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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judy Wilyman | 4/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Wilyman | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T03:37:17.425529+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Remonstrations === In response to UOW and Wilyman's thesis an online petition called Stop the University of Wollongong's Spread of Disease and Death Via Anti-Vaccination PhD was established in January 2016 and attracted over 2,100 signatures within the first few weeks. The petition reportedly states that UOW's acceptance of the thesis "demonstrates an anti-scientific culture at the University of Wollongong that is inimical to scholarship". At the same time over sixty of the university's health and medical academics and researchers jointly signed a statement that "the evidence is clear" in support of vaccination urging all parents to ensure their children are fully immunised, Public Health Association of Australia president Heather Yeatman said the 65 academics wanted to clarify the scientific position and point out they are firmly behind vaccination and that "Universities need to publish papers based on sound evidence and the balance of evidence in relation to any matter". A week later, representatives from 12 medical research and clinical societies also signed a supporting statement on behalf of 5,000 scientists and clinicians in the fields of microbiology, virology, immunology and infectious diseases concerned about vaccine-preventable diseases in the community. Eminent research biologist Sir Gustav Nossal was one of signatories, and Jonathan Iredale who drafted the statement said "It's not about academic freedom; it's an academic issue. If the thesis comes from poor scholarship then that is something the university must deal with". In the Elsevier journal Vaccine three months later, UoW's executive dean of the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, researcher and toxicologist Alison Jones, co-authored a paper in-part referring to Wilyman, and in discussing the balance of good public health versus unchecked academic freedom stated:
"there is the very real potential for feral academic liberty and free speech to do harm ... this is particularly pertinent in the field of child health, where two recent controversial "scholarly" vaccine contributions ... could undermine community confidence in immunisation and immunisation uptake ... by suggesting scientific doubt where doubt is not warranted on the basis of the evidence available... [Wilyman has] repeated the discredited claims of a link between vaccines and autism, without providing compelling scientific evidence to support her claim". Martin responded to Durrheim and Jones, arguing that they had misrepresented parts of Wilyman's work. McIntyre, a senior doctor at the Westmead Children's Hospital, said that Wollongong University "must bear the major responsibility for manifestly inadequate supervision", saying: "It is clear from even cursory examination that Wilyman's thesis, although raising some legitimate questions about gaps in both the process and transparency of immunisation policy development, is based on a highly selective and poorly informed review of the literature, driven by the imperative to support pre-determined conclusions."
=== Peer review === The March 2019 issue of the journal Vaccine published an article titled "PhD thesis opposing immunisation: Failure of academic rigour with real-world consequences" that stated in its conclusion that Wilyman's "thesis is notable for its lack of evidence of systematic literature review. Despite its extensive claims, there is no primary research, but there is abundant evidence of strong bias in selecting the literature cited and sometimes outright misrepresentation of facts." The authors also criticised Wilyman's use of her PhD to position herself as an expert witness in a family law court case over immunisation.
== After graduation == Within two months of University of Wollongong publishing the thesis it was reported that Wilyman was claiming her "PhD provides evidence that all vaccines are not safe and effective and that the combined schedule of vaccines is doing more harm than good in the population through the increase in chronic illness". In June 2016 The Australian reported that Wilyman was an audience member at a vaccination forum run by the Telethon Kids Research Institute in Perth. Anti-vaccination activists at the event accused the forum members of lying, and heckled, interjected and continuously interrupted the speakers, forcing the event to close early. Wilyman wrote an open letter to Paul Wellings, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Wollongong asking the university to correct alleged inaccuracies in the Wikipedia article about her research, asserting that criticism of her thesis in the media and by individual scientists was not "a proper scientific debate (but) suppression of the literature using political strategies". She also criticised Alison Jones, a Wollongong academic, for using the university's website to publicise "personal opinions of vaccination". The university responded by saying that they do not endorse or otherwise the views of students or academic staff, and do not curate Wikipedia. Wilyman, Martin and the Faculty were awarded the satirical Australian Skeptics 2016 Bent Spoon Award for "a PhD thesis riddled with errors, misstatements, poor and unsupported 'evidence' and conspiratorial thinking". During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilyman questioned whether there really was a pandemic saying "do not lock down a healthy population under the guidelines of 'social distancing' for a global pandemic when there is no evidence of that pandemic", and challenged health advice by saying "that if you accept this social distancing and banning of gatherings of more than two people, [which] is clearly about population control and not the control of this infectious disease outbreak… then you are accepting the new norm and you've already lost your freedom".