In 2015 the anti - vaccination move got something it had long want : the awarding of a Ph.D. fora thesisendorsing many of its title . The determination by the University of Wollongong , Australia to grant the doctor’s degree waswidely pick apart , but defenders of the decision claim opponents had not read the dissertation in full and were relying on incomplete information . Now however , a detailed rebuttal has been published in the journalVaccine , prove the dissertation is every bit as flawed as critics say .
The University of Wollongong may not be an internationally renowned institution , but it is rated in the world ’s top 250 universities in at least oneglobal ranking , and led one of the mostimportant discoveriesof this century . This was , therefore , not an exemplar of a made up university that awards pseudo - degrees to anyone willing to yield them .
With more than 20,000 downloads of the dissertation , and anti - vaccination campaigner come to to it frequently , the decision to make the award could have tempt inoculation charge per unit , despite the fact the accolade was from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities , rather than skill or medicine . The supervisor justified the faculty ’s involvement because the dissertation claimed to be about institutional barriers to unbiased research and their essence on policymaking .
“ Our current research with non - vaccinating parent suggests that some are consider the thesis in their conclusion - fashioning , and health care providers who may be question about it by vaccinum - hesitating parents have no such resourcefulness to aid their discussions , ” the author of the reply , titledPhd Thesis Opposing Immunisation : bankruptcy Of Academic Rigour With Real - World Consequences , and led by the University of Sydney’sDr Kerrie Wiley , write .
Wiley and co - author conclude the thesis shows " prejudice in select the literature cited and sometimes unlimited falsification of facts " . They reason it bank heavy on the claim infant fatality rate was falling prior to the widespread debut of most vaccine . The fall was triggered by improvements in hygienics and diet , they say , and would have bear on without the introduction of inoculation .
Wiley readily acknowledges vaccines are not the only factor in the fifty - fold decrement in infant mortality in the developed world over the last century . However , they certainly played a major part .
The thesis looks only at overall infant fatality rate over prison term , failing to break it down by causes . In fact , despite advancement in many other field , it was only when vaccines were introduced that diseases like polio and measles were brought under ascendency – in the latter lawsuit only torise againthanks to anti - vaxxers ' efforts . antibiotic drug describe for much of the 20th century ’s improvements in life - expectancy , but are useless against viral diseases .
Other controversy central to the thesis admit claim certain research has not in reality been done , just because various Australian authorities websites on vaccination do n’t quote it . As Wiley points out , such research is literal , abundant , and well accessible by university alum students .
unhappily , this thesis was not University of Wollongong ’s humanity section ’s first speculation outside their field of expertise , with potentially disastrous consequences . Their web land site hostsa paper , blaming HIV on the polio vaccine , a theory that has beenthoroughly disprovedin at least three ways .
Luckily Australia hasstrict lawson vaccinum , which areprovingincrediblysuccessful .
