Jimmy Donaldson (‘MrBeast’) with Dr Levenson. Credit: Jeffrey Levenson

One of the world’s most popular YouTubers, MrBeast, who paid for 1,000 uninsured people to have sight-saving cataract surgery, has received praise for raising awareness of avoidable sight-loss but also accusations of using the needy to create “charity porn” and criticism of the unfairness of the US health service.

Jimmy Donaldson’s (aka MrBeast’s) YouTube video ‘1,000 blind people see for the first time’ showed a succession of cataract patients seeing loved ones clearly for the first time in years. The video also featured Donaldson gifting lavish prizes to some participants, including cases of US$10,000, a Tesla car and a US$50,000 cheque to support one participant’s college ambitions, garnering 59 million views in three days. His previous videos also featured grandiose giveaways, including a real-life Squid Game with a US$456,000 prize, which was viewed by more than 178 million YouTube subscribers.

The 1,000 cataract surgeries were performed in partnership with SEE International, a non-profit organisation which provides eyecare to anyone in need of it. Forty of the operations were performed by Dr Jeffrey Levenson, a Florida-based ophthalmologist and SEE’s chief medical officer. Dr Levenson told Insider it was outrageous Donaldson had to pay for treatment for the US-based patients. “There are people in the United States who are blind and could have a 10-minute surgery which doesn't cost much and that pays for itself.” In the US, cataract surgery for the uninsured costs between US$3,500 and US$7,000 (NZ$5,909-11,818) per eye, according to MyVision.org.

“Anything that puts a spotlight on such treatable eye conditions like cataracts and provides funding for people to undergo surgery to restore their sight should be welcomed,” Andrew Hodgson, president of the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, told the BBC in response to the video’s Twitter critics. Commenting on MrBeast’s YouTube channel, viewers also lauded the importance of raising awareness about preventable sightloss and said MrBeast’s video spotlighted a flawed US healthcare system.

Dr Levenson told Insider he’d always imagined the world would eventually recognise that needless blindness was a moral outrage. “I knew the day would come when we would decide as a species to end needless blindness… I never knew it would come in the form of a 24-year-old YouTuber."