Some elected officials have since taken this a step further by seeking to discredit individual biomedical scientists. I was ridiculed by Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida on a Fox News broadcast, and, earlier this month, I was targeted by Greene and Steve Bannon on Real America’s Voice a week after our research team announced emergency use authorization in India of a recombinant protein COVID vaccine for global health. Such statements are often followed by threatening e-mails and other notes accusing me of “crimes against humanity” or warning that I will soon be hunted by “armed patriots.” During the Jewish high holidays, while I was in Houston to give a speech at a reform synagogue, I was stalked and heckled.

Other scientists have fared worse, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who has been the subject of intimidation on multiple occasions by both Senate and House members, including a vituperative exchange earlier this month with Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Several nongovernmental scientists have been targeted as well.

Dog whistles from highly visible elected officials are unnerving, especially when followed by a barrage of hate e-mail and online threats. For biomedical scientists laboring to shape new approaches or therapeutics to combat COVID-19 there is really no roadmap for how to respond or seek protections. In my case, since this also includes antisemitic attacks, I have been able to get help and advice from the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations, but often there is nowhere obvious to seek help.