ATLANTA — The top health official in Georgia is pleading with the public to stop making threats toward those on the front lines fighting COVID-19.
Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, said Monday that nurses and those working at vaccination sites across the state are being threatened and harassed.
"I've become aware that many of our line workers who are doing these vaccinations are receiving threats, are receiving hostile emails, harassing emails," she said during a press event with Gov. Brian Kemp.
Toomey said she had similar threats early on and understood that it comes with the position she is in.
"But it shouldn't be happening to those nurses who are working in the field that try to keep this state safe," she said.
A vaccination site in Georgia had to be shut down, Toomey said, after people were harassing and making threats toward the state health employees at a mobile clinic in the northern part of the state.
"This is wrong. This is absolutely wrong," she said. "These people are giving their lives to help others and to help us in this state. We in Georgia could do better."
She added: "We should be thanking these individuals for trying to get life-saving vaccines to our state."
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