Reducing the harm of harassment

Confronting a growing problem for public-facing scientists

With so many crises unfolding around the world the need has never been greater for researchers to share their knowledge and engage in public communication. But it would also appear that the risks of doing so have never been higher.

This, at least, is the conclusion that one might come to after reading a survey published in the journal Nature last year, which returned the troubling data that 47 of the 321 international scientists who had spoken to the media about the Covid pandemic had received death threats, while 72 had received threats of physical or sexual violence.