HJBR Mar/Apr 2020

36 MAR / APR 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE COLUMN PEDIATRIC FIGHTING BACK A pediatrician from Ohio, Dr. Ni- cole Baldwin, recently published a video on a social media platform called TikTok that provided accu- rate information about the impor- tance of vaccines. She decided to post the video in response to the ever-growing misinformation about vaccines that flood social media outlets on a daily basis. What has ensued since the post has been a barrage of attacks from the an- ti-vaccine cult on not only the vid- eo itself, but on her practice, her staff, and even her life. Comments such as, “Dead doctors don’t lie,“ “Public Enemy #1,” and telling the pediatrician to, “stop killing our kids with vaccines,” are just a few of the hateful and rather terrifying responses that have been posted to the video. She has also endured an onslaught of negative Yelp and Google reviews on her practice from hundreds who have never even set foot in her office. But Dr. Baldwin did not allow this to phase her. She stood her ground, and has continued to be a champion for the cause of protecting our children by not allowing a small, very vocal, and very ideological group of peo- ple to bully her on the public stage.