'Contagion' cast virtually reunite to offer coronavirus advice

The actors who starred in the 2011 thriller—Contagion—have reunited to deliver public service announcements warning about coronavirus.

Among the actors are Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and Jennifer Ehle. They have joined with Columbia University scientists from the Mailman School of Public Health to give advice and support amid the ongoing pandemic, according to Global News. The actors made four separate home videos.

“Wash your hands like your life depends on it,” says Winslet in her video. “Because right now, in particular, it just might.”

In Contagion, Matt Damon plays a character who is immune to a virus. In his video he notes that it’s important to listen to advice given by experts, such as staying six feet from one another.

“That was a movie. This is real life,” said Damon. “I have no reason to believe that I’m immune to COVID-19. And neither do you.”

In Ehle’s video she says, “Every single one of us, regardless of age or ethnicity, is at risk of getting it.”

In the movie, directed by Steven Soderbergh, there is a lethal influenza spreading throughout the world. Damon said the film is “creeping its way up the charts on iTunes, for obvious reasons.”

Fishburne encourages people to help front line medical staff and says, “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 thing together.”

Scott Z. Burns, the film’s screenwriter wrote the PSAs with guidance from medical experts he worked with on the movie.

There are now approximately 580,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide and about 26,000 deaths.