Anti-vaccination protesters have disrupted several vaccination drives in Georgia, and even forced one to shut down, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Aides to Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the state's top health official, also described how public health staff "have been harassed, yelled at, threatened and demeaned by some of the very members of the public they were trying to help." In one county, protesters used social media to identify public health employees and "[harangue] them with messages of hostility and misinformation about vaccines," writes the Journal-Constitution.
A mobile event in north Georgia was canceled after an "organized group" of anti-vaxxers arrived to bother and name-call those running the drive. "Aside from feeling threatened themselves, staff realized no one would want to come to that location for a vaccination under those circumstances, so they packed up and left," said Nancy Nydam, Toomey's spokesperson.
Toomey herself said that such threats "come with the territory" of someone with her job, but "it shouldn't be happening to those nurses who are working to try to keep this state safe." Read more at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.