A news conference meant to encourage the community to get the COVID-19 vaccine has led to harassment and threats for some Palm Beach County doctors.
The doctors said the problem comes from inaccurate reporting from at least one national news outlet.
Early Monday morning, 75 doctors held a news conference in Palm Beach Gardens to say they were tired, resources were running low and they pleaded with the public to get the vaccine.
This message was relayed by most of the media, including WPBF 25 News.
But one outlet incorrectly called it a protest and said the doctors had walked off the job, refusing to see patients.
On Tuesday, the doctors said that narrative is entirely untrue.
“We set out to do something good for our community,” said Dr. Rupesh Dharia. “And for them to do something like that, it’s absolutely terrible.”
Despite the fact that the story was false, it gained considerable traction on social media. The story went viral and the doctors said that’s when the threats and harassment began.
“We’ve started receiving some angry phone calls,” said Dr. Jennifer Buczyner. “We’ve had several fake Google reviews that are negative towards our businesses.”
Dharia added, “(We got) emails saying that we are a bunch of Nazis and we should continue to listen to Hitler.”
Buczyner said some doctors even received death threats.
“It’s extremely frustrating, because in all of this mess, our message got completely diluted,” Buczyner said.
Adding to the frustration, the doctors said they intentionally scheduled the news conference at a time when doctors could be there without impacting their patients.
“Some of them came directly from shift,” Dharia said. “Some of them were going on shifts.”
Both Dharia and Buczyner said their message remains the same: they want people to get vaccinated, and they want the pandemic to end.
But despite their frustration, they said doctors they know would never turn their backs on their patients.
“To think that people would assume that we would walk away, that we would abandon them is terrible,” Dharia said. “And it’s a very wrong thing.”
*story by WESH-Winter Park, FL.
