Samuel L. Jackson and Larry David explain why you must 'stay the f--k at home' during the COVID-19 pandemic
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert on President Trump's coronavirus task force, told CNN on Tuesday that with more than three-quarters of the U.S. on some sort of lockdown, "we're starting to see glimmers that that is actually having some dampening effect" on the spread of COVID-19. "We are continuing to see things go up," he added at a White House briefing. But "the mitigation is actually working and will work."
Not everyone loves living in isolation at home, but Samuel L. Jackson offered some reasons for people to do it anyway. Jackson, who narrated the audiobook of Adam Mansbach's hit non-children's book Go the F--k to Sleep a few years ago, read the topical follow-up, Stay the F--k at Home, for Tuesday's Jimmy Kimmel Live. He may have thrown in some extra profanity, and you can skip to the (safe for work) reading at the 6:10 mark.
Fellow curmudgeon Larry David addressed "the idiots out there" who are "going out" and "socializing too close, it's not good." Look, he said, "you're hurting old people like me — well, not me, I have nothing to do with you, I'll never see you — but let's say other old people who may be your relatives. Who the hell knows?" He suggested people watch TV.
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Those of us who can have been "doing this staying-in thing for about two weeks," James Corden said on Tuesday's Late Late Show. "And some of you might be at the point where you're feeling a bit bored" and tempted to go out and socialize, but "please, just keep staying in — I promise you, it's worth it." He explained how you could quickly infect 59,000 people if you go out, and visualized that exponential transmission with dominoes.
"There are a lot of helpful PSAs out there right now on how to handle this current coronavirus crisis," Conan O'Brien said Tuesday. His contribution involved how far apart you need to stand from someone to correctly social-distance. Still, "here's what I'm having difficulty with," he told sidekick Andy Ritchter over video-chat. "I can kind of tell what day it is because we have to make this show, but other than that, without that to hang on to, I would have no idea what day it is."
The Daily Show cast also struggled to discern what day it was — and they were shocked it was still March. Watch below. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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