- During a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Tom Hanks called on more people to wear masks and practice social distancing during the ongoing pandemic.
- Hanks joins a growing list of celebrities advocating for wearing a mask as parts of the country have reopened despite record high COVID-19 cases.
All Tom Hanks wants is for you to wear a mask.
The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Rita Wilson, both 63, tested positive for COVID-19 back in March while in Australia. The longtime couple made complete recoveries while in self-quarantine, and since returning to the United States, Hanks has made it clear he thinks more people need to take personal responsibility to help the country get through the ongoing pandemic.
"There’s really only three things we can do in order to get to tomorrow: Wear a mask, social distance, wash our hands," Hanks said at a virtual press conference on Tuesday for his Apple TV+ movie Greyhound, People reports.
Hanks continued: "Those things are so simple, so easy, if anybody cannot find it in themselves to practice those three very basic things—I just think shame on you." He also added: "Do your part. It’s very basic. If you’re driving a car, you don’t go too fast, you use your turn signal and you avoid hitting pedestrians. My Lord, it’s common sense."
The beloved actor was also asked about how he and Wilson were doing after recovering from the coronavirus. "Oh, as the canaries in the coal mine for the COVID-19 experience, we are fine," he replied. "We had about 10 days of very uncomfortable symptoms. Not life-threatening, we’re happy to say. We were isolated in order to keep an eye on ourselves because if our temperatures had spiked, if our lungs had filled, if any number of things had gone wrong with this, we would have needed expert medical care. We didn’t. I guess we were model recoverers from COVID-19, but we were also isolated so that we would not give it to anybody else that we came in contact with, and since then have been doing the same isolating, social distancing that is being asked of the world so, we are fine."
Other celebrities have also been publicly advocating for wearing masks to stop the spread of COVID-19, as well. Jennifer Aniston, posting of picture of herself wearing a mask, wrote on Instagram: "I understand masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable. But don’t you feel that it’s worse that businesses are shutting down... jobs are being lost... health care workers are hitting absolute exhaustion. And so many lives have been taken by this virus because we aren’t doing enough."
Aniston continued: "If you care about human life, please... just #wearadamnmask 😷 and encourage those around you to do the same ❤️"
Using the same hashtag as Aniston, Reese Witherspoon posted a PSA of her own: "Hey Everybody! Wearing a mask is not a political statement. It means you care about other people’s health and safety. Be KIND, wear a mask!"
Kerry Washington also posted a picture wearing her face covering of choice, captioning it: "Throwing (@fenty) shade if you’re not wearing a mask."
And Tracee Ellis Ross wrote, "I am sure you all are seeing what I am seeing: COVID 19 rates in the USA are rising at a truly scary rate. One thing I know for sure is that there's a very easy way each of us can help, and that's to #WearaDamnMask whenever we are in public."
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