Celebs Break Their Legendary Silence on COVID-19

Imagine there's no COVID

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 15: Alyssa Milano attends Sean Penn, Bryan Lourd and Vivi Nevo Hos...
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Celebrity

A mere week into the COVID-19 pandemic, when we all thought we just had to stay indoors for two weeks and it would all go away, we were blessed by the celebs. From the comfort of their giant, beautiful homes, they gave us a message of hope to the tune of John Lennon’s Imagine. Together, we all got to imagine a world where there was no COVID-19 and we could just be free to continue starring in television and film.

Nearly two years later, the pandemic rages on and the celebs are back — and this time, they’ve learned to read. Indeed, they have signed an open letter calling on world leaders to end COVID-19 once and for all. STOP IT, they are saying — and they’re SERIOUS. Posted on the charity CARE’s website, the letter addresses world leaders who are attending today’s United Nations General Assembly and demands they come together to “make 7 billion vaccine doses available before the end of 2021, and an additional 7 billion doses by mid-2022 to fully vaccinate 70% of the world by next summer.”

The letter is signed by celebrities of various degrees of fame, from American Idol season 2 second runner-up Kimberley Locke to Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown to Anne Hathaway and of course, Alyssa Milano (who would never turn down an opportunity to do activism). It’s not yet clear which celebrity will be the one to convince world leaders to listen. Maybe there’s a president or prime minister out there who really loves Scandal and will finally agree to pick up the pace vaccine-wise when pressured by his (or HER) celebrity crush Tony Goldwyn.

I think I will let the celebs have this. As everyone knows, they’re very fragile and sensitive. They need to feel like they’re doing something, or they will lash out. I’m sure some of the people on this list have been travelling freely around the world on private jets to attend events where all the help has to wear masks and they don’t, and most of them have probably made more money in the last two years than I will see in my life — but that doesn’t mean they can’t care about the world’s most vulnerable.