A book written by an Australian doctor in the 1970s has re-emerged as a pivotal text for Australia’s anti-vaccination movement. The out-of-print book has found a second life online. Well-known Australian and international anti-vaxxers are distributing digital copies to support their arguments, particularly in Indigenous communities.
The obituaries when Dr Archie Kalokerinos died in 2012 spoke glowingly of his service to Indigenous health. The Sydney Morning Herald credited him with cutting the infant mortality rate to zero in some regional NSW communities. Neos Kosmos — which named Kalokerinos the Greek Australian of the century — called him a “brave humanitarian who knew no bounds”.
Former prime minister John Howard praised Kalokerinos for his “consistent and selfless efforts”. This Is Your Life did an episode on him.
What wasn’t mentioned was Kalokerinos’ history as a crank scientist and conspiracy theorist who claimed vaccinations were a cause of vitamin C deficiency. His proposed treatment for almost every malady was large doses of the vitamin to boost the immune system.
While large doses of vitamin C can help with scurvy and other deficiencies, there is no evidence to suggest it can help with strokes and diabetes — ailments Kalokerinos nevertheless tried to treat with it.
He was reported to have given speeches at events run by Australia’s longest running anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network.
He spoke about how the World Health Organization and Save the Children Fund were deliberately committing genocide through a mass vaccination program, and how the US government was conspiring to kill certain populations by encouraging those with known heart problems to get vaccinated.
Anti-vaccination magnum opus
Kalokerinos’ 1974 autobiographical book Every Second Child encapsulates his legacy. Its 143 pages chronicle his work in Indigenous communities, where he talks in great detail about the people he treated and the harms of vaccination.
It has a foreword by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling who said Kalokerinos “deserves much credit for having made these discoveries”.
Every Second Child is long out of print. But that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a core text for today’s anti-vaccination campaigners. Copies of the paperback are listed for sale on Amazon at more than $900 for Australian buyers.
The Australian Vaccination Network (which has since been renamed) posted in February that the book was a reason that Indigenous Australians were wary of being vaccinated. It endorsed the book.
Prominent Samoan-Australian anti-vaccine activist Taylor Winterstein has repeatedly promoted it to the nearly 100,000 people following her social media, saying it shows proof of “medical racism”. She now includes a downloadable version of it as part of a pack of documents for new parents.
Other active state offshoots of an international anti-vaxxer group (which Crikey has chosen not to name to avoid promoting further) link to digital copies and share quotes on social media.
Just one website hosting the free download shows it has been downloaded more than 2400 times. Facebook posts by users, including prominent international anti-vaxxers, that link to this digital copy of the book have received nearly 5000 engagements.
To these campaigns and groups, this tome based on one doctor’s anecdotal evidence is proof about the risks of vaccination nearly 50 years later.
Its promotion of “boosting your immune system” and fears that safe and effective vaccines are actually “medical experiments” have become common refrains in the modern anti-vaxxer movement.
And with reports out of Indigenous communities that 50% to 75% of people living there will eschew the COVID-19 vaccine, it seems Kalokerinos’ thinking is finding a receptive audience at a crucial time.
Unfortunately antivaxxers will take to anything which might support their beliefs regardless of what evidence there is to the contrary. There is no arguing with them. I know from experience with very close family having these beliefs.
You should listen to them with an open mind -but I guess for you that’s not possible.
You’d think that fifty years would be enough time to have put the lie to claims of “deliberately committing genocide through a mass vaccination program”.
I guess smallpox has got a pretty negative opinion of vaccines along with polio, TB, syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases.
I remember a similar thing happening with the Intelligent Design moment, where ID proponents would latch onto anyone with credentials saying bad thing about evolution in order to show that the scientific establishment is a conspiracy against God by knowingly pushing the false “theory” of evolution.
I’m not surprised anti-vaxxers also follow this. Even the most entrenched opponent of establishment thinking understands the importance of credentials in establishing the authority of a claim. Unfortunately it means pseudoscience is here to stay because there’s no shortage of credentialled cranks and charlatans.
Unfortunately in the case of vaccines, it’s gonna mean a lot more suffering and death as vaccine-preventable diseases pass through our communities. It’s no wonder so many of them deny the science that shows the body count and needless suffering, because the truth would mean grasping the consequences of the position. Easier to pretend there’s a global conspiracy along scientists, media outlets, politicians, and large corporations, than it is to wear the consequences of advocating for more needless suffering and death.
*Sigh* at least the libertarians are upfront about wanting a body count when they come out against lockdowns…
Think you have accidentally nailed it, clever corporate and/or political PR encouraging e.g. ID, anti vaxxers etc., as very strategic, not organic, especially when many tend to vote conservative.
Any anti-vaxxer who can understand graphs should look at https//YouTube.be/p0x13N6WYY0 as it shows beautifully the outcome of introducing vaccination in the USA for a range of human pathogens.
I’m sure the YooToob algorithm would never let committed anti-Vaxxers to see anything like facts….
Glad you mentioned the foreword by Linus Pauling, considered one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time, notably in the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology – his work also inspired the discovery of the structure of DNA.
let’s get this straight, I am not an anti vaxxer but I resent the “it’s perfectly safe, DON’T question it” position and Crikey has published enough articles about the unethical behaviour of the big pharmaceutical companies to warrant scepticism of their business models.
I praise your journalistic fairness in mentioning Linus Pauling’s forward of Kalikerinos’ book which should therefore not be dismissed out of hand.
Linus Pauling had his crank side too – he too thought Vitamin C was a miracle cure.
Pauling believed moderate doses of Vit C would help to prevent colds. Close to where I live there is a former RAAF colleague who I visited in hospital as he had terminal cancer. He undertook treatment outside of the hospital, involving large doses of Vit C intravenously. He has been for about 10 years now, cancer free. I don’t think anyone of appropriate training has posited that the vitamin would prevent cancer.
Anecdotal is neither evidence nor a representative population sample…..
The religious Virus cranks can’t handle that excellent information – shame on them.
Sample size=1
WEll it saved one hell of a lot of lives when they discovered the lack of Vitamin C was the cause of scurvy. Honeslty, people who are totally ignorant need to stop prattling nonsense
Linus Pauling is the perfect example of how being scientifically educated and doing great work isn’t incompatible with being a crank and promoting anti-scientific nonsense. His good work is rightly recognised as good science, while his anti-scientific advocacy of vitamin C as a cure isn’t. To conflate the two would be what psychologists call The Halo Effect, rather than seeing his work as separate units that should stand up on their own merits.
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” – Richard Feynman
Vitamin C crank.