Drauzio Varella: ‘I thought YouTube didn’t suit me’ – 06/28/2023 – Tech

Elected the best digital influencer in the health category by Datafolha, doctor and writer Drauzio Varella, 80, says that it was the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and the lack of information about the disease in the country that awakened his communicator side.

At the time, he started to produce content for radios about care for the prevention of the HIV virus. In 2000, he debuted a column in Sheet and participation in Fantástico, from Rede Globo, and also started its health portal. From there to becoming an “influencer” was a short jump. Today, his YouTube channel alone has more than 3.5 million subscribers.

“When I was suggested to open a channel on YouTube, I thought it was absurd, I thought it didn’t go well with my profession. What I saw on these channels were doctors doing self-promotion, without scientific basis. I thought and still think this is very ugly”, he says.

The change of heart came when he realized that if he wanted to communicate with young people to spread health information, he would have to learn the new language.

According to him, communicating with networks requires speed and concise explanations that doctors are not always used to. But he claims that it is possible to learn to condense what is most relevant about a given subject.

“If you only have 30 seconds to convey information about health, of course it will be incomplete, but you can convey an idea, a scientific truth”, he says.

The doctor says that even today he is impressed to see so many children and teenagers among his followers.
Among children and teenagers, the jokes in his videos are the most successful. “When I make fun, things go viral. Some get 2.3 million views.”

For Drauzio, it is not possible to talk to people 50, 60, even 70 years younger than him without looking for an adequate language. “But it can’t be the imitation of their language, because then it looks ridiculous.”

For him, language with children and adolescents should be the same used with adults. “Just put it in a way that kids understand. It’s a huge challenge.”

One of his joys is when he manages, from his videos, to help people change unhealthy habits. “The main thing I hear is: ‘I quit smoking after watching your video’.”

Guidelines such as sexuality also yield many views. “I recorded a video saying that homosexuality is a biological phenomenon just like heterosexuality. At the end I said: ‘What difference does it make to you if your neighbor shares a bed with another man? psychiatrist’. This video is about ten years old and has already had millions of hits.”

Drauzio was cited by 19% of respondents in the Datafolha survey as the main health influencer, well ahead of second place physician Paulo Muzy, who obtained 5% of mentions.

The Datafolha survey was carried out between May 2 and May 9, 2023, with 1,500 online interviews. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.