When Nicole Baldwin, MD, made a playful TikTok touting the benefits of vaccination, she wasn't expecting to fight an endless social media battle that destroyed her online ratings -- and even led to a threat against her life.
, Baldwin, a pediatrician in suburban Cincinnati, listed a handful of diseases that vaccines prevent to the pop song "Cupid Shuffle," ending on the note that vaccines don't cause autism.
It wasn't an instant hit when she posted it on Saturday, Jan. 11, but by Sunday it had 50,000 views so Baldwin decided to share it on Twitter.
"That's when everything exploded," she told 鶹ý.
Members of the "anti-vax" community discovered it and launched a "global, coordinated attack," posting negative comments across Baldwin's social media pages including her and .
They also went for the jugular: knowing that a physician's online presence is critical, they barraged her online review sites, including and , with one-star reviews to sabotage her practice.
Some even called her practice, Northeast Cincinnati Pediatric Associates, and harassed the staff. One woman -- whom Baldwin described as "very angry" -- threatened to "come and shut down our practice," prompting Baldwin to call the police.
But most intimidating was a post from an anti-vax Facebook group that said, "dead doctors don't lie."
"Ultimately what the anti-vax community wants is to scare us into silence," she told 鶹ý.
Baldwin first tried to stem the tide on her own by deleting comments and reporting abuses. Then she enlisted the help of a friend, and then her husband, until it became too much to manage -- which was when she called in , a network of vaccination advocates who describe themselves as a "rapid-response digital cavalry."
Founder Todd Wolynn, MD, a pediatrician in Pittsburgh, knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of a global social media attack from anti-vaxxers. In 2017, his practice Kids Plus Pediatrics posted a video promoting HPV vaccination that triggered a massive blast from the anti-vaccine crowd.
Some 800 different accounts posted more than 10,000 negative comments to the practice's Facebook page, Wolynn said. Associates of Shots Heard who had infiltrated some of the anti-vax Facebook groups sent him screen shots of commenters who were celebrating their efforts of posting bad online reviews for the practice.
The 6-day onslaught against Kids Plus Pediatrics resulted in an that was widely picked up by the press, including the and the .
Baldwin had learned about Shots Heard through a talk Wolynn gave in Ohio and had signed up to be part of that team. Little did she know she'd be the one needing the help.
"One doctor has no time to handle all of this," Wolynn told 鶹ý. "We have a vetted rapid-response network that can come to your aid."
He said anyone can send an email to the Shots Heard alert box, and once it's vetted, the request for online help is distributed through an email blast to their network of vaccine advocates -- other doctors, nurses, paramedics, parents, and others who promote vaccination science.
Baldwin said that since she allowed Shots Heard to take over her Facebook account, they've been posting positive comments and blocking commenters from her page; a total of 5,000 accounts have been banned as of Monday night, she said.
Shots Heard is also helping to get the fake online reviews taken down, which is never easy, particularly with Google, Wolynn said. But ongoing media coverage likely pressed the tech giant into taking down the reviews, Baldwin said.
Yelp, which has a process for removing fake reviews, took most of them down and posted a box on the page noting that the practice has been in the news recently. Some could still be seen on the page on Monday night.
"They've been amazing," Baldwin said of Shots Heard. "Doctors need to know that there's help out there if we're attacked. We don't need to give in to these bullies."
While there's been debate in the medical community over the utility of TikTok for sharing messages about medicine and health, Baldwin said she won't be quitting anytime soon, and that it's an effective way to reach the young people who are her patients.
That includes aspiring physicians, she said: "I'm getting messages from young people who say they want to go to medical school, asking about classes."
"It's also showing that doctors are human and can have fun," she said.