Liverpool's Public Health Director has hit back at 'abuse from anonymous trolls' after he posted about the importance of getting vaccinated against Covid-19.
Matt Ashton, who has helped to lead Liverpool's fight against the virus, was one of many health professionals who took to social media yesterday to show that they had been vaccinated against the covid and to encourage others to do the same.
The flurry of posts followed a video that emerged over the weekend which saw an unvaccinated hospital doctor challenging Health Secretary Sajid Javid over the government's policy of compulsory jabs for healthcare workers.
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Footage caught by Sky News showed Steve James, a consultant at King's College Hospital in London, telling the Health Secretary that he was choosing not to get vaccinated and did not agree with the government's plan that means all NHS staff in England who have direct contact with patients risk losing their jobs if they have not had a jab by the February 3 deadline.
The video was shared widely on social media by those on all sides of the debate.
And it led to the large number of posts by health professionals who explained why they had been vaccinated and why others should be too.
One of those was Professor Ashton, who said: "I am a Director of Public Health and am double vaccinated and boosted, as are my family & friends. I believe vaccination is the single most important thing we can do to avoid becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. Please get vaccinated."
He was joined by other key city health figures, including Dr Peter Hampshire, the clinical lead for critical care at Liverpool's main hospital trust.
He said: "I'm an ICU consultant in charge of the largest number of critical care beds in Cheshire & Merseyside. I've already spoken about the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 last month. I'm triple jabbed & the message hasn't changed."
Later on, Professor Ashton said he had been abused following his post.
He tweeted: "I have had a lot of abuse on twitter tonight, but I won't let abuse from anonymous trolls/bots get in the way of me trying to protect our communities from harm from Covid-19."
He received support for his response, with one commenter stating: "Well said."
On Twitter, Kate Warriner added: "We are so luck to have Matt Ashton as our local director of public health. Personal abuse of someone trying to help us all is just totally out of order."
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