The AntiAnti-Vaxxers

Web-savvy doctors like Zubin Damania (aka ZDoggMD) are fighting vaccine pseudoscience, one viral clip at a time

- Thomas Buckley

In January, as the first cases of Covid-19 were gaining global attention, Nicole Baldwin, a pediatrician in Cincinnati, posted a playful 15-second clip on TikTok, listing the diseases that inoculation prevents and rebuking the conspiracy theory that vaccines cause developmental disorders. After accruing a dozen or so views, she posted it to her Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts in the hope it would reach a wider audience. Almost overnight, it did, but not the audience she intended.

“Come near me or my child with a needle and I will put it in your jugular,” one comment read. “Dead doctors don’t lie,” read another. A militia of vaccine opponents, thousands strong, was conducting a coordinated attack. Not content to keep it to social media, they threatened Baldwin’s practice, leaving false reviews meant to incriminate her on Google and Yelp. Some made threats to her life that were repeated and credible enough to land a police detail outside her home.

As the fervor grew, Todd Wolynn, a fellow doctor and a co-founder of Shots Heard Round the World, an informal group that seeks to protect vaccine advocates from online abuse, enlisted 16 volunteers to help get hateful posts removed and some of their 6,000 authors banned. Wolynn also thought a counterattack might be in order—so he called in Zubin Damania.