NHS doctor says '20 to 30' abusive messages on social media a day
NHS doctor reveals she receives up to 30 abusive messages’ on social media a day from Covid deniers who say they don’t care who they ‘murder’ by not wearing a mask – and says the onslaught is ‘breaking’ junior doctors
- Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, is currently working in intensive care in South East
- The senior registrar said she receives 20-30 abusive messages each day online
- One read: ‘I couldn’t care less who I apparently murder by not wearing a mask’
- Dr Samantha said one of her junior doctors said they felt ‘broken’ by onslaught
An NHS doctor has revealed she receives ’20-30 abusive messages’ on social media each day.
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, who has worked in the NHS for 10 years, is a senior registrar and is currently working in intensive care in South East.
Speaking to the BBC, she explained that her inbox is often flooded with messages filled with abuse from strangers, with one reading: ‘I couldn’t care less who I apparently murder by not wearing a mask. Cough and die.’
Meanwhile Dr Samantha said the messages are ‘devastating morale’ for key workers, adding: ‘I had a junior doctor who was working in A&E and said, “I really don’t want to go in. It’s because there was a horde of people telling me Covid was a hoax and shouting at me and I was half broken”.’
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, who has worked in the NHS for 10 years and is a senior registrar, said she recieves 20-30 abusive messages a day on social media
She went on to read out several messages from strangers she had received online, with one reading: ‘I don’t give a s*** who is dying.’
Another read: ‘You chose your job, deal with it,’ while another penned: ‘I love the way you NHS workers think you have the right to boss us around like we’re selfish for breathing.
‘You don’t give a damn about our lives.’
She claimed another person wrote: ‘I’m not responsible for anyone’s health except my own.’
Dr Samantha said the messages, which range from personal attacks to dismissing Covid as a hoax, have been ‘devastating’ for morale
Dr Samantha said she had been subject to a wave of abuse online during the pandemic, saying: ‘We’ve actually had quite a lot of abuse, particularly on social media. It’s mainly around that Covid is somehow a hoax or a conspiracy.
‘People just not believing NHS staff who are trying to speak up about how bad things are on the frontline at the moment.
‘I’ve had around 20-30 abusive messages a day and that’s been everything from swearing and calling me names, to saying “I don’t care who is dying, you can’t tell me what to do.”‘
She explained: ‘That’s really hard when you’re giving your all to try to save patients on the frontline. When things are so difficult when you are working all the hours God sends.
The senior registrar revealed a junior doctor within her team had said they were ‘half broken’ by Covid deniers
‘There are some people who don’t support you…I cannot tell you how much this has devastated morale.’
Samantha went on to start a social media campaign to post blue hearts for the NHS staff on their Instagram and Twitter accounts.
She said: ‘We ended up trending Number One in the UK and I did end up havign a little sob.
‘Most people are fully in our corner and they are showing us that.
Police made four arrests after footage emerged of men walking around Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, along with another hospital in Worcestershire, claiming that the NHS had overstated the Covid-19 crisis
‘NHS staff really needed that tidal wave of support. we just want to keep you safe, we just want you to stay at home and I don’t want you to end up in my intensive care unit, I really don’t.’
Her comments come as four suspects were banned from entering English hospitals over videos that infuriated frontline medics by falsely claiming the NHS has overstated the Covid-19 crisis.
The men were arrested yesterday after footage of quiet corridors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire appeared online.
Each of the men, who are aged between 31 and 37, were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance, and later bailed with conditions banning them from entering hospitals, except on medical grounds.
Their arrests were reported just as a mother-of-two was fined £200 for sharing photos on social media of hospitals across the South, claiming the Government was ‘lying’ about coronavirus.
Mother-of-two Covid hoaxer, 30, who took pictures inside four hospitals to falsely claim they were ’empty’ in anti-lockdown campaign is fined £200
By Amie Gordon for MailOnline
A hoaxer who went into hospitals and took photos of staff and patients before claiming wards were ’empty’ has been fined £200 over the ‘highly disrespectful and misleading’ stunt.
Hannah Dean posed as a journalist to gain entry to several hospitals before sharing photos on social media of quiet corridors and claiming the government was ‘lying’ about the pandemic.
But the 30-year-old fitness instructor was taking pictures of areas which were not on the frontline in the fight against the virus.
The mother-of-two’s Facebook account has been heavily criticised by the NHS for the post, in which she urged people to go along to hospitals and film their own videos.
Hannah Dean posed as a journalist to gain entry to several hospitals before sharing photos on social media of quiet corridors and claiming the government was ‘lying’ about the pandemic
The 30-year-old urged people to go along to hospitals and film their own videos
The photos of corridors claimed to be taken at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Southampton General hospital, the Princess Royal University hospital near Bromley, Kent and St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester, West Sussex.
Dean, who claims to be a ‘registered journalist’, wrote: ‘QA Queen Alexandra… hospital is the quietest I have ever seen it. I know this is hard to get our heads around, but the government are lying to us.’
Police said the photos were not of parts of the hospital involved in treating patients with Covid.
Portsmouth Police said the post had caused ‘angst in the community’, and Hampshire Police confirmed Dean had received a £200 fine for not having a valid reason for leaving her home.
Dean, who describes herself as a ‘registered journalist’, boasted that she ‘hadn’t heard from police in a week’ before being fined, and said officers had ‘no grounds to detain me’.
Dean has also written anti-vaxx posts, and posted a meme appearing to mock Kate and Gerry McCann on her Facebook.
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