Key Sentence:
- The Covid-19 pandemic has made scientists into celebrities, graced the daily news, and gained a large following on social media.
- But that surge in popularity has been accompanied by online harassment and even physical abuse.
Nature magazine interviewed scientists who described receiving threats of violence after appearing in the media. Discussion of the vaccine or drug ivermectin is a common cause of the disorder. In the past, scientists have experienced harassment when discussing climate change or previous vaccination campaigns.
An independent study of 321 people working in Covid-related areas found that more than a fifth had received physical or sexual violence threats. While this is not representative of all scientists and cannot pinpoint the extent of abuse. It does provide an overview of some of the personal experiences of those who come out to provide information during a global disease epidemic.
Six people who answered the questionnaire said they had been physically assaulted after appearing in the media.
Some of the more extreme cases have been widely reported. For example, leading Belgian virologist, Prof. Mark Van Ranst is in a safe house after being attacked by a trained right-wing sniper (found dead). Who hates the blockade and threatens the death of health workers.
UK senior medical adviser Prof. Chris Whitty is attacked in a park by a 24-year-old real estate agent. At the same time, two leading German scientists have released vials of a transparent liquid labeled “positive” and notes about drinking it.
American infectious disease doctor Krutika Kupali. Who interviewed national media and testified before a congressional committee, told Nature that she received death threats by calling her home. Australian virologist Daniel Anderson, who worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
And criticized the theory that it may have come from where the virus escaped, received an email asking him to “eat a bat and die.”
Prof Andrew Hill wrote a positive review of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin being used to treat Covid but reversed his position after finding the data on which to base his conclusions were not credible. Available evidence suggests ivermectin is unlikely to be very effective on Covid. But Professor Hill has received several ill-treatment, including allegations of genocide that kept him off social media.
“They sent me pictures of Nazi war criminals hanging from lampposts, pictures of voodoo coffins swaying. Threats that my family doesn’t believe we will all burn in hell,” he told News. It happens almost every day – I open my laptop in the morning to face a sea of shameful hate and threats.
During A Pandemic Dr. Michael Head, a senior fellow at the University of Southampton on global health. Said there had been “an enormous amount of abuse against everyone helping to respond to the pandemic … including [frontline NHS staff”. University College London, behavioral scientist Professor Susan Mitchi said “disruptive” Internet abuse would occur “most intensely. After media engagement and especially after social distancing, wearing face masks or vaccinations.”
Other researchers interviewed mentioned that emails were sent to their employers or that their professional reputation was questioned.
But of those harassed on their own social media, nearly half said they did not tell their employer. The Nature study also found that people who were most likely to be harassed were more likely to say it affected their willingness to give media interviews in the future.
Fiona Fox, executive director of the UK Center for Scientific Media, which provides scholarly commentary and briefing to journalists, said it was “disadvantaging when a media scholar who shares his experiences is excluded from public debate at a time when we are them. never need a bad one.”