Pediatricians hope COVID-19 helps overcome opposition to vaccines
As the world fights coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) without a vaccine, anti-vaccine social media groups are sharing homeopathic remedies, conspiracy theories and memes about “forced vaccination.”
Pediatricians who have endured physical and online attacks from anti-vaccine groups hope the pandemic will turn public sentiment against these groups and spur social media sites to clamp down on false information and threats.
“Given what we’re experiencing right now, the public will be a lot less tolerant of people who aren’t willing to vaccinate and continue to put others at risk. This is just sort of the problem we had with the measles outbreak,” said Eve Meltzer-Krief, M.D., FAAP, who practices adjacent to the epicenter of the 2019 measles outbreak on Long Island.
Dr. Meltzer-Krief is among pediatricians around the country who have withstood online bullying, negative reviews and physical attacks after using social media to promote vaccines. Still, they refuse to back down, and some have banded together to fight back.
#DoctorsSpeakUp for kids
Just before COVID-19 reached New York, about 25 members of New York Chapter 2 gathered for a state advocacy day in March. Among them were Dr. Meltzer-Krief and chapter President Shetal I. Shah, M.D., FAAP.
Pediatricians and residents had tweeted about the event using #DoctorsSpeakUp, a hashtag inspired by Nicole R. Baldwin, M.D., FAAP, an Ohio pediatrician who had been attacked online after posting a video about the importance of vaccines.
Like Dr. Baldwin, Dr. Meltzer-Krief has been bullied online. She also has been followed, harassed and attacked in person for supporting a ban on religious exemptions from vaccinations for New York schoolchildren.
As Dr. Meltzer-Krief approached her legislator’s office, an angry mob emerged.
“You’re going to hell!”
“Baby killers!”
“You don’t care about children’s disabilities!”
“Pharma shill!”
With social media, the attacks come harder, faster and in larger numbers. People from around the world write false Yelp and Google reviews, snag Twitter hashtags and infest Facebook pages with negative comments.
“This isn’t trying to sway the middle-of-the-road families. They’re trying to bully and intimidate us so that we don’t speak out, so therefore they’re the only ones talking,” said California state Sen. Richard J. Pan, M.D., FAAP, who has been a target of death threats and physical attacks.
Last fall, Dr. Meltzer-Krief looked out her practice window and saw about 20 women with protest signs. They hassled patients who arrived for appointments and littered cars with anti-vaccine literature.
Like many pediatricians, she has discovered that unplugging from the internet isn’t the solution.
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