With more and more people practicing social distancing and staying inside amid the coronavirus pandemic, online streaming has gone up as many search for an on-screen distraction. One of the most-streamed films amid the pandemic has been Contagion, which has seen an increased popularity on a number of services. To make the most of the surge, several of the movie’s stars have come together to film a coronavirus PSA including Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and Jennifer Ehle.
The actors teamed up with Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health for a series of videos they shot themselves and share important ways to help slow the spread of the disease including hand washing, social distancing and how to decipher all the information about the virus.
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Contagion was released in 2011 and begins with a woman named Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow) who returns to Minnesota from Hong Kong. She brushes off her sickness as jet lag but dies two days later before other people begin experiencing her same symptoms and a pandemic erupts worldwide. Damon played Beth’s husband, who was immune to the disease.
“In the movie, I played a guy who was immune to the hypothetical virus that was spreading around the world,” Damon says in his video. “So, a few things to start. One, that was a movie, this is real life. I have no reason to believe I’m immune to COVID-19. And neither do you, no matter how young you are.”
“Social distancing means staying six feet away from another person. It means not gathering in groups and it means staying home or sheltering in place if that’s what government officials are telling you what to do. People can have COVID-19 and have very mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, so even if you think they’re healthy or you think you’re healthy, don’t take that chance. It’s not worth it.”
Winslet’s video sees the Oscar winner washing her hands and teaching viewers how to sneeze or cough into their elbow.
“I played an epidemiologist trying to stop the spread of a hypothetical virus. To prepare for the role, I spent time with some of the best public health professionals in the world,” she said. “What was one of the most important things they taught me? Wash your hands like your life depends on it, because, right now, in particular, it just might.”
Fishburne further went into actions people can take right now, which includes not shaking hands.
“There’s a scene in the movie Contagion about the tradition of hand-shaking,” he said. “You extended your hand and showed the person you were meeting that you didn’t have a weapon, that you weren’t carrying one. Now, the way we’re living is like we’re all carrying a weapon and we don’t even know it. What we do know is that the virus travels through human contact. It needs us to survive, so, let’s not give it any help.”
Ehle’s video addressed the potential creation of a vaccine for coronavirus.
“Scientists say anywhere from 16 to 18 months, and scientists and doctors are the people we need to be listening to right now,” she said. “They are the experts. That means tuning out the voices with other agendas no matter how powerful they might be.”
Photo Credit: Warner Bros.
