Online Harassment of Doctors is a Public Health Issue

Last week, JAMA Network Open published a study of more than 350 physicians’ and scientists’ experiences with online harassment. Two in three physicians reported having experienced harassment. That’s up significantly: When a similar study was conducted before the pandemic began, it found 23.3% of the physicians reported having been harassed. In the latest study, physicians and scientists who use social media to post public health messages were significantly more likely than those who did not to report online harassment. Most (88%) of the physicians who experienced harassment in our study felt that it was caused by their advocacy efforts on social media. Read more from STAT News here.