RTE viewers were left startled as Professor Luke O'Neill revealed he has been attacked several times simply for being "the vaccine-guy".
The health expert was recently assaulted on Grafton Street by a man roaring "anti-vaccine" jibes at him but shockingly he said the incident was not a standalone event.
The immunologist told Claire Byrne Live he was walking down the city centre street on his lunch when the attacker "pulled me back by the collar".
He continued: "I got a fright, thinking what is this about. He started shouting and roaring all kinds of abuse at me. Anti-vaccine stuff.
“I just kept walking and he stopped, but he gave me a fright, I hadn’t had that before. He didn’t come after me, thankfully, he just kept roaring and shouting.
“That was assault. I got back to my lab and they said call the guards and report the guy but I didn’t bother.
"That was scary as I didn’t know what would happen next."
He revealed that last month, he was also attacked on the DART for similar reasons.
He said: "I was working as I was very busy and this guy again started shouting at me, across from me in the seat. I said, ‘I beg your pardon, I’m working’ and left.
“He came after me into the next carriage [but] a little old lady in her 70s came over and said: ‘leave Luke alone’ and he stopped. So she is now my bodyguard!"
He added: "I’m pretty long in the tooth so I wasn’t too worried about it but I worry about younger scientists getting attacked in this way. I think it is a sad development that these types of attacks are happening."
