'DEVASTATED MORALE'
NHS doctor reads out torrent of abuse sent by Covid deniers including one who told her ‘f*** off and die’
AN NHS medic has read aloud messages sent to her by Covid deniers - including one who told her to "f*** off and die".
Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, an intensive care registrar, said doctors and nurses on the frontline of the pandemic are being targeted by social media trolls.
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The emergency and intensive care medicine registrar said she's been sworn at and called names during a campaign of shocking abuse from people who believe coronavirus is a "hoax".
And the medic said she's sent up to 30 abusive messages every day - with the thugs telling her "I don't give a f*** who's dying" and "you chose your job, deal with it".
One even said: "I couldn't care less who I apparently murder by not wearing a mask.
"F*** off and die."
Dr Batt-Rawden, who has worked in the NHS for a decade, told BBC London: "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 the NHS staff who are trying to speak up about how bad things are on frontline at the moment."
She said the messages are tough to read.
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"It's really hard when you're giving your all to try and save patients on the frontline, when things are so difficult, and when you're working all the hours," she said.
"I cannot tell you how much this has devastated morale.
"I had a junior doctor who was working in A&E who said, 'I really don't want to go in.
"'It's because there was a horde of people, who were telling me Covid was a hoax and shouting at me, and I was half broken'."
Dr Batt-Rawden, the chair of The Doctors' Association UK, said medics "just want to keep you safe" - adding: "I don't want you to end up in my intensive care unit."
Twitter says it has "clear policies in place that address hateful conduct".
A spokesperson said: "Abuse and harassment have no place on our service."
Despite a mounting death toll as a mutant super-infectious strain of coronavirus takes hold in every region of England, nurses say they have faced distressing run-ins with conspiracy theorists.
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Leslie Young has taken to Twitter to try to counter the claims.
He shared a photo of queuing ambulances with the caption 'Who do you think these are for?'
Mr Young stepped up after anti-lockdown activists posted fake footage from dozens of locations on social media insisting hospitals are deserted.
He said: “Looked at the faces of some of my colleagues today and they have lost their spark.
“They’re tired, stressed and breaking, yet they are out on the Covid frontline working hard.
“This pandemic is taking its toll on us. Help us by being kind and following the rules.”
Meanwhile, Chris Whitty yesterday warned the NHS is facing its "worst weeks" of the pandemic as he urged Brits to "stay at home".
England's Chief Medical Officer said the UK will go through "the most dangerous time" before the vaccine roll out has had an impact.
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During a BBC phone-in on the current high case rates, he said: "I don't think we're yet at the peak, I'm afraid.
"I think we will be at the peak if everybody can double down and absolutely minimise their contacts.
"The point of the lockdown is to bring that forward, but it only works if everyone really thinks about every individual interaction they have and try and minimise them."
And intensive care medic Dr Zudin Puthucheary told Good Morning Britain today that exhausted NHS staff are facing crisis.
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"Staff are near breaking point," he said.
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"It's another world in there now - we're seeing patient after patient being admitted."
And he warned there's more to come, telling Brits: "It will continue to get worse."
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