This is nothing new. Spurred by Jake Crosby 10 years ago, antivaxxers at @AgeofAutism flooded email & phone lines of my medical school dean, my department chair, my cancer center director, and the university board of governors complaining about a fake "conflict of interest." 1/
It got so bad that my dean called me to ask me if I felt physically threatened. I said (at the time) that I didn't, but in retrospect, perhaps I should have answered yes. OTOH, antivaxxers back then hadn't reached the level of vitriol and violent rhetoric that they use now. 2/
It eventually blew over, and the university, cancer center, and hospital supported me. I ended up by sending the antivaxxers a message. 3/ #DoctorsSpeakUp #NursesSpeakUp
In fact, if anything, I was stronger after the attack. Sure, it gave me great agita to have to explain to my various bosses just what the heck the kerfuffle was about and how there was no conflict of interest, but I survived. If anything, my standing might have been enhanced. 4/
Another time (2016) in response to my #DoctorsSpeakUp activities, antivaxxer Mike Adams of Natural News started publishing libelous articles about me. There were something like 40 of them over the course of about 5 or 6 months, most of them over the course of the first month. 5/
For a while, it seemed as though there was a new libelous post about me every day. Worse, Adams made a concerted effort to name my cancer center in each article and attack it as being either a crappy cancer center because I worked there or "complicit" in my "crimes." 6/
This had the intended effect. My cancer center's legal department got involved and considered whether to sue Adams or not. Ultimately, leadership decided just to let it blow over and advised me to do the same. They weren't wrong, as it turns out. It did ultimately blow over. 7/
Adams was clever, too. He was very good at stopping just short of defamation per se. He couched his claims in JAQing off. I thought long and hard about whether it would be worth it to risk tens of thousands of dollars or more suing for libel, given the low chance of winning. 8/
The result was that, for several years, my Google reputation was hopelessly poisoned. The top hits on searches on my name were not @ScienceBasedMed or my webpages on my cancer center and university websites. They were all libelous attacks on me from Adams and other quacks. 9/
I was basically in a situation where patients Googling me would see all those lies and half-truths first thing. I was also unemployable other than where I worked because switching jobs would have been a nonstarter as soon as potential employers did a Google search on my name. 10/
Fortunately, my Google reputation is much improved since Google tweaked its algorithms last year to deemphasize unreliable sources, antivaccine pseudoscience, and fake news. You have to scroll down through several pages before any of the attacks show up. 11/
As an aside, Google's changes to its algorithm have actually been fairly effective. Search traffic to antivax and quack websites has plummeted by as much as 95%. 12/
That's not all the harassment I've experienced. A more recent "innovation" by antivaxxers is to attack the pages of #DoctorsSpeakUp doctors on physician rating sites like @vitals, @Yelp, @Google, @Healthgrades, etc., by posting fake patient reviews critical of the doctor. 13/
I've come across a number of fake reviews on my pages. I can always spot them, because they always include criticisms of my being "arrogant" or dismissive. Some of them say I started attacking alternative medicine out of the blue. 14/
This is, of course, ridiculous. I NEVER bring up alternative medicine unless the patient asks me first, and then I try to be as respectful and empathetic as I can be. 15/
Just ask patients who came to me with advanced cancers who had wasted time being treated by a naturopath, allowing their cancers to grow and ulcerate, how I treated them or if I criticized them for having chosen naturopathy first. I've never done it. 16/
Other fake complaints that are easy to spot are the complaints claiming that I wouldn't talk about anything other than my blogs. These are even more ridiculous. I NEVER mention my blogs or social media activity to patients unless they bring it up first. EVER. 17/
Just a couple of months ago, I learned that some local Michigan antivaxxers were discussing coming to my cancer center in their "V Is For Vaccine" cosplay to "protest." It never happened, but again it caused a brief stir. 18/
