‘Exhausted and scared’: Canada’s doctors call for help to stop online hate
Global News
Canadian doctors are speaking out about the continuous online hate they've received throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and are calling on government to take action.
Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth never thought this would be part of the story that is the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
The online hate and harassment she and her colleagues have received over the last 20 months has been distressing, and it reached a tipping point for the Ottawa-based family doctor last week.
On Nov. 1, Kaplan-Myrth said she received an emailed letter disguised as a complaint to Ontario’s physicians’ regulator. In it, was a threat. She said the sender threatened to kill her for her work vaccinating her patients and advocating for inoculation.
“When the pandemic first started, we were worried about whether or not we would live because we feared we would get COVID just doing our work,” Kaplan-Myrth told Global News, adding she’s felt pride for getting so many vaccinated throughout the pandemic.
But that “relief then gets sort of crushed by this horrible feeling that there’s somebody out there … sending a letter saying that I should be killed.”
Kaplan-Myrth is among a number of Canadian doctors facing continuous hate and harassment online, stemming from COVID-19 and vaccine advocacy. Many are calling on governments to increase protection for health-care workers.
Dr. Naheed Dosani, a palliative care physician in Toronto, told Global News he has been the target of racist attacks online. He’s noticed the messages have become more vitriolic as policies, like Ontario’s recent decision to not mandate vaccination for health-care workers, have come into effect. The mandate was something Dosani had been a vocal advocate for.
“I have to say that there is an association with the anti-vaccine movement and the racist comments and hatred that I receive,” he said.
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