A doctor posted a video about vaccination on Tik Tok, the social media platform. It went viral. ... [+]
These days, this is what can happen when you post something on social media conveying the benefits of vaccines and indicating that “vaccines don’t cause autism.”
Nicole Baldwin, MD, a pediatrician for the Northeast Cincinnati Pediatric Associates in Cincinnati, Ohio, shared the following video on Tik Tok and then Twitter:
Do you see anything wrong or controversial about this video? OK, perhaps you really wanted her to dab. Or maybe you don’t like the song “Cupid Shuffle.” After all, not everyone likes every song with the possible exception of “Happy Birthday.”
But otherwise, the video seemed fairly straightforward and innocuous, about as controversial as Baby Groot. Baldwin simply pointed to, or shuffled to, the names of diseases that vaccines can prevent. There is plenty of evidence that vaccines can protect you against serious and potential life-threatening diseases such as the measles, polio, hepatitis, influenza and meningitis.
She concluded the video with the message that "vaccinations don't cause autism." This is exactly the phrase that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has on its website, which includes peer-reviewed scientific evidence supporting this statement.
The video soon went viral. Not in an HPV-type of way, but in an-over-1.5-million-views type of way. The video elicited plenty of positive responses such as:
Ah, but that’s not all that happened. Baldwin wrote that she has since “been the subject of a large, coordinated global attack from the antivaxx community both online and offline”:
Really? People writing “fraudulent reviews” and “threatening” her practice? Just for that video? This is yet another reason why online reviews of doctors have become as useful as a raincoat made out of pizza. According to an article by Kristen Swilley for WCPO Cincinnati, Baldwin even had to call the police. Welcome to the Dark Side.
This tweet by @noUpside highlighted some of the things that happened to Baldwin:
This is certainly not the first time vaccination advocates have been threatened or have faced attempts to smear their reputations. For example, last July, Nina Shapiro, MD, covered for Forbes the death threats that different vaccination advocates have received. Just look at what Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, Dean of The National School of Tropical Medicine, had to recently respond to on Twitter:
Then there is what happened to California State Senator Richard Pan, MD, MPH, as seen in this ABC10 video:
Why use threats, smear campaigns, and physical confrontations when you have facts backing your positions? Oh, that’s right, not everyone has scientific evidence backing them when they say something.
Yes, this is 2020, when a 15 second video showing the diseases that vaccines can prevent and the phrase “vaccines don’t cause autism” can result in fraudulent doctor reviews and threats. It’s ironic for a video backed by a song named “Cupid Shuffle” to draw what is basically the exact opposite of a loving reaction. Isn’t that like inviting Baby Groot to a party, and people then trying to set him on fire? Even if you are truly “vaccine-hesitant,” you still have to condemn threats, smear campaigns, and physical confrontations. After all, as the saying goes, “what you tolerate is what you really stand for.”
