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Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
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11 Apr, 4 tweets, 5 min read
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
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
#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
Then a segment of #MedTwitter #sciencetwitter

unused to exposure, risk, innovation in #sciComm needed to reach diverse audiences to influence in anti-vaxx spaces

in a #pandemic non-clinicians led beating up doctors who dance & smile with “they should be fired” about this:

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More from @usnehal

Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
12 Apr
We live in an attention #economy & what #Tweetiatricians have known for decades (#Twitter started in 2006): importance of drawing attention to factual science-based information as compared to #misinformation & #disinformation, especially on #vaccines

econreview.berkeley.edu/paying-attenti…
You have to be fast & prolific to play catch up to this. I have 77K tweets, a moderate sized band of 6K followers interested enough to tolerate my volume but use of hashtags allows reach across Twittersphere. Trending hashtags = better for riding a way for that attention economy Image
If is unclear if we are now so siloed that tweets are ineffective with anti-vaxx. But not all anti-vaxx are QAnon
Read 38 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
12 Apr
“QAnon is ...a self-sustaining environment of #disinformation & #misinformation...

.. QAnon hijacks the architecture of social media..

..By controlling acceptable forms of information, QAnon traps its members in a downward spiral of radicalization.”

american.edu/sis/centers/se…
“As P.W. Singer and Emerson Brooking describe in.. book Likewar: The Weaponization of #SocialMedia, this phenomenon of “junk” or “fake news” is not new. In 2016, a similar, but related, conspiracy known as “Pizzagate” resulted in a shooting at a DC area pizza parlor.” #SoMe
Above is not limited to academic articles

There has been an increase in #antiAsianhate crimes
shootings
#xenophobia
targeting of #GOTV by minorities
including this attempt to intimidate me for my GOTV, by armed right wing

There was the #Nashvillebombing (with QAnon beliefs) ImageImageImageImage
Read 19 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Apr
This is why I do long threads on racism in child & education spaces (child education up to #MedEd) and on the role of women to “protect” only some kids, not others. There is focus on police without looking at the full picture of sources of harm to children of color.
It is very very easy to focus on the Boston police Union leader

but who is it that..

helps him get access to children?
stays silent?
silences abused children?
promotes him?
seeks to please him (be promoted by him)?
sees him as a “good leader”?
softens his image?
protects him?
The role of men & women who police/silence those who would speak up... who prevent identifying the abuser

=extremely important

it is all on one spectrum: if you experience being denied food by a teacher as a 3-year old, will you speak up on abuse...

vs Stockholm Syndrome?
Read 7 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Apr
This is a form of privilege not often spoken about.

It is not “just” the money but the financial literacy, the comfort navigating certain spaces, feeling is belonging vs #impostersyndrome. It affects ability to do unpaid internships. It affects who is bullied. #MedTwitter
Women of more affluent families may not be the ones targeted by or vulnerable to slimy professors too.

Learning requires a “safe space” in reality as well as in your own head. #MedEd has a LONG way to go before #education spaces are truly open to all. #MedTwitter #equity
For instance, while my mom’s family was in Pakistan, I grew up knowing my mom had her own identity & her own money (she always reminded my dad he had no Islamic right to 😂
=the confidence of a woman who *could* leave)

She dressed simply but had the confident demeanor of a queen
Read 5 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Apr
Is happening in the spaces I least expected (but that shows how naive I often am) #FQHC & #safetynet. Read up on Hahnemann Hospital closing & sale of assets: land, residency.... yup Medicare funded residencies among “assets” #MedTwitter

@Health_Affairs
healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hl…
“The bankruptcy affected the lives of more than 2,500 employees in the city and displaced more than 550 physician trainees. The hospital’s underserved, ethnically diverse patient population was left to redistribute their own care around the city” #MedTwitter #healthcare #Medicaid
“became the institution’s first and only female professor of emergency medicine...assumed a leadership role as the associate dean of graduate medical #education. In that role, I and my team were asked to identify opportunities to improve the tenuous financial situation” #MedEd
Read 5 tweets
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
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

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