Violent Threats against Healthcare Workers

The growing call for executing doctors and medical professionals - and what we can do to stop it.

I'm sorry that this is the first post of 2025. I was hoping to give you all some more interesting stories from history to kick start the year. Sadly, I've been overwhelmed by a need to raise the alarm over something I'm seeing more and more recently. Something which can no longer be ignored.

There is a spectre haunting medicine. The spectre of anti-vaxxers; a minority subset of whom are becoming ever more emboldened and radicalised, openly calling for the execution - by hanging - of doctors, scientists, and public health officials, for imagined crimes and misdeeds, allegedly by staging a great "hoax" - the Covid-19 Pandemic (and other infectious diseases) - in order to poison everyone with injections supposedly full of mind control, autism, and nanobots.

This twisted, narcissistic, self-righteous group of ultra-fanatics froth at the mouth, calling for a "Nuremberg 2.0".

Nuremberg, as in, the Trials of the Nazi War Criminals.

Some make a passing reference to the "trial" part, to make it feel less like an outright plan for murder and more like something with seminal legitimacy: like a legal trial, where you might imagine reasonable and rational judges preside and a jury (maybe) deliberates over the evidence, and renders a verdict. The vast majority I have seen simply skip over all that and go directly to their final objective: "short ropes, long drops". Not even a presumption of innocence; the guilt has been pre-determined. They'd prefer to cut to the chase and just kill them all, one by one, ropes around their necks.

Some of them include graphic descriptions of the process of execution.

It is downright shocking and disturbing just how numerous these voices are here on Substack alone. You can see it for yourself: do a search for "Nuremberg 2.0", and filter by notes. The stench of bloodlust is overpowering. A few of them come across as severely mentally ill, and some of them certainly are; but that can only be a minority. Some of them, no doubt, are bots. However, many of these accounts calling for violence show ordered thinking, logical construction, and clarity of purpose. They do not strike me as unwell.

Some of them are listed as Substack Best-Sellers.

They are clearly deadly serious.

Let me give just a very small example of exactly what I'm talking about, taken from Substack Notes alone. Take special note of the language used:

Nuremberg 2.0 = the summary execution of Bill Gates, Antony Fauci, doctors, nurses, medical scientists, hospital workers, and anyone else they feel like pointing their finger at, proclaiming them all to be part of this made-up conspiracy.

The following ones don’t attempt to hide behind the façade of a “trial”. They make it as explicit a call to murder as it gets, clear as day:

“Remember what happened to those found guilty?” - Karen is referring to execution by hanging. Also note that she includes pharmacists and “mainstream media” in her death list.

This next one includes some explicit descriptive language for the style of execution intended:

Another substack “best-seller”, promoting the murder of healthcare workers:

And it goes on…

…and on…

Apparently, these specific anti-vaxxers are also just the nicest, sweetest, kindest folk you’ll ever meet. Just see for yourself:

And then there are the supposed moderates. They sort of side-step calling for outright execution, they merely want to lock people up and throw away the key:

Rand Paul seems especially excited by the idea, and posts constantly on this theme:

This is often how terrorists are indoctrinated. Eventually these calls for violence go on for so long, that someone decides it's time to take matters into their own hands.

We cannot, we must not, allow this to be normalised.

Doctors and nurses are some of the hardest-working people on earth, driven mostly by altruism and a desire to help heal the sick and ease people's suffering. They are often severely under-paid for what they do. They don't have personal body-guards that can keep them safe when they're out and about, or going to and from work. They are forced to rely on the general good will of the public at large. They rely on us to stand with them. They rely on us to be unequivocal in our stand against violent threats.

We must declare to the would-be murderous vigilantes that these threats of violence will not be tolerated and will not go unchallenged.

To be clear: this is a minority of the anti-vax movement in general. The majority do not support violence. I often have long and quite cordial discussions and debates with all manner of people, some of whom are sceptics of vaccines, others who question the existence of viruses. I warmly welcome anyone merely looking for discussion and debate, whether on science topics or otherwise.

However, I have zero tolerance for those who should threaten any sort of violence, especially against healthcare workers, scientists, or public health officials. Such behaviour is nothing short of barbarism.

The fact that some of these people are Substack Best-Sellers makes me feel physically sick: there are a large number of individuals paying good money to be fed this continuous stream of vicious lies and hatred, and to have it pumped out into the public consciousness. Part of the reason there is such an overwhelming quantity of this junk is because supporters are actively funding it in large numbers.

That's because hate sells. Rationality and reason - not as sexy as the titillating rumours and conspiracy theories - struggles against this onslaught, this firehose of conspiracy content and rage-bait.

Especially since the US Election, this can only get worse. The next 4 years are going to be an uphill battle for all of us around the world. Those of us who are dedicating time and energy to combating disinformation on science and medicine really need your support. If you can, please consider signing up as a paid subscriber to one or more of the following publications:

• Immunologic, by

  Dr. Andrea Love

• Under the White Coat, by

  Dr. Amber Hull

• Beyond The Noise, by

  Paul Offit

  (No paid option, so just subscribe for free anyway!)

• Biododo, by

  BioDodo

  (Full disclosure, this is a good friend of mine)

• Lessons on Drugs, by fellow Australian

  Lauren Cortis

• The Thoughtful Intensivist, by

  Rafael Olivé Leite

Also, if you appreciate my work and content, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber for 2025. It's very cheap, and if you sign up for an annual subscription, I will send you a free A Chemical Mind t-shirt!

Use this link to get 50% Off, valid until 1st Feb 2025!

I hope the reasonable majority of the anti-vax crowd will also join us to stand up against these extremists and violent fanatics.

None of us is perfect. I acknowledge that I have not done enough to stand up against other calls to political violence, whether on the left or on the right, in previous years. I am determined to do better in 2025.

Let's make an effort, together, to stamp this stuff out while we still can.