-19 pandemic, urge others to ignore isolation advice

Doctors are slamming anti-vaxxers’ advice not to self-isolate or follow social distancing measures as “dangerous and possibly illegal” after one Byron Shire anti-vaxxer claimed it was “impossible” to catch a virus.

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Anti-vaccine activist Meryl Dorey has called on her 13,000 followers to breach new laws to socially isolate and take pictures of hospitals to prove the COVID-19 pandemic is fake.

The anti-vax movement worldwide is insistent that COVID-19 is a hoax and that people should not follow government advice.

“Are you being lied to? If you are out and about in the next couple of days, why don't you take your phones and pop into the local hospital,” Ms Dorey posted this week.

AVN calls followers to visit hospitals.

“Let us know how crowded it is — or is not. Is coronavirus really overwhelming our nation or is our nation overwhelming us with lies and killing our economy and us?”

On the Australian Vaccination-risks Network Facebook page, Ms Dorey also posted a video from American anti-vaxxer Dana Ashlie, who claims there is no pandemic despite about 250,000 cases in the USA and more than 6000 deaths.

And Ms Dorey’s followers have responded to her call.

“I plan to do just that! My local hospital is looking pretty quiet and I'm not seeing or hearing ambulances. Where's the pandemic?” one follower wrote.

Others posted pictures of their local hospitals.

John Dwyer, professor of medicine and vocal critic of the AVN, said the advice was dangerous and possibly illegal.

“We don’t want people going out at all except for essential purposes,” Prof Dwyer said.

“This advice is not just putting (people) in danger because they are stupid, the whole purpose of our social distancing is to stop transmission from one person to another.

“People who ignore it, they are a risk to the whole community and now we are at our most dangerous phase where we have community spread without contact with travellers.

“This is the crucial time for controlling the epidemic.

“We all have to follow these instructions that have been proven to work, people who might think I’ll accept this advice are a danger to others as well as their silly selves.”

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In response, Ms Dorey said: “I said if they were out and about anyway, to pop over to check out whether their local hospital looks crowded. I see no reason why it would be considered illegal for them to pass by the hospital on their way out or back?

“From everything I have been told, many hospitals have empty or nearly empty car parks. So where are all the COVID-19 sufferers?”

Involuntary Medical Objectors Party member Tom Barnett claims you can’t catch a virus.

Another Byron Shire anti-vaxxer, Tom Barnett, a member of the Involuntary Medical Objectors Party who ran as a candidate in the last federal election in the electorate of Richmond, claimed in a video online “you cannot catch a virus because it is impossible”.

Mr Barnett explains on the video that he “was one of those kids who could read and write before school” and knew his “one to 12 times tables before other kids even opened a book” and that when he last took an IQ test he “was taken into a separate room and interrogated” because they thought he must have cheated.

He claims “a virus is not transmissible between people” and “the only way to catch a virus is to inject it into your bloodstream”.

Mr Barnett encourages everyone to ignore guidelines.

“One, do not get a flu shot, do not get any shot, and two, don’t stay in your house, you need sunshine,” he said.

The video has since been taken down from YouTube and Facebook.

Mr Barnett claims to have studied six years of science including medicine but when questioned if he had studied at legitimate instititions he said: “What legitimises a university, or Google for that matter?”.

He did not respond to other questions.

Prof Dwyer also slammed this advice.

“He is adamant that viruses can’t move from one person to another but bacteria can. The only reason he is worth any mention is that if people were silly enough to believe it, they would disregard what the government is telling us and all these crucial measures,” he said.

Originally published as Anti-vaxxers deny COVID-19 pandemic, urge others to ignore isolation advice