Dr. Anthony Fauci says he spoke on call with celebs organized by Kim Kardashian to spread awareness about coronavirus
- Dr. Fauci said that 36 celebs and athletes participated in the April call
- Kim, Katy Perry and Gwyneth Paltrow among the stars on the call
- More than 237,500 Americans have died of the virus as of Sunday
Kim Kardashian organized a Zoom call between 36 celebrities and Dr. Anthony Fauci in April, in an effort to pin down the right things to say to the public about the coronavirus, which had shut down most of America by that time.
Fauci, 79, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, spoke on CNN Sunday about the outreach from the Hollywood crowd in an effort to ‘get the word out about staying safe’ from the deadly pandemic to their massive audiences.
‘It was a whole bunch of movie stars and some sports figures and they wanted to know about what they could do to stay safe, about wearing masks and avoiding crowds,’ said Fauci, who has been one of the main public officials tasked with addressing the public about the virus.
The latest: Kim Kardashian, 40, organized a Zoom call between 36 celebrities and Dr. Anthony Fauci, 79, in April, in an effort to pin down the right things to say to the public about the coronavirus, which had shut down most of America by that time, Fauci told CNN Sunday
Fauci said that other notable names involved with the communications included Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, Gwyneth Paltrow, 2 Chainz, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, and Brad Falchuk.
‘Each of them has enormous numbers of followers on their social media accounts … I was impressed by the questions they asked, by their level of sophistication,’ said Fauci, who has clashed with President Donald Trump on certain aspects of how to fight the virus and tamp down future infection numbers.
‘I could say to them, for example, it’s important to wear a mask, and they get on their accounts and say “wear a mask” and it goes out to an additional couple of million people,’ said Fauci, who also took part in an Instagram Live chat with Matthew McConaughey earlier this summer.
The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star’s call to action came in March after the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, asked people with big social media followings to try and explain how critical the coronavirus pandemic worked to their young followers, sources told the network.
Fauci has clashed with President Donald Trump on certain aspects of how to fight the virus and tamp down future infection numbers
Civic-minded: Kim appeared at the White House last year to address her efforts in criminal justice reform
The doctor, who has spoken from the White House podium on multiple occasions to address the ongoing fight against the virus, said earlier this month that infections could dramatically spike amid circumstances on the horizon coinciding with cold weather and the holidays.
‘It’s not a good situation,’ Fauci told the Washington Post less than two weeks ago. ‘All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.’
As of Sunday, on a global level, 1,255,185 people have died amid 50,313,694 positive diagnoses worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The death total for COVID-19 in the U.S. was at 237,564 people, with 9,960,918 total positive diagnoses.