Thread by @adavies4

Thread.

Over the last 10 days I’ve been hearing accounts from NHS staff [in south Wales] who’ve been repeatedly abused online and accused of peddling fake news about the pandemic.
Here’s a flavour of what they’ve had to face

[🎥@daibaker Producer @c4marcus]

“F*** off you shill”

For some doctors like @dr_mattmorgan, whose media appearances have offered important glimpses inside the world of intensive care @UHWCriticalCare throughout the pandemic, this is what some of that abuse looks like

ICU doc @JonesTheBosher is another who says her media appearances [at times helping @WelshGovernment with public health messaging] have seen her repeatedly accused of lying re Covid, at one point she says she was told ‘someone’s going to round me up & put me in prison or hurt me’

Dr Jones says her nurses have been ‘absolutely devastated’ by the notion that people could a) think they’re lying about what they do & b) claim that Covid doesn’t exist - while they ‘break their backs’ to keep patients alive @AneurinBevanUHB @NursingNotesUK
📷 @_GlennGbPhoto

But of those we spoke to - it was a doctor with the least media exposure [this is her first ever interview] who may have attracted some of the worst online abuse.

Dr Clare Davies is 33, an A&E consultant from Cardiff, who has worked for the NHS since she was 16

Dr Davies says the abuse began following this tweet she posted on 8th December.
She’d just been vaccinated.
She told me that part of what she wrote [‘two fingers up to…’], stemmed from exhaustion and frustration.

To her complete surprise, the tweet went viral.
Soon it would get nearly 3 million impressions, over 1 million engagements.
Initially supportive, Clare says, but then…

......her tweet attracted, according to Dr Davies, ‘a level of venom’ she’d never before experienced on social media. She was called a

‘Nazi propaganda pusher’
‘big pharma prostitute’
‘non-human’
‘sterile slave’
‘poor bitch’

among many other insults...

Dr Davies says comments about infertility formed a common theme amidst the vitriole.

NOTE: The NHS, @RCObsGyn & @MidwivesRCM say there is NO EVIDENCE to suggest that Covid-19 vaccines will affect fertility

'It was really frightening'

Dr Clare Davies says that, despite blocking certain followers, some boasted they were still monitoring her from other accounts

So, in the face of such abuse & vitriol, I asked Dr Davies: Did she ever consider abandoning social media for a while?

Her answer, I suspect, may resonate with a few following this thread ⬇️

Dr Farbod Babolhavaeji @EmergencyBod, another A&E consultant from Cardiff, tells me:
'A lot of people who may not have had so much focus on them, have been astonished by the level of hate that's been targeted towards them'

Dr Babolhavaeji says it's 'psychologically exhausting' trying to counteract the misinformation and repeated accusations that doctors fake death certificates, exaggerate Covid patient numbers....

.@EmergencyBod: 'if we didn't say anything, all the people who peddle this false information would then be able to say: "You see, no one's denying it!"

On and off camera one of the most common themes we found was just how deeply upsetting so many NHS staff have found it to be accused of lying, & how difficult they find it to reconcile this with what they're having to experience.

One health board told me that this issue was so sensitive that they didn’t want to put up anyone to discuss it openly - 'staff are really struggling'

One consultant, all too familiar with online abuse, said to me he was extremely worried about the direction in which this was heading:

'A lot of staff are running on fumes - it just takes a push in the wrong direction and someone could get very badly hurt'.

A spokesperson for @BACCNUK told #c4news: 'Anyone prepared to put their head above the parapet is getting castigated. It's having a huge impact on the morale of staff. It is massively demoralising for them'.

From @DrJulie_H, National Wellbeing Project Director @ICS_updates
“We're seeing the impact the pandemic is having on our NHS staff & their wellbeing. It concerns me that on top of this, some are receiving negative comments & harmful messages, adding further psychological strain”

Now the artist @NathanWyburnArt, with @dr_mattmorgan @theCentre @CV_UHB, has created a portrait of a health worker called 'Words Bruise' - formed from a collage of some of the phrases of abuse levelled at NHS staff ['lies' 'eugenics' 'piece of shit' 'lazy'...]

A project which is personal for @NathanWyburnArt - he has close friends in the NHS & says he's staggered that 'on social media, which should be a place of escapism for them, they still get this torrent of abuse'

‘It defies any sense of compassion’

@graeme_farrow, Artistic Director @theCentre, reflects on the issue & explains why the Wales Millennium Centre commissioned this piece [it's now displayed there] with @CV_UHB

We contacted @Facebook & @Twitter earlier today raising some of the issues highlighted in our report...

Facebook told us they are reviewing all of the comments we notified them of relating to @JonesTheBosher and have already deleted some which violate their policies

@Twitter asked us for specific links to some of the tweets we featured in our report in order to review them against their terms of service. We will provide them.
Their statement:

If you'd like to watch our full @Channel4News report on the subject, here's the link

My sincere thanks to all those who helped with this piece - we were given [on & off the record] many powerful and candid accounts, including of course from @dr_mattmorgan Dr Clare Davies @JonesTheBosher @EmergencyBod 🙏

And so it continues...

Update:

“Abusing our staff won’t end the pandemic”

Welsh Health Minister @vaughangething comments on last night’s #C4News report ⬇️

https://twitter.com/vaughangething/status/1357272387620896768