The news of the death of Lisa-Maria Kellermayr (Lisa-Maria Kellermayr) caused a great outcry in Austria. The doctor was hounded by haters for many months – they threatened to kill him. Police believe the 36-year-old woman committed suicide, unable to withstand the pressure on social media.

Lisa-Maria Kellermayr was found dead in her private office. Several farewell letters were also found. In them, according to the Austrian press, the doctor accuses law enforcement agencies and the medical chamber of inaction and indifference.

Threats from anti-vaxxers

In early 2021, doctor Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, from Upper Austria, gained public prominence. This happened in the context of the fight against the pandemic. A woman working in an ambulance was actively demonstrating on social media and in the media against anti-vaccinations and campaigning for vaccination. In the spring of 2021, the doctor opened her own practice and continued to criticize “conspiracy supporters”. As a result, she became the target of aggressive anti-vaxxers, and the activist began to be persecuted on social media.

The situation worsened when, at the end of 2021, the Austrian authorities announced the decision to introduce mandatory vaccination. Thousands of anti-vaccination demonstrations took place across the country. On November 16 of last year, 600 protesters surrounded a hospital in the Austrian city of Wels. Lisa-Maria Kellermayr was shocked that militant conspiracy theorists blocked the ambulance access roads and the entrance to the clinic. The doctor shared on her social media a video captured from the windows of the hospital. The following day, the Austrian newspaper Der Standard confirmed these facts, but that day the police denied his complaint, calling it “false”. It was after this tweet from the police that aggressive anti-vaxxers felt they were given carte blanche – on their forums they started calling the doctor a liar. And that was just the beginning of the woman’s pursuit.

The doctor received threatening letters

The anti-vaxers promised many times to deal with Lisa-Maria Kellermayr and even kill her. She repeatedly addressed authorities and the media, trying to draw attention to the threats. In an interview with DW in early 2022, the doctor read an excerpt from one of the emails that promised to execute her: “Hi, little shit! You can threaten me with lawyers, but you still can’t handle me. Instead, , I decided to kill you… Of course, I will kill all your employees. I am armed, I have a weapon… “And there were many letters like that, according to the woman. “These are not just insults like ‘you are a fat pig’. These are real threats for which you can get several years in prison,” the woman told reporters. She was confident that the potential for existing violence was not sufficiently recognized and that countermeasures are taken. However, the doctor did not receive adequate assistance from law enforcement agencies.

But the doctor took the threats seriously. She decided to provide private protection for herself and her employees. She had a panic button under the table. A security guard was constantly on duty at the entrance to the private office, in one of the offices the doctor installed a special armored door, and she always had a gas pistol in her bathrobe pocket. Lisa-Maria Kellermayr stopped going home from work, deciding to sleep on her office couch. The woman spent, in her own words, around €100,000 to protect herself. However, the bullying on social media did not stop, and the doctor herself lost patients. Private practice became useless – after a few months it had to be closed down. And on July 29, a woman was found dead in her office.

What to do with hate on social media?

Austrian authorities reacted painfully to Lisa-Maria Kellermayr’s suicide. President Alexander van der Bellen visited the site of the doctor’s death. He urged everyone to unite against hate and end the climate of intimidation and fear: “Hate and intolerance have no place in our Austria,” he said. The country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs has opened an investigation into this case. Justice Minister Alma Zadić ordered prosecutors to perform an autopsy on Kellermayr’s body. The investigation should also assess whether the police are responsible for the doctor’s death.

The Kellermayr case caused a great deal of public outcry, and not just in Austria. This story was reported by many media outlets in Europe. The tragic death of a young woman has drawn attention to the real danger posed by hate speech. In society, discussions have surfaced with renewed vigor about what authorities and ordinary residents can do against Internet haters and bullying.

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Deutsche Welle is careful to report cases of suicide because some journalistic material on the subject is known to provoke pantomime. If you are under severe emotional stress or have suicidal thoughts, seek professional help. Information on the problem of suicide can be found at https://www.befrienders.org/russian 989-50-50.

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