In particular, I despise people who would disrupt operations in any way at a cancer center, where patients with cancer, many very sick, are being treated. I'm fair game, but leave our patients alone; I don't even like the thought of them being inconvenienced or bothered. 19/
To conclude, if #DoctorsSpeakUp and #NursesSpeakUp, they have to be ready for the possibility of harassment. A pseudonym is a poor defense. Indeed, if you use a pseudonym, antivaxxers WILL try their damnedest to dox you, and they will often succeed because they are relentless.20/
If you are effective, if your profile rises high enough that they notice you, you WILL be attacked online. It will be worse if you're a woman, because misogynistic attacks will be aimed your way. It will be worse if you're a person of color, thanks to antivax racism. 21/
If you are effective, if your profile rises high enough that antivaxxers notice you, you WILL eventually be harassed at work. Fake negative reviews will show up on health care rating sites. Your Google reputation might be poisoned. It's inevitable. 22/
If you are effective, if your profile rises high enough that antivaxxers notice you and you work for a private company, your job might be in danger if you continue to be active on social media defending vaccines. 23/
Academia tends to view social media activity as a matter of academic freedom and will often rally to the defense of those attacked by antivax cranks. Private companies? Not so much. Managers tend not to want to be bothered and may tell you to knock it off or lose your job. 24/
These days when my cancer center director sees me, he often says that he hasn't had any complaints about me from antivaxxers in a while. I now respond that, if that's the case, obviously I'm falling down on the job and promise to try to do better. Yes, we joke about it. 25/
Increasingly, I worry about violence, given the increasingly unhinged violent rhetoric used by antivaxxers, who view themselves as heroic figures and fantasize about Nuremberg-like tribunals after they "win" punishing the pro vaccine establishment. 26/ respectfulinsolence.com/2017/03/16/the…
If you see the increasingly violent and dark memes being shared in the recesses of antivaccine and quack websites, you'd be concerned too. 27/ respectfulinsolence.com/2019/05/03/vio…
Indeed, @delbigtree once said, "I don’t know what you were saving that gun for then. I don’t know when you planned on using it if they were going to take control of your own body away. It’s now. Now’s the time." 28/
Given that antivaxxers regularly compare the pro-vaccine establishment to Hitler and the Nazis, it's no wonder that some of the more unhinged among them start thinking that violence would be justified. 29/ respectfulinsolence.com/2017/11/08/vac…
Bigtree is also the antivaxxer who donned a yellow Star of David of the sort that the Nazis forced Jews to wear to allow easy identification and persecution, likening antivaxxers to Jews in occupied Europe. 30/ respectfulinsolence.com/2019/04/15/kuc…
I mean, @RobertKennedyJr himself compared the vaccination program to the Holocaust, not once but at least twice I'm aware of. If you really believe something is akin to the Holocaust, then doesn't it follow that violence would be justified to stop it? 31/ respectfulinsolence.com/2013/05/30/can…
To be honest, I'm actually rather surprised that no one's gotten hurt yet, given the increasing violence in antivax rhetoric. Sure, someone shoved @DrPanMD, and sure someone threw menstrual blood at a CA legislator, but no one's suffered serious injury yet. 32/
I fear that time could end any day. There's a parallel between the antiabortion movement and the antivaccine movement. in terms of rhetoric. Eventually, that rhetoric inspired radicalized antiabortion activists to kill doctors who performed abortions. 33/
It's not too much of a stretch to see the same thing happening in the antivaccine movement. The rhetoric is already there: That the movement is fighting a battle against great evil to protect the lives of its children. 34/
I don't mean to be so depressing to dissuade anyone from joining #DoctorsSpeakUp or #NursesSpeakUp. Really, I'm not. I just want you all to know what you might be getting into if you decide to join us in a big way. I hope you will. Only you can decided if it's worth the risks.35/
There are enormous benefits, as well. You can sometimes meet your heroes, for instance. There is community. There is mutual support. I like to think we have each other's back as much as possible. Above all, you're doing good and protecting the health of our children. 36/36
