Covid: TikTok doctor wants social media help for trainees

A doctor combatting myths about the Covid vaccine on TikTok is calling for trainee medics to be be given social media lessons within their degrees.

Dr Bnar Talabani, 32, from Cardiff, is the only Welsh doctor on Team Halo, a UN-backed group of doctors and scientists using social media to dispel vaccine misinformation.

But the former refugee and co-founder of Muslim Doctors Cymru has been labelled "Dr Death" by trolls.

Anti-vaxxers have also targeted her.

"Young people are not going to read leaflets on government websites to get their information about vaccines - we need something that's far more engaging," said Dr Talabani, who specialises in kidney and transplant medicine but is doing a PhD in immunology.

"We should get training for this at medical school and when we're doing our scientific degrees to teach us how we can do it safely, professionally, appropriately - but in a way that's quite engaging.

"Not only had I never used TikTok before, but I didn't actually know how to create content. I don't dance, they do it really well and in a really fun way, but my approach is very simple - take a question, explain the answer."

Dr Talabani was born in Northern Iraq and moved to the UK as a refugee, aged 10.

She went on to help found Muslim Doctors Cymru, which provides information about Covid-19 in a range of languages, including Urdu, Pashtu, Punjabi, Bangla, Kurdish, Arabic, and Somali.

However, her work online has led to being targeted by anti-vaxxers and trolls.

"I cannot think of a single person who has sent abusive messages who has not anonymised their account, it's always anonymised accounts," she said.

"They will say some horrible things, I've been called Dr Death, I've been told I should be stripped of my medical licence.

"I've been told I will hang at the Nuremberg trials - and I shouldn't be a mother."

She added: "What they don't realise is the more they comment on my videos the more those videos get views.

"I won't stand for rudeness because no-one deserves to be treated that way."

Dr Talabani promotes her content across TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms and is gaining a growing following in Australia after doing a live question and answer session with an Australian influencer.

Laura from Sydney was convinced to have the vaccine after seeing Dr Talabani's Q&A.

She said: "I was feeling really distressed and anxious about the vaccine and about the choices I had to make.

"Dr Talabani explained everything in a clear and relatable way, it was clear that she had a medical understanding with a scientific background and being a doctor, and it was very reassuring."

She added: "Since then I've had my first shot of Pfizer and booked in to get my second shot in a few weeks."

Ellen Davies, of the Welsh Medical Students Committee at BMA Wales, said: "As a union representing doctors, we're inspired to see colleagues find new ways to try to reach younger audiences to improve public health and in this case we commend Dr Talabani for her efforts in raising awareness of Covid-19 vaccination data.

"As healthcare professionals we would always encourage anyone to seek advice from their healthcare provider and regulated online sources such as the NHS website, government websites and in Wales information published by their local health board."