Contagion actor Laurence Fishburne educates on protection tips against the deadly COVID-19

April 9, 2020 - 2:58 PM IST

Contagion actor Laurence Fishburne, just like the rest of the world, trying to ensure to educate people about the novel coronavirus and the protection tips during this global health crisis.

Contagion actor Laurence Fishburne educates on protection tips against the deadly COVID-19

Fishburne released a PSA in collaboration with Columbia Public Health and Sony Pix India and said, "In the movie contagion, I played a doctor at the Center for disease control. The virus in Contagion was created by a screenwriter. Covid-19 is very real. Most of us aren’t old enough to remember the diseases smallpox and polio and the way those diseases affected billions of lives. But they changed the way that people lived. It looks like Covid-19 is forcing us to change the way that we live, at least for a while."

Speaking about the parallels between the movie and current times, he further added, "Now, there is a scene in the movie, about the tradition of handshaking. You extended your hand and showed the person you were meeting that you didn’t have a weapon, that you weren’t carrying one. Well, now the way we are living is like, we are all carrying a weapon and we don’t even know it. What we do know is that the virus travels through human contact - that’s one of the ways it travels. It needs us to survive. So, let’s not give it any help."

"Quite simply, one of the best ways to prevent yourself from getting Covid-19 is by behaving like you already have it. Which means: Social distancing, Stay at home if that is possible for you, Wash your hand often like it’s your job and listen to your Public Health Officials wherever it is that you happen to live," Fishburne said.

The actor further went onto say, "A Pandemic means that the virus is everywhere, but it won’t be every place at the same time. So, if it’s not where you live today, you can bet that that’s going to change. If you don’t know anyone who is sick yet, you can also bet that that will change as well. Our Public Health Experts are telling us that the virus could affect as many as half of us in the coming months moving forward. And that would mean that you, or I or someone very close to you will contract the disease, will contract the virus."

"We need to do everything possible. Everything that we can to prevent that from happening. If we can slow this thing down, it will give our doctors and our nurses, in our hospitals a fighting chance to help us all get through this together. Everything that we can do to stay healthy will keep our people on the frontlines from getting sick and that is so important. I know it’s frightening to wake up every day and to see on the news that more people have died but the overwhelming majority of us are going to live. Every day the number of those who are being cured will increase. Our scientists can learn from how their immune systems defeated the virus and discover treatments until we have a vaccine. So, until we have a cure, you can be that for the people where you live and for the people that you love," he added.

"We can beat this thing together just by staying apart. Thanks a lot. Bless you. Stay healthy. Stay safe," Laurence Fishburne concluded.

Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle also filmed protection tips videos.