In a horrific turn of events, I have watched Contagion at least three times this past month—once for work, once for pleasure, and once, ambiently, as my sister was watching it in the shared common space of our bunker. I do not want to think about Contagion any more than I have to, but these goddamn PSAs from the stars of that film are making me do so and I reject that notion with every fiber of my being.
Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Matt Damon, and Jennifer Ehle teamed up with scientists at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health to offer advice about social distancing and proper hand-washing techniques. Fishburne, Ehle, and Damon filmed their videos without turning their phones horizontally; Winslet gets a pass because she set her shit down on a steady surface and filmed herself washing her hands with bar soap from a barren bathroom. Great news is that these PSAs are full of science, from scientists. Bad news? I don’t want this!
Here is Matt Damon, a man who was immune to the disease in Contagion, for reasons that I still do not understand after viewing the film three times in one month.
Here is Laurence Fishburne. He was a very good boss in Contagion, and is now here to make you feel better.
Kate Winslet, again, gets points for setting her phone up the right way, so I do not feel like I am FaceTimeing with her from a windowless room. Thank you, Kate.
Here is Jennifer Ehle.
I suppose it’s too early to be upset about famous people trying their best to educate a public under the rule of a willfully ignorant and extremely stupid leader, but I will say that I have never wanted anything LESS than a person who played a doctor in a movie telling me to maintain a six-foot distance between myself and other people. Celebrities are not experts in pandemics, even if they have played one in a movie! Read the room! Thank you!!
