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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.
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