The COVID-19 pandemic has radically altered the way we live our lives and quite frankly, I’m sick of all my favorite things being closed and having to remain indoors. The sooner we can consign Coronavirus to “a weird thing that happened a while back” the better. That’s why I’m glad to see Ant-Man star Paul Rudd presenting a PSA as part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Mask Up America” Campaign.
Playing off the joke that the 51-year-old Rudd is “a certified young person,” he delivers a ‘How do you do fellow kids’-style presentation explaining why mask use is important (a stark contrast to the views of his co-star Evangeