Ariana Grande pleads fans to stay home during the coronavirus crisis.
photo: Splash News

Pretty much everyone is in agreement right now: We should all just stay the heck home.

The novel coronavirus has proven to be more serious by the day. Travel to certain countries has been banned, schools, restaurants, bars, and stores are closed, public events are postponed, and film and TV sets are closed. So now the best thing people can do is practice social distancing. In other words, self-isolating and keeping away from crowds and other people. 

Celebrities are pleading with their fans to follow quarantine and social distancing measures as much as possible.

For Kumail Nanjiani, taking precautions to stop the novel coronavirus spread is personal.

Nanjiani was uncharacteristically serious, because the importance of containing the virus is personal to him. He pleaded with his followers to stay in and was unapologetic about his posts spreading information about COVID-19. 

The comedian tweeted, "People get upset and annoyed at me when I tweet about the coronavirus, when I urge people to stay in and avoid crowds. My favorite person in the world is immunocompromised. Go ahead and unfollow me. I’ll be tweeting about this until I’m down to zero followers."

Ariana Grande pleaded with her fans to take the virus and quarantine seriously.

Grande shared the message, "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 lives' and it's really blowing my mind."

She checked her fans' privilege, "it is incredibly dangerous and selfish to take this situation that lightly. the 'we'll be fine because we're young' mindset is putting people who aren't young and / or healthy in a lot of danger. you sound stupid and privileged and you need to care more about others. like now."

There are far more important things in the world than a social life right now.

Grande continued, "like your hip hop yoga class can [redacted] wait i promise." The singer clarified that she understood the frustration and struggles for those who don't have the luxury of staying home, but understood that many of her young fans could take those precautions.

Taylor Swift sent a similar message to her fans, who also didn't seem to take self-isolation seriously.

Taylor Swift begs fans to stay home
photo: Instagram/taylorswift

Swift noticed many of her fans still getting together and posting on social media, so she sent a message of warning. "I'm seeing lots 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 social sacrifices right now."

Debra Messing found a story that really opened her eyes to the importance of social distancing.


Messing shared one woman's experience with ventilators, something reportedly 12% of Wuhan patients now need following the coronavirus pandemic. "Cabin fever is rough. But a minor inconvenience for us could be weeks on a ventilator for someone else. Please don’t let your immortality force someone else to confront their mortality," another person tweeted about self-isolation.

Arnold Schwarzenegger used the now-trending hashtag #StayTheFHome.

While we may not all have the entertainment of donkeys at home, Schwarzenegger's message still rings true. "Stay at home as much as possible. Listen to the experts, ignore the morons (foreheads). We will get through this together." Then he replied with the hashtag, "#staytheFhome."

Barack Obama had a compelling take on how staying home can truly slow the virus.

The Washington Post created a simulated virus to see how social distancing could effectively limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. Obama shared the video and also pleaded with his followers to limit social interaction and to stay home if they can. "It shows why we should all do the right thing and stay home to the fullest extent possible. All of us can help slow the spread," the former President tweeted.