Thread by @FutureDocs

OUR NEW STUDY @JAMANetworkOpen is a follow up on our initial work to quantify harassment of physicians and scientists on social media DURING the pandemic.

In a sample of over 350 physicians and scientists on social media...THREAD
jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

2 in 3 physicians and scientists reported being harassed or attacked

88% cited advocacy as the reason they were harassed

we also added more questions about identity-based attacks and Black physicians/scientists were more likely to report harassment based on race. Attacks for gender/sexual orientation were also reported.

Those that used social media to post public health messages were more likely to report getting attacked.

The qualitative comments show that it was not innocent trolling but doxxing to rape to death threats that were reported. Some described online threats actually becoming physical threats of violence when people showed up to their work or home! jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

Despite reporting threats to law enforcement or employers, there was often not a response. As a result, physicians/scientists reported not engaging and silencing their voices to preserve their safety or mental health. This is at a time when we should be amplifying diverse voices

It's important that we support medical and scientific professionals who are experiencing online attacks, especially given the real harm they can cause. Read more from our NEJM piece here: nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

our initial paper thread is here:

https://twitter.com/FutureDocs/status/1346141112050843648?s=20

special thank you to ALL OF YOU who took this survey and also to author @trpender for these AMAZING graphics! and love this amazing team of authors @ReginaRoyan @MDaware @ShikhaJainMD @pedsmd2b @NikiWoitowich inspired by @IMPACT4HC #medtwitter #epitwitter #scicomm