Covid: Bolton vaccination chief suffers online 'venom' for jabs tweet

Dr Helen Wall thanked people who had supported her

The doctor leading Bolton's vaccine roll-out has been subjected to online abuse after posting a picture of herself being jabbed.

Dr Helen Wall said she received "accusatory, aggressive and unnecessary venom" after tweeting the image.

She said she was not upset at the "unwarranted abuse" from anti-vaccination Twitter users.

Dr Wall, who gave Bolton's first Covid injection, also thanked people who had sent her team messages of support.

The clinical director of commissioning at Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group's original post, which showed her being jabbed, said: "I'm fully vaccinated as are my loved ones because I know it is the single most important thing I can do to avoid ICU or death from Covid."

Tweeting after the abuse, she said: "I stated a fact. That I'd had three Covid vaccines and so had my loved ones.

"I shared a photo of my vaccination that had been sitting unshared on my phone for weeks.

"I'm absolutely blown away by the amount of accusatory, aggressive and unnecessary venom that came my way. Wow. Just wow."

Responding to some comments, Dr Wall said: "I spent first half of Covid in system response planning extra mortuary space, worried there was not enough oxygen, waiting hours for ambulances in Covid clinics with dying patients, I barely slept in fear.

"The second half has been spent half working 70 hours a week, running the vaccine programme."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said among those offering support to Dr Wall was the Mayor of Bolton, councillor Linda Thomas, who said: "You are appreciated by many, many more."

Dr Wall reported suffering the abuse as the NHS in the North West celebrated the first anniversary of delivering more than 1.5 million jabs in the past year at mass vaccination sites.

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