Pro-disease Trolling

Dr. Monique Tello was attending a medical conference last fall when a speaker on social media suggested the physicians search themselves on Google. Why not, thought Tello, an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

She was stunned by what she found.

More than 100 negative one-star reviews and derogatory comments had been posted about her on popular physician rating websites.

“Ignorant, and could care less about her patients,’’ she recalled one poster writing.

“Danger,’’ another warned.

Tello soon discovered these comments were not from people who had been her patients, she said, but instead from anti-vaccine activists. The reviews on the websites Vitals and Healthgrades began pouring in last August, soon after Tello wrote pro-vaccine commentary on another doctor’s Instagram account.

Someday, in the perfect future I imagine, we'll stop allowing unverified online reviews.

2 thoughts on “Pro-disease Trolling

  1. John D. Thullen

    Oh, now, how bout just one more unverified online review:

    “Excellent post by cleek.”

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