Doctors say companies like Facebook and YouTube have 'blood on their hands'. Photo / Getty Images
Doctors say companies like Facebook and YouTube have 'blood on their hands'. Photo / Getty Images
US doctors on the front line of the coronavirus fight have spoken about how they feel "deflated" when they see people sharing conspiracy theories about Covid-19 online.
Interviewed by NBC News, New York ICU doctor Dr Hadi Halazun says he felt "deflated" after going home from another shift treating Covid-19patients, only to open his Facebook and find posts from a man insisting "no one's dying" and calling the coronavirus pandemic "fake news".
The doctor said he tried to explain his experience treating coronavirus patients but others commented insinuating he wasn't even a real doctor.
"I told them: 'I am a real doctor. There are 200 people in my hospital's ICU,'" the New York cardiologist told the NBC. "And they said, 'Give me your credentials.' I engaged with them, and they kicked me off their wall."
"I left work and I felt so deflated. I let it get to me."
He says he is one of many doctors dealing with conspiracy theorists who continue to spread misinformation and harass those on the front lines of the pandemic.
Halazun says the conspiracy theorists are "the second most painful thing I've had to deal with, other than separation of families from their loved one".
Other doctors have said they are having to treat patients who waited too long to seek treatment because of believing conspiracy theories they had seen online.
The medical professionals are calling on social media companies to stop the spread of misinformation.
Another New York doctor spoke to NBC about a patient who'd gone into ER last week with damage to his intestinal tract after ingesting bleach.
"Folks delaying seeking care or, taking the most extreme case, somebody drinking bleach as a result of structural factors just underlines the fact that we have not protected the public from disinformation," Dr Duncan Maru said.
Protesters in the US. Photo / Getty Images
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dubbed these lies and harassment campaigns targeting doctors as a "infodemic" and says more has to be done to fight them.
Maru says social media companies such as Facebook and YouTube need to be held to account and "truly have blood on their hands".
Halazun says he has had to force himself to step away from Facebook after conspiracy theorists argued that "hospitals are empty" and that the virus is nothing but a plot to microchip citizens.
"It scares me more than anything that there are people who are basically controlled — and in the same way they feel they're fighting against that control," he said. "They go to YouTube, where they're really being controlled, and they don't realise it. That's what's scary."
Doctors say companies like Facebook and YouTube have 'blood on their hands'. Photo / Getty Images
He says doctors should not be spending any time on Facebook right now, for their own mental health.
"We're limited in our emotional capacity. I'm not going to spend whatever I have left after a long day of work trying to convince a conspiracy theorist," he said. "They're immune to any evidence. You're not going to change their mind."
"Some people are out there who are sitting in their homes, going on these videos and then telling us it's fake while we're saving lives.
