Coronavirus: Paediatrics chief says received death threat over vaccines (updated)

Paediatrics chief at Makarios children’s hospital Avraam Elia said on Wednesday that despite receiving death threats he has not been deterred from doing his duty.

Elia told the Cyprus News Agency that he received an anonymous phone call from an unknown person who asked him to confirm that the anti-coronavirus vaccine will not harm their child.

The man reportedly told Elia that if he does not stop encouraging people to vaccinate themselves and their children, he would come and “bump him off”.

Elia said that the phone number used was passed on to the police, who contacted the suspect.

He reportedly did not deny his actions and apologised, saying he was in a frenzied state at the time of the phone call.

According to Elia, the man implied that there is financial gain behind promoting vaccinations, and kept repeating that “there’s a lot of money in this”.

He also reportedly said that “I would never vaccinate my children if there was a tiny possibility of harming them, not for all the money in the world”.

“I would like to emphasise that the recommendation for mass vaccination of children over 12 was not made by me alone, but by the international paediatric society, which I serve,” he said.

Doctors have a duty to guide the public responsibly on health issues, particularly ones as important as Covid, Elia said.

“We are not afraid of threats, but I am personally worried that these people live and walk among us. If science was affected by their opinions, we would still believe the earth is flat. But the Middle Ages are luckily gone, never to come back”.