PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

The IAS membership was relatively small in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with
about 300 members. 61 One member who joined as the IAS secretary around 1989,
commented that the committee usually numbered about six people who were ‘doing
all the work’ writing and publishing the bi-monthy newsletter; and then there was a
number of people in support who would find information and do other things as
needed. 62 As well as sending the newsletter to members, copies were distributed to
health retailers who were usually sympathetic to the views of the IAS. Additionally,
the organisation had a postbox to which people would write with queries about
immunisation and the group found information sheets were a useful way to distribute
knowledge on various topics, particularly when the same question came up
repeatedly. They also tried to put people in the same areas in contact with each other
setting up support groups, rather than organising national meetings ‘as there was
hundreds of them and only six of us and you just couldn’t do it’. 63
The group’s membership remained fairly constant in its early years; however they did
receive many enquiries from non-member parents about aspects of immunisation.
People wrote or called with problems ranging from advice on whether to have their
baby immunised, to those were immunisation was proven to have been responsible for
their problems. There was also a ‘good smattering of people who were wondering
whether vaccination had something to do with what was wrong with their child’. 64
Due to the number of these cases, Hilary Butler started to focus purely on research
into medical misadventure relating to immunisation. 65
The IAS could be accessed by telephone or postbox and parents were assured of a
response. Notwithstanding this, as an Auckland-based group with only a limited
number of members, many parents were unaware of its existence, even those parents
who had decided not immunise their children. One mother who lived in Auckland
and had decided against immunising her three children had never heard of the IAS
although she had read widely on the subject before making a decision. 66 Another anti-
immuniser with an interest in homeopathy went to a seminar given by Hilary Butler
61
Interview with D. McKerras, 21 March 2002, former Secretary of IAS.
62
ibid.
63
ibid.
64
ibid.
65
ibid.
66
Email correspondence from T. Barleet, 13 April 2002.
280