Dr. Anthony Fauci has revealed that Kim Kardashian arranged a private Zoom call with him and dozens of other celebrities during the beginning days of the coronavirus pandemic.
via NYP:
The reality TV star facilitated the virtual talk in April about the pandemic between the top US infectious diseases expert and 36 other celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Orlando Bloom, Katy Perry, 2 Chainz and Brad Falchuk, CNN reported.
The glitterati asked many of the same questions others would ask about the deadly bug, including the use of face masks, social distancing and whether it was safe to eat take-out food, Fauci told the network.
“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, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I was impressed by the questions they asked, by their level of sophistication,” the 79-year-old expert said, adding that he did the hour-long call because the celebs had “megaphones” and “could get the word out about staying safe.”
“Each of them has enormous numbers of followers on their social media accounts. 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,” added the member of the White House coronavirus task force.
The discussion was the brainchild of Kardashian, according to CNN, which cited sources including a person close to her family who said she took note when Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams made an appeal to her younger sister, Kylie Jenner, on “Good Morning America.”
“We need to get Kylie Jenner and social media influencers out there, in helping folks understand that look, this is serious, this is absolutely serious. People are dying,” Adams said on “GMA,” prompting Jenner to write on Instagram that she listened to Adams and pleaded with her followers to “practice social distancing, self-quarantine,” according to a piece in Variety.
Kardashian then decided to compile a list of other celebrities and contacted Fauci’s office, the source close to her family told CNN.
“She wanted to speak with someone, to ask questions, so she could spread accurate information because there were so many inaccuracies those first few months,” the source told the network.
Fauci said Kunis asked him whether he eats take-out food.
“I told her I feel badly about restaurants losing business, and I feel it’s almost a neighborly obligation to keep neighborhood restaurants afloat, so even though I can cook at home, several nights a week I go out for take-out purely to support those places,” he said.
One of the sources familiar with the call told CNN that Fauci told Kunis not to be “paranoid.”
“And then her husband, Ashton Kutcher, said, ‘That’s it — I’m ordering a pizza — finally!’ And then he took out his cellphone and pretended to order a pizza,” the source said.
Fauci has faced the wrath of President Trump, who called him a “disaster” and told his campaign staff that “people are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots, these people that have gotten it wrong.”
President-elect Joe Biden planned to meet Monday with his new coronavirus task force and give remarks about his plans for tackling the pandemic, which has killed more than 237,000 Americans.
Do you think we’ll see this play out during this season of ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’? We do.
