© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
American YouTuber MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, recently posted a video in which he helped 1,000 partially blind people with a surgery that cured their eyesight. He paid for the cataract surgery of the visually-impaired individuals and the first round of surgeries were performed by ophthalmologist Jeff Levenson in Jacksonville, Florida.
MrBeast posted the video on YouTube two days ago and it has received a whopping 56 million views already. In the video, he explained that there are 200 million people in the world with partial vision. “Half of all the blindness in the world is people who need a 10-minute surgery,” Levenson says in the video. The clip then documents touching before-and-after experiences of patients who underwent the procedure.
For over 20 years, Levenson has coordinated the “Gift of Sight” programme which provides free cataract surgery for uninsured patients who are legally blind due to cataracts. Speaking to CNN, Levenson explained that he became inspired to help people access cataract surgery after undergoing his own cataract correction surgery. “If MrBeast can light a fire, and if we can get governmental and private support behind it, we can end half of all the blindness in the world,” he said.
“I think its safe to say that MrBeast is probably the best content creator on the platform right now. Good on him for doing all that he does,” a YouTube user commented. “The fact that Jimmy went from doing challenges to saving lives around the world is admirable. Mad respect for Jimmy!” said another.
However, some people were sceptical of MrBeast’s antics.
“I don’t hate Mr. Beast. I don’t particularly care about Mr. Beast. What I hate is a system where good deeds are only done if they’re profitable, where people are forced to rely on the unreliable benevolence of the rich because they have no other way of having their needs met,” a Twitter user posted.
