Fibs.

They’re just words. They don’t mean anything.

For a long time, I’ve watched Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network perform regular contortions of the truth to match her skewed world view that vaccines are anything but a safe, reliable, scientific success story. It’s been almost entertaining to watch her try and weasel her way out of half-truths, conspiracy theories and offensive analogies.

It seems she’s just not trying anymore. Let’s do a little comprehension exercise, to see how clever you are by comparison.

Step 1: click on this link and read the first two paragraphs of the story – it’s about a 7-month-old child in Myanmar who contracted polio.

Step 2: Answer the following question:

Was the child in the story vaccinated or not?

Hint: You may go back and re-read the story as many times as you want before you answer.

If you answered ‘No, the child was not vaccinated against polio’, you have adequate comprehension skills. I’d hazard a guess that you can read and understand English at a workable standard.

If you answered ‘Yes, the child was vaccinated against polio’, then I’m afraid you’re only as literate as our friend Ms Dorey, and it's possible that you're incapable of comprehending any word in this sentence over two syllables (or running a credible vaccine information organisation).

Yup. Meryl tweeted a link to the story in question which stated, “Infant gets polio from vaccine”.

Here’s a screenshot of @nocompulsoryvac’s tweet, which I’ve reproduced here for the purposes of comment and criticism.

Doink.