Jordanian engineer becomes Lebanese minister of health on Twitter

Men with same name cause confusion on social media outlet

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan speaks during a press conference at the Rafik Hariri University Hospital in the southern outskirts of the capital Beirut, on February 22, 2020. AFP

Jordanian engineer Hasan Hamad is being bombarded with hundreds of Twitter messages a day intended for Lebanon's health minister, who has the same name.

Mr Hamad said he has been receiving messages intended for the health minister since April last year, but the number of misdirected messages and comments soared after the start of Lebanon's Covid-19 vaccination campaign last month. The messages ranged from enquiries to requests, he told Lebanon's MTV channel.

Finally, he tagged the Lebanese Mr Hassan in a tweet saying he had been receiving hundreds of messages for the health minister each day, and asked him to respond.

"After the start of the pandemic, the focus was on health ministers in general, and to my good fortune or bad, there was a similarity of names between me and the Lebanese minister of health," he told MTV.