Stopping Disgraceful, Maniacal Attacks on Public Health Officials

Dr.  Nili Kaplan-Myrth has been attacked because she wants to prevent COVID from killing you.  Just read this excerpt from the article she wrote today in the Toronto Star.  We've been hearing about similar treatment of American healthcare workers since 2020.  These attackers and deniers are dangerous and must be stopped before it's too late.

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"‘Enough is enough’: Putting a stop to the harassment of doctors who speak out on public health measures

This is not a Canada that anyone can be proud of.

In the past few week, I have been called a “f---ing Jew k---” by a caller in the Ottawa area, I have been told “You’re f---ing dead, you b----” by someone near Toronto, I’ve received an email from someone in Saskatchewan who says they plan to come to Ottawa to “cut me up into little pieces,” and I have been the focus of targeted harassment.

What provoked that tempest? I spoke on TVO’s the Agenda about the importance of masks and taking care of each other. I stood up for infants, young children, seniors, people with disabilities, pregnant people, essential workers. I am a family doctor who has spoken up repeatedly for vulnerable populations across Canada. I am a mother of three children. I am the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. I stepped onto a public stage to advocate for proactive health-care measures in Ontario. I did NOT sign up to be harassed.

In November 2021, I received the first death threat, sent to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario by an anti-vaxxer. In response to that threat, I was told to increase my own clinic security and left to pursue a restraining order against the man who threatened me (an order that is yet to be completed).

The president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Katherine Smart, came to visit me in my clinic in December, the day the federal government passed legislation that made harassment of health-care professionals a crime. But nothing changed with the passing of Bill C-3, even as the harassment worsened.

I am not alone in this. I am a Jewish woman physician. There has been a significant increase in the last two and a half years of violent, organized hate directed at my colleagues in health care, as well as targeted harassment of women in journalism and women in politics. We are harassed not just by anonymous trolls on social media, but by social media influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers, by columnists in mainstream media and by television anchors and politicians or their family members.

It is disturbing. It is egregious. It is only the beginning, unless we collectively put a stop to this.
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My colleagues and I are told that we are “fear-mongers,” while we go on advocating for your health and safety in the face of our death threats and harassment. We are described as “insane,” “mentally deranged” and “unhinged” — juvenile name-calling that stigmatizes people who struggle with their mental health. Others refer to us as “ignorant,” ironically targeting women with PhDs, the highest level of education. Critics of public health measures call us “angry,” they tone-police, they say we are taking away their “freedoms” — while they threaten to kill us because they don’t want to wear simple masks to take care of each other."