Science revolution via social media - Features - Nature Middle East
▻http://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2015.129
The announcement in 2014 that Egypt had invented “devices” that could diagnose and cure AIDS and hepatitis C virus in more than 90% of cases came as a great shock to Egyptian virologist, Islam Hussein.
(...) “After watching the press conference and the huge media propaganda that followed, I realized that something terribly wrong was going on. I have never felt that disappointed in my entire life,” he remembers. “I knew these devices lacked any sound scientific basis. I also knew the impact would be huge given how widespread hepatitis C infection is in Egypt.”
Hussein scoured journal articles and the Internet for information on the devices and the team that claimed to have invented and patented them. He produced a PowerPoint presentation, stood in front of a video camera and, using his expertise as a virologist, proceeded to discredit the claims. Within three days, his 80-minute YouTube video had been viewed 50,000 times.
“All of a sudden this guy comes out on social media with a calm, confident and professional tone and firm promises to deliver a neutral scientific critique of the Armed Forces’ claims,” Hussein says, explaining why he thinks his video became so popular.