Scientists Report Death Threats After Fighting Covid
Just in case you had any doubt as to just how screwed up we’ve gotten as a culture, consider two recent depressing articles in Business Insider and Nature, respectively titled “Dozens of scientists who speak publicly about COVID-19 say they've been abused, with some receiving death threats and getting physically attacked, survey says,” by Marianne Guenot(1) and “‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists,” by Bianca Nogrady (2)
As the titles suggest, Nature magazine recently surveyed 300 biological scientists. Many, many of those 300 reported everything from daily harassment to overt death threats.
Why were they attacked? Because they spoke out about Covid, advocated for masks or vaccines, and in some cases revealed the failures of non-traditional treatments (like horse de-wormers).
Researchers reported online attacks, such as being “besieged with images of hanged people and coffins, with attackers saying he [the scientist] would be subject to ‘Nuremberg trials’, and that he and his children would ‘burn in hell’,” as well as verbal abuse, threats of legal action, and even some incidents of genuine violence.(3)
Another, particularly worrying statistic was that the abuse seemed to be more intense when the scientist involved happened to be a woman.
This is, by the way, happening the world over. Of course, those of us in the USA had already seen this in the Deplorales’ demonization of Anthony Fauci, whose only “crime” was wanting to keep human beings alive. So, under the heading of hollow comfort, we can take some satisfaction in knowing we were ahead of the curve.
~mjt
Source
“Dozens of scientists who speak publicly about COVID-19 say they've been abused, with some receiving death threats and getting physically attacked, survey says,” by Marianne Guenot, Business Insider, October 15, 2021. Behind a soft paywall, but can also be seen on Yahoo news: https://www.yahoo.com/news/dozens-scientists-speak-publicly-covid-103706823.html
2. ‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists: Dozens of researchers tell Nature they have received death threats, or threats of physical or sexual violence,” by Bianca Nogrady, Nature, 13 October 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02741-x
3. Nogrady
Comments
Post a Comment