Singapore – In his latest video, vlogger Nuseir Yassin featured the story of how COVID-19 patients from Grace Assembly of God Singapore (GAOG) recovered from the virus and called them a “source of hope.” Netizens, however, commented that he missed the point with his message.
Posted on Friday (March 27) on his social media platform, Nas Daily, the 3-minute video talked about the COVID-19 experience of 17 patients from GAOG and the Life Church and Missions Singapore cluster which is the second-largest cluster in Singapore to date.
As the virus spread from one individual who acquired it over a family dinner and went to church, the video explained the highly contagious nature of COVID-19. “No one knows exactly how it happened, but the virus spread like wildfire,” he said. “That’s how contagious coronavirus is, and that’s how an entire church was shut down.”
The patients shared their battles with the virus such as facing the thought of death while being in the ICU for 31 days.
The vlogger said that there was a Covid-19 stigma and that it was a huge issue. The children of patients were called “Covid kids”, their families were refused hotel bookings and weddings had to be canceled. “This tragedy was going to ruin their lives,” he said.
He then covered some Covid-19 facts, such as its 98 percent recovery rate. The survivors, whom he described as “a source of hope”, were donating their blood for medical research and vaccine development.
Watch the video below:
https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/videos/2284815018489105/?v=2284815018489105
Although some showed their appreciation for Nas’ video, most members of the online community were not pleased with his approach and video content, perceiving it as an exploitation of the recovered patients’ stories which failed to highlight the importance of social responsibility.
“There’s a difference between performing a good deed with intention…or for attention,” commented Damien Aw who was not sure which side Nas came from.
Many perceived that the video delivered the wrong message and would encourage irresponsible people to become bolder, leave their homes, and increase the risk of the virus spreading. “You should always include in your video the importance of social distancing,” suggested another netizen who deemed the video as “misleading.”
Others advised he use his social media influence to further push for social responsibility among people.
Yah-Leng Yu commented that the stigma that Nas mentioned was no stigma at all. “I think you are not being responsible and sensitive by putting a video out like this packaging it all positively for your viewership but in fact putting pressure on those who are working so hard in the front line.” The netizen urged him to get his facts straight instead of “misguiding people.”
Members from the online community urged for a bigger focus on the importance of social distancing and not just a one-liner message of “stay home” pointed out in his video.
Although positivism and hope are great, just remember, two percent of the population is a huge number of deaths, noted another netizen.
The same tone was applied to his previous video which also did not sit well with netizens.
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