Trolling, abuse, death threats: a COVID scientist’s lot

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Opinion: This week, amid the heat of COVID, my colleagues and I discovered how common it is for us to be harassed and vilified for doing our jobs

I don’t read comments on articles I author or look at reviews following a TV or radio appearance or follow the comments in the newspapers where I am cited. It turns out this is a common practice of many for my fellow epidemiologists during these long hard days of COVID, during which many of us have endured trolling, abuse and threats of violence and even death.

Those complaints and concerns were about how I got my job, where my grant money came from, about my qualifications, my professionalism and my character. I received similarly nonsensical and sometimes threatening letters in the post. My workplace took the threats seriously. I ended up having to be escorted in and out of my office and I took multiple routes to get home safely. Others checked the mail and opened packages addressed to me.

I took this attack professionally and personally. Why? The only things taken were some of my research diaries and personal files. My office was ransacked. This is an extreme example of what happened to me. The trolling had escalated. We swallow the pain of being harassed, the name-calling and the vilification – and we keep on going. Why? Because the science we do is needed to deal with a worldwide outbreak that continues to transform and spread. We do it for equity, for each other and for the people we serve.

 

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Don’t re act

Zero sympathy! Most of these medical experts have become ‘media celebrities giving their medical opinions mixed with personal views.

Conspicuously encouraged by the Costello-Murdoch Nine Entertainment-News Corp propaganda platforms.

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