Sudden infant death syndrome

Scheibner began claiming that there is a link between vaccination and SIDS in the early 1990s, and in a book Vaccination... published in 1993. In the book and subsequently, she has speculated that "vaccination is the single biggest cause of SIDS". However data shows that since she began making her claims, vaccination rates for Birth to 2-years component of the Immunisation Schedule in Australia increased from 53% in 1990 to 92% in 2006,^[7][8] while SIDS deaths fell by 81% over the same period.^[9] A 2007 meta-analysis found that vaccines halve the risk of SIDS.^[10]

Scheibner claimed that when Japan paused their Pertussis vaccination program in 1974, SIDS deaths disappeared in the country. However, Victorian medical practitioner Stephen Basser, writing in the Australian Skeptic magazine, said that the studies Scheibner cited did not support her statements and that she had omitted information [from the studies] which did not support her position, including data showing pertussis mortality in Japan increased 800% in the five years following the pause in Pertussis vaccination.^[2]

Shaken baby syndrome

Scheibner claims that injuries and death attributed to shaken baby syndrome, including retinal bleeding, broken bones, fractured skulls and detached retinas are actually caused by vaccination^[11] although no science supports this claim.

Commissioner William Carter, Q.C., who was hearing a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission enquiry in which Viera Scheibner was called as a witness, dismissed her claims on the subject of vaccines, finding that he was unsatisfied with her formal qualifications and professional experience, which he found did not "properly equip her to provide a valid professional opinion on the complex subject of immunology".^[12] As a result, he was unwilling to accept her evidence in the enquiry.^[12]

In 2001, Brian Pezzutti criticised Scheibner's anti-vaccination campaigning in the NSW Legislative Council, describing Scheibner as providing "misleading information", and highlighting her March letter to the Medical Observer which "makes claims that are not supported by the documentation she referred to".^[13] Pezzutti stated that it was "very important for people to realise that the information provided by Dr Scheibner is not accurate".^[13]

In 1997, the Australian Skeptics awarded her the "Bent Spoon Award". This award is presented annually to the Australian "perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of pseudoscientific piffle":

"The unanimous choice of the judges was Dr Viera Scheibner for her high profile anti-immunisation campaign which, by promoting new age and conspiracy mythology and by owing little to scientific methodologies or research, poses a serious threat to the health of Australian children."^[3]