Swift, Grande: ‘This is the time to cancel plans’

Celebs encourage people to stay home, make social sacrifices during pandemic

On Sunday, videos and photos of packed bars, restaurants and nightclubs taken over the weekend flooded the internet, despite public health experts urging social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak. Shortly afterward, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, two of the most-followed people on social media, begged everyone to stay indoors.

“Guys — I follow you online and I love you guys so much and need to express my concern that things aren’t being taken seriously enough right now,” Swift wrote to her 128 million Instagram followers. “I’m seeing a lot of get togethers and hangs and parties still happening. This is the time to cancel plans, actually truly isolate as much as you can, and don’t assume that because you don’t feel sick that you aren’t possibly passing something on to someone elderly or vulnerable to this. It’s a really scary time but we need to make some social sacrifices right now.”

Experts say although maintaining social distance can’t stop the virus, it can buy valuable time to slow the spread. Along with school and work shutdowns and event cancellations, some major cities have started enforcing the mandatory closing of bars and are restricting the number of people allowed in restaurants.

“Like your hip hop yoga class can (expletive) wait i promise,” Grande tweeted to her 72 million Twitter followers.

“i keep hearing from a surprising amount of people statements like ‘this isn’t a big deal’/’we’ll be fine’ ... ‘we still have to go about our daily lives’ and it’s really blowing my mind,” Grande continued.

Other celebs also chimed in, such as Debra Messing and Lady Gaga.