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Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
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12 Apr, 19 tweets, 29 min read
“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)
=a nationwide intimidation and suppression campaign to
harass
intimidate
physically attack minorities exercising their Constitutional rights to be engaged citizens in the American civic affairs

Pics: National context and what I spoke about

#BLM #antiAsianhate #xenophobia
There are faculty teaching this #conspiracy theory #disinformation #misinformation in their classrooms at both a university and primary #education level. One example:

phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-p…
This is a 4th grade teacher & #CapitolAttack #CapitolRiot

#education should teach critical thinking and #inclusion. Typically it is “tribal” mindset that makes an otherwise seemingly educated person believe & spread #misinformation and #disinformation

nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/…
This is particularly dangerous from a #mentalhealth professional. This is one of many examples of #QAnon from within #healthcare #medicine #psychology #psychtwitter #medtwitter This is not “out there” but our own peers with access to vulnerable patients.

theguardian.com/australia-news…
This also directly affects #COVID19 #vaccine #outreach as #pandemic denialism is now a core part of #QAnon.

#tweetiatrician #SciComm and #publichealth advocacy now invokes #cyberbullying. I do address anti-vaxx both within academia & in #community.

nytimes.com/2021/03/26/us/…
#tweetiatrician #vaccine #advocacy has resulted in death threats like this vs @NicoleB_MD as well as similar vs @DrToddWo. While @AmerAcadPeds recently held an advocacy conference more MUST be done to educate & protect members from the worsening of this.

forbes.com/sites/brucelee…
There is targeting of minoritized, women, Muslim and again, anyone influencing or showing #leadership in the public space within the civic system of laws.

The #CapitolAttack was intended to intimidate all law makers.

What started fringe -> mainstream

newsweek.com/ilhan-omar-say…
Closer to home is #publichealth and #EmergencyMedicine doc who gave away, to the chronically ill, expiring doses of #covid19 #vaccine.

He was clears by medical board but accused of “theft” by legal authorities #MedTwitter #VaccinesSaveLives #pandemic

medscape.com/viewarticle/94…
Yet we fail to identify actual harm: those sabotaging #COVID19 #vaccine like this #pharmacist who flew under the radar

This is #healthcare #xenophobia to overpolice pro-#publichealth #clinician while giving safe harbor to #QAnon

#MedTwitter #QAnon

nytimes.com/2021/01/04/us/…
This, again, is not “out there” - here it talks of “losing” a family member.

Why isn’t there reporting?
This falls under domestic terrorism.
As someone Muslim I have always been asked the bizarre questions of if I was American or Muslim 1st.

wbur.org/hereandnow/202…
This is the @FBI take n #QAnon type #conspiracy theories, that, for #COVID19 #pandemic especially, matters to #healthcare #MedTwitter #NurseTwitter to combat spread of #vaccine #misinformation & #disinformation

We need to active cooperate w/ turning in

thedailybeast.com/fbi-warns-agai…
This *is* within #MedTwitter and *is* our responsibility.

There was the fiasco with @JAMA_current #podcast on medical racism.

There is overlap between the overt or racism “lite” in #healthcare and QAnon & #misinformation & #disinformation

news.yahoo.com/amphtml/beverl…
It is essential to identify QAnon #disinformation #misinformation & criminals or terrorists within #healthcare & #education especially after example of pharmacist sabotage of #COVID19 #vaccine. Even @bostonherald warning on this #conspiracy danger.

bostonherald.com/2021/02/04/how…
Both #vaccine & now mask have been labeled as “civil rights” by bona fide professional groups in #healthcare”, lawsuits fought vs employers on mandates to protect patients This primed for “freedom” & “body autonomy” argument of anti-vaccine & anti-mask

salemnews.com/news/local_new…
#vaccine is as direct a link as possible to #COVID19 #pandemic control to save lives.

The evidence is established on #VaccinesSaveLives regardless of manufacturer.

We can’t stay “polite” on #disinformation when >500,000 American lives already lost.

cnn.com/2021/03/22/hea…
We need to draw as much attention as possible

to benefits & #disinformation barriers
to #COVID19 #vaccine #outreach for #VaccinesSaveLives to end the #pandemic

eradicate #conspiracy theories in our midst

#MedTwitter #NurseTwitter #ScienceTwitter

fiercehealthcare.com/sponsored/how-…

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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
If is unclear if we are now so siloed that tweets are ineffective with anti-vaxx. But not all anti-vaxx are QAnon
Read 39 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
Umbereen S. Nehal, MD, MPH Profile picture
11 Apr
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
Read 4 tweets

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