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US doctor becomes Twitter celebrity in Indonesia for Covid-19 advice as Delta variant wreaks havoc
- Dr Faheem Younus from the University of Maryland has dispelled claims that eucalyptus or Bear Brand milk can cure Covid-19 in Bahasa Indonesia
- A steep rise in fatalities has included high profile individuals such as a daughter of ex-president Sukarno, while the country is now turning to Singapore and China for oxygen tanks
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Indonesians have found a new authority on all things Covid-19 – a doctor in the United States who lives more than 16,000km away from the Southeast Asian nation, which is currently in the grip of the fast-spreading Delta variant.
Dr Faheem Younus, the chief of infectious diseases at the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland, has become a selebtwit – or Twitter celebrity – after using the platform to share coronavirus-related advice and best practices to rein in the spread of the disease in Bahasa Indonesia. He also tackles myths surrounding the virus, some of which are unique to Indonesian social media and chat groups – such as claims that eucalyptus or a particular brand of canned milk can help cure the disease.
Multiple tweets of his have gone viral in the past few weeks, cementing his status as an internet idol in the social-media-mad Southeast Asian nation. He now has some 360,000 followers on Twitter.
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“Dr Faheem Younus is now a selebtwit doctor in Indonesia. Thank you for caring, Dr Faheem. You are the out of town expert with the briefcase that we’re needing right now. God bless you,” Alissa Wahid, daughter of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, tweeted on Sunday.
Indonesia’s caseload and death toll have been consistently rising since June 24, with the country on Tuesday reporting 31,189 new infections and 728 deaths, a record on both fronts.
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