Threats and abuse: the price public health campaigners pay

Those of us who spend our time working in public health need a thick skin. I have been subjected to death threats and daily phone calls telling me where my children were on their journey home from school. (The police told me to let them know if anything happened!) I have been sued — never successfully — and I have refused to settle out of court. Advertisers have prevented several magazines from printing my regular columns. The current barrage of criticism from various blogs is particularly nasty — and rebuttals are time-consuming. As for Twitter, I have given up trying to fit anything meaningful into 140 characters in response.