Violence Against Vaccine Docs Was Preventable
Feminists warned about the connection between violent rhetoric & real life attacks
Last week in California, a man attacked workers at a Covid vaccine station, calling them ‘murderers’. Parsia Jahanbani, a medical assistant who was punched repeatedly, said, “It was one of my biggest fears coming true.”
If men screaming about murder while attacking health care clinics sounds familiar, it’s likely because you’re one of the many Americans who care about abortion access. We’ve watched providers and clinics be targeted for decades—and pointed out how that violence is enabled by misinformation online and in the media. As conservative rhetoric has amped up, so have the threats and attacks against those providing vital and legal health care.
Now the same thing is happening at hospitals and vaccine hubs: Health care workers are being targeted; the harassment and assaults are politically motivated; and the violence is being committed by people emboldened by misinformation and lies.
Late last year, for example, a man plowed his car into vaccine workers in Los Angeles. In Georgia, a nurse was kicked in the ribs; and in Denver, workers were harassed so badly that vaccination vans had to be pulled from the community.
In Texas, a hospital executive reported that staff have suffered all kinds of attacks—including verbal abuse and racial slurs, “people being punched in the chest, having urine thrown on them...we’ve had broken bones, broken noses.” One hospital in Missouri even had to give its employees panic buttons because assaults on staff have tripled in the last year.
In Idaho—a state where hospital employees are afraid to go to grocery stores in their scrubs—CEO of the Idaho Medical Association, Susie Keller, told the Associated Press that she blames misinformation for the rising tide of hate: “They believe lies about what is the proper treatment for COVID. [Doctors] say they’re not mad at the patients, they’re angry at the folks who are spreading the misinformation—those folks absolutely bear responsibility for the deaths and disability we’re seeing.”
If we’ve learned anything from the attacks on abortion providers, it’s that the violence is only going to get worse if the lies about vaccines continue. When a man shot and killed three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood in 2015, for example, he was screaming about “baby parts”—rhetoric lifted directly from conservative media.
We know that every time a powerful media figure makes an outrageous claim about vaccines—or a social media company ignores the conspiracy theories about COVID on its platform—it becomes that much easier for someone to convince themselves that attacking a doctor is actually the right thing to do.
I’m not sure what the answer is. In Utah, lawmakers are trying to increase criminal penalties against those that attack health care workers—which I suppose is a start. But until we can hold mainstream and social media accountable for the falsehoods they spread to easily-swayed or hate-filled people, the violence will escalate.
I wish this country had learned something from clinic violence, or listened to the feminists who have been ringing the alarm on the connection between attacks and incendiary rhetoric. Abortion doctors were the canaries in the coal mine for the horror we’re seeing today. Maybe because vaccines aren’t a women’s issue we’ll see more action than we did around abortion violence. It’s a depressing thought, but it’s the only hopeful one I have at the moment.
We are so low that the only way to go is up---but how? When a Senator, Rand Paul, can threaten a communicator of truth in the sciences, Dr. Fauci,, publicly, it feels that our civilization is just a big free for all and it gives people permission and a license that anything goes. This is not a time to be silent. Thank you Jessica.
The abusers and enablers don't care about the victims. Period. Just power.