Before the pandemic, around 23 percent of physicians reported experiencing targeted harassment, but new research published June 14 in JAMA from Northwestern University in Chicago, found post-COVID that number has grown to nearly 66 percent of physicians.
Researchers designed the updated physician survey to mirror a previous one and included self-reported demographic and career information. In total, 359 responses yielded the following information:
- Sixty-four percent of respondents said the harassment they've experienced online has been directly related to COVID-19 information.
- Thirty-one percent of physicians and scientists who said they have been harassed online over medical information reported that the harassment was of a sexual nature and 18 percent said they had someone share their personal information as a result.
- Sixty-seven percent of individuals who reported they were harassed were women.
- 82 percent of Black physicians and scientists who took the survey said the harassment they experienced was based on their race or ethnicity, and 52 percent of Asian respondents said the same.
In total, 88 percent of all 359 physician and scientist respondents said they experienced harassment as a result of some kind of advocacy they were championing or posting about via social media as a medical professional — something that the U.S. Surgeon General's office encouraged to dispel medical misinformation in 2021.
Researchers said, "At a time when physicians and biomedical scientists need support and their advocacy is vital to the national interest more than ever before, they are being badgered, doxxed, and sexually harassed," they wrote. "Institutions and companies should support those who are attacked and provide mechanisms to reduce harassment and provide accountability."