Backlash against US public health officials, including intimidation and threats of physical harm, has been widespread in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and they face ongoing risk in a divisive nation, according to a new study.
https://news.osu.edu/public-health-leaders-report-widespread-harassment-threats-after-covid-19/
9 Comments
Backlash against public health officials, including intimidation and threats of physical harm, has been widespread in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and they face ongoing risk in a divisive nation, according to a new study.
“The backlash we’re studying is different than people disagreeing about wearing masks or getting a COVID vaccine,” said lead author [Marian Moser Jones](https://cph.osu.edu/people/mjones), associate professor of health services management and policy in The Ohio State University College of Public Health. “This is true hostility. Threats of violence. Undermining these people in ways that harm their ability to do their jobs.”
Of 109 leaders interviewed for the study, 76% were threatened or harassed, a category of backlash the researchers deemed “extraordinary.”
Among the experiences shared by public health leaders:
The FBI arrest of a person making ongoing credible death threats. “That was the first time I felt scared because in his house he had over 100 guns…”
A public health official described a persistent “scary,” “obsessed” male “stalker” who sent a picture of someone strangling a child the same age as her child.
“The worst day was [when] I came home from work one day. … I came home and on my front door I found a note taped. And when I opened it up, it was a threat to kill my dog. And it had a picture of my dog in my backyard.”
About half experienced “undermining” backlash, which made it hard for them to work — things like overwhelming their offices with data requests, repeatedly demanding revisions to pandemic guidelines and publicly disparaging their qualifications. The research appears in the [*American Journal of Public Health*](https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308614).
https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308614
Not the current ones!
Turns out all they had to do to get rid of the death threats was to come out as anti-vaxx lunatics, push a purely beef and saurkraut diet, and advocate for measles outbreaks. Suddenly zero threats!
If Fauci had simply denied that Americans were dying of covid and recommended ivermectin as a miracle cure-all, he would be celebrated by those same people today.
Weaponized idiocy in action. These people don’t know anything about human history, or medical advances. They think they’d be fine 300 years ago as long as they expose themselves to as many viruses as possible so they get immunity. I say we test the theory, 😉
who are these clowns?
Public service workers are there to HELP you.
Why would you want to make it so they do not want to help you?
edit to add: A study from one of the most backward states in our union?… I wouldn’t put it past them to create this kind of rhetoric normalizing violence in socialist activities.
Sadly, this is what happens when divisive politics erodes people’s trust in their government.
The article mentions that many healthcare officials are retiring early or just quitting altogether. Well, things are about to get really tough for the American healthcare system in the future. Between a rapidly aging population, expensive insurance, high medical costs, a shortage of healthcare workers, and just general anti-intellectualism, I wonder where we will end up in a few decades.
Personally I don’t have much hope and already planned for medical tourism elsewhere. I had been to a Singaporean hospital (SGH) and it blows US hospitals out of the water.
Red states don’t want medicine. Move to blue states where you can work in well funded hospitals and live amongst people who believe in science and math.
It’s so nice when someone who can’t even Google properly thinks that I’m lying to them about things with my environmental science and public health degrees.
I get paid by…. oh right, I’m broke.
Just don’t go to hospital then