NHS doctor reveals abusive from Covid deniers

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, who has worked in the NHS for 10 years, is a senior registrar and is currently working in intensive care in South East.

Speaking to the BBC, she said her inbox is often flooded with messages filled with abuse from strangers, with one reading: "I couldn't care less who I apparently murder by not wearing a mask. Cough and die."

Meanwhile Dr Samantha said the messages are "devastating morale" for key workers, adding: "I had a junior doctor who was working in A&E and said, 'I really don't want to go in. It's because there was a horde of people telling me Covid was a hoax and shouting at me and I was half broken'."

She read out several messages from strangers she had received online, with one reading: "I  don't give a s*** who is dying."

Dr Samantha said the messages are "devastating morale" for key workers

Another read: "You chose your job, deal with it," while another wrote: "I love the way you NHS workers think you have the right to boss us around like we're selfish for breathing.

"You don't give a damn about our lives."

She claimed another person wrote: "I'm not responsible for anyone's health except my own."

Dr Samantha said she had been subject to a wave of abuse online during the pandemic, saying: "We've actually had quite a lot of abuse, particularly on social media. It's mainly around that Covid is somehow a hoax or a conspiracy.

• SEE ALSO: Covid hoaxer fined £200 after claiming hospital wards were "empty" 

"People just not believing NHS staff who are trying to speak up about how bad things are on the frontline at the moment.

"I've had around 20-30 abusive messages  a day and that's been everything from swearing and calling me names, to saying 'I don't care who is dying, you can't tell me what to do.'"

She explained: "That's really hard when you're giving your all to try to save patients on the frontline. When things are so difficult when you are working all the hours God sends.

"There are some people who don't support you...I cannot tell you how much this has devastated morale."Samantha started a social media campaign

Samantha started a social media campaign to post blue hearts for the NHS staff on their Instagram and Twitter accounts.

She said: "We ended up trending Number One in the UK and I did end up havign a little sob.

"Most people are fully in our corner and they are showing us that.

"NHS staff really needed that tidal wave of support. we just want to keep you safe, we just want you to stay at home and I don't want you to end up in my intensive care unit, I really don't."

Her comments come after a mother-of-two was fined £200 for sharing photos on social media of hospitals across the South, claiming the Government was "lying" about coronavirus.