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Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH

10 Apr, 19 tweets, 17 min read

This “fertility” fake news has been going on since December, apparently.

focusonreproduction.eu/article/News-i…

“CDC report found that 62% of nursing home workers are refusing the vaccine”

“...First responders in New Mexico have sued after a county official ordered firefighters, corrections officers and other first responders to receive injections.”

#MedTwitter

abcnews.go.com/US/employers-g…

Lawsuits over staff mandates to vaccinate or mask boggle my mind.

This has been brewing for years.

There is SO much anti-science rampant within #healthcare staff more so in those “anti-establishment” on either extreme of political spectrum

nbcboston.com/news/local/jud…

The particular challenge with #COVID19 #vaccine is that healthcare workers are primarily childbearing age & female in nursing, nursing home staff while most vulnerable are the elderly. If the main “fear” of vaccine is “fertility” then that fear affects former yet deaths in latter

So I started looking at sites I would never visit. Dear God. I mark these things up so as not to spread falsehoods. These conclusions are NOT supported by the studies cited. It is a conservative right wing Christian site concerned with women having too few babies.

Also, the cited study was later retracted due to severe methodological flaws.

“Microbiologist and science communicator Elisabeth Bik recently described the paper as ‘very flawed and biased’ with the potential to be ‘misinterpreted or misused.’”

sciencealert.com/bogus-paper-cl…

@AmerAcadPeds

Then the @AmerAcadPeds published this to debunk on #vaccine “hysteria” (given the fear focused on women’s reproductive organs)

While we debunk junk science, you know what is NOT happening? REAL science on the most pressing issues. #MedTwitter

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/3/…

I am SO tired of hysteria from one segment of the population siphoning off resources from needed science. It is either this crowd or the evangelical one. Both are not very diverse. Yet their fears are taken to the margins.

sciencemag.org/news/2011/01/w…

https://twitter.com/usnehal/status/1380206626137899010

This is more bogus “#data” from not even a plausible biological model - but when has that stopped the anti-vaccine? There is not one aspect of #studydesign, data integrity, good survey methodology, privacy #ethics not violated. It’s a dumpster fire.

https://twitter.com/usnehal/status/1380206626137899010

I simply have NO MORE patience for #misinformation like this. Academics & Phds, regardless of field of study, know better. Quality & standards are not a mystery. Even marketers call out they own bad data when online survey methodology

No data > bad data

researchgate.net/publication/24…

The idea that couple woman in the humanities, in the ivory tower, will listen to Twitter chatter on #vaccines “side effects”, use an online survey with leading questions to validate their beliefs that defy biological plausibility is again, the most privileged women spreading fear

Look at the autism scare and you will see the same pattern. Or with HPV scare. One mom, internet research, “confirmation” then raising the alarm.

But article also states that lack of integrity in medicine drives distrust. This is true.

#MedTwitter

time.com/5175704/andrew…

Who is most easily targeted by fear as opposed to noticing the lack of any logical explanation? Those who are already traumatized or a grieving. Further, during the #pandemic, most people’s #mentalhealth has tanked, causing anxiety and depression

nbcnews.com/tech/social-me…

Refugees also have lived experience of needing to flee their own government as well as tough experiences as a refugee, often vilified or reviled. They are easy to target.

Once bad low quality nonsensical #data are created, they can spread like wildfire

statnews.com/2017/05/08/mea…

It is not the fears of the marginalized that get picked up by media. It is the privileged humanities professor self styled as women’s advocate with flagrant Dunning–Kruger effect and Twitter platform in thousands. Yet call #vaccine “side effect” #misinformation by correct name?

@Illinois_Alma

Look at how egregious this is

Vaccine “side effect”
“Symptoms”
“Reproductive health”
“After” vaccine “dose”
Claims side effects “common”

= measuring clinical indicators, “immune systems”... by online survey

This drives #COVID19 #vaccine hysteria sponsored by @Illinois_Alma

@CDCgov

@CDCgov @CDCDirector @DrTomFrieden @VirusesImmunity @EricTopol @SaadOmer3 @RizwanSohailMD @VPrasadMDMPH @DrvanTilburg
thoughts on biological plausibility vs #misinformation by @kateclancy & @Illinois_Alma measuring #COVID19 “#vaccine side effect” by online survey? #medtwitter

@Illinois_Alma

I questions on #data #quality, #privacy, #ethics of this and will be writing to @Illinois_Alma at the following addresses

Anyone else concerned should do the same #MedTwitter

Institutions have accountability on standards for #research & #education, especially in a #pandemic

@Illinois_Alma

Why is @Illinois_Alma & #research #ethics on a highly sensitive #COVID19 #womenshealth topic coming AFTER social media mentions?

We already had this #vaccine study retracted on “impact of vaccines”

but the #misinformation remains up on anti-vaxx sites

#MedTwitter

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More from @usnehal

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH

@usnehal

11 Apr

Also, btw, any woman who has been in c-suite in NYC has literally worked with/around people with mob connections.

I take a lot of stands & speak on things that people want to keep hidden.

If there were “dirt” on me to find, it would have been found & used against me already.

I’m super annoying that way (in many ways) to folks who align against me.

When you are Muslim, activist, female, not seeking anyone’s patronage or protection, you are always exposed, surveilled, at risk - it is unavoidable.

Protection is in transparency, ethics, standards

These are life’s trade offs, I avoid certain shackles or cages and in doing so, carefully check off certain boxes to stay protected. I have worked in #compliance vs #fraud & #abuse, and I have seen every tiny detail that gets people caught up in the system. Stay out of harm’s way

Read 8 tweets

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH

@usnehal

11 Apr

https://twitter.com/usnehal/status/1119801503508762624

One of those times a #tweetiatrician
entered anti-vaxx space to speak truth to conspiracy

Claiming victim status & “witch hunt!”, Wakefield rallied support via anti-system/science distrust

-> loyal mob of supporters, now cyberbullies (yet who claim to be bullied) #medtwitter

https://twitter.com/usnehal/status/1119801503508762624

Experience of past medical harm is not itself evidence every doctor is bullying you. As a woman & WOC, in/out of hospitals as a child, there is tons of trauma & medical sexism & racism I have experienced

yet all that is erased/denied by those using one lens vs intersectionality

@NicoleB_MD

#tweetiatrician online for decades fighting fear & fake news #MedTwitter

doctors beaten down, made caricature of evil, gotten death threats @NicoleB_MD @DrToddWo

@AmerAcadPeds needs to step up on supporting clinicians vs #cyberbullying

Of online doc-celebs only @ZDoggMD helped

Read 4 tweets

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH

@usnehal

10 Apr

https://twitter.com/liz_harrison/status/1380970188737220618

I have a range of writing & #communication styles

Outside the ED of hospitalist medicine, when I “talk like a man” - direct, unvarnished truths and or “taking up too much space”, there is pushback, affront. Others have noted men with same style as me are👍
#WomeninSTEM
#SciComm

https://twitter.com/liz_harrison/status/1380970188737220618

In reality women can’t just email or communicate “like a man” for same results. Society *expects* different communication from women.

I’ve never been an exclamation point person but I use smiley faces

#womeninleadership
#womeninSTEM
#WomenInMedicine

vice.com/en/article/8xy…

These studies + anecdotal experience:

“women don't negotiate for a very simple reason: they sense—correctly—that it will hurt them if they do... when women *do* negotiate... they end up worse off than if they’d kept their mouths shut”

#womeninSTEM

psychologytoday.com/us/blog/family…

Read 25 tweets

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH

@usnehal

9 Apr

Shame & #impostersyndrome = energy waste you canNOT afford (I realized w/ chronic illness & pain). You WILL fall - while rest & recovery are important - sometimes the ball about to drop is too important
Don’t miss your shot

#womeninleadership
#womeninSTEM
#womeninmedicine

BUT do miss a lot of shots. I promise you, it will drain you of less energy to try over and over than to try to be perfect. You will ALWAYS fail to be perfect. You will only sometimes fail to make the shot

#womeninleadership
#womeninSTEM
#womeninmedicine

Of course there will be these people, (whether in reality or your perception of it - but perception becomes reality).

They have only as much power as YOU give them.

Go to your beginner’s mind. Find that inner child’s courage.

#womeninleadership
#womeninSTEM
#womeninmedicine

Read 8 tweets

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH

@usnehal

9 Apr

When folks online think women at midcareer are “too much” or “overcompensate”

you are 100% right

=working 3-10x as hard to get 1/2 as far
on display

Tired of experiencing us online?
Try living this way ALL THE TIME
#womeninleadership
#womeninSTEM
#womeninmedicine
#Medtwitter

If you don’t recognize it, ask yourself whether your goals and/or identity align with power, privilege, structural inequity

..and in how many domains?

How complex or intersectional is your identity?

Centering on self is the best way to misinterpret the world around you.

If you start by asking yourself questions

you will start to learn to ask others questions, not assume

One version is called “the beginner’s mind” or a child-like curiosity about the world that promotes learning & understanding

Opposite of expert

theemotionmachine.com/beginners-mind/

Read 19 tweets

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH

@usnehal

9 Apr

https://twitter.com/OrganJM/status/1380253166718029832

I state, highlight, mark up, not insinuate
Why is someone who likely does not menstruate a sudden expert on #womenshealth to identify a WOC seeking #data #quality & #integrity as the threat...to women?
"Respecting" social science = using respectable methods, not online surveys.

https://twitter.com/OrganJM/status/1380253166718029832

What you see in the tweet and the "study" is ego, defensiveness & flagrant Dunning-Kruger effect for #womenshealth, #menstrualhealth, #COVID19, #vaccine #research.

The best way to demonstrate the value of a field is to be consistent on #quality not

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Academic language on #online #survey #data:
"systematically assess carelessness in a crowdsourced sample" Denial that quick & dirty is poor #quality is an odd use of time & ineffective. One could better defend one's merit, by delivering #quality per best practices and standards.