Thirty years as a science writer, covering almost every #STEM beat at some point, I just received my first antivax death threat…
“Your criminal bastard david bradley published an article lying about the benefits of vaccinations. The only benefit is for the evil criminal government bastards running this planet who need to be executed! We know vaccines are nothing but toxic bioweapons ow because of Planet X and they are designed to make people too sick and stupid to pay attention! They also spread government-created designer diseases like when they AIDS in smallpox and hepatitis vaccines. So your evil lying bastard bradley is guilty of accessory to genocide and the criminal piece of shit needs to be executed along with all the evil bastard governments!”
Classic shoddy grammar and conspiracy references from these kinds of idiot.
On Twitter, Robin Davidson suggested it is a badge of honour, while Ian thought it was “really quite something”. Simon Leather noted my email client’s classification: “A real piece of junk rhetoric” and Silvia Castro offered me congratulations: “So congrats! You are doing a great job! Criminals are the one that put their kids and everyone around them in danger of being killed by a disease that can be prevented by vaccines. We all should all learn from NY Measles Emergency happening right now.”
Ryan O’Hare told me: “That’s brilliant! :) You should be proud to have risen through the ranks from science writer to “criminal bastard”. That’s another step up the ladder to “Evil Overlord”.” and posted a gif of Mike Myers as Dr Evil.