Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many celebrities have looked for ways to stay in touch with their audiences through online gigs or live streams. Their social media accounts reach millions, and now the world’s loudest names are using their vast reach to spread a crucial message.
‘The last person you need to hear right now from is me’
Celebrities including Julia Roberts, Hugh Jackman, and Millie Bobby Brown are each giving up their social media accounts to health experts, world leaders, or economists for one day over the span of several weeks, starting on May 20. The #passthemic action organized by ONE Campaign, a global movement to eradicate poverty and preventable diseases, aims at educating millions of social media followers and pressing for a coordinated global response to fight COVID-19.
Specialists will give insight into their data-, science-, and facts-based perspectives that will help them explain critical points and urge for a global effort to eradicate the pandemic.
Some of the experts include Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia, who will talk about lessons from Ebola and why healthcare systems need improvement, and Minouche Shafik, the director of the London School of Economics, who will be giving advice on how to mitigate the economic impact of the global health crisis.
A truly global pandemic response plan
ONE Campaign strongly advocates for developing countries in the #passthemic action. The declaration-petition on the organization’s website demands world leaders “make a vaccine available to everyone,” along with strengthening health systems.
Many African experts joined the campaign. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister of Nigeria, Aya Chebbi, a youth envoy of the African Union, together with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Minouche Shafik, are at the forefront of a global fight.
Julia Roberts meets Anthony Fauci
On the first day of the #passthemic campaign, Julia Roberts conducted an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci in which they discussed ways to eradicate the virus. Fauci stressed the importance of including the developing world in vaccine trials, highlighting that “the world, including the developing world, is going to get by this when we develop good therapies and good vaccines.”
The health expert emphasized the “moral commitment” of the Global North to help less affluent countries. Fauci also mentioned “enlightened self-interest” as a key reason for a coordinated global response, which follows the logic that “we are only as strong as our weakest link.”
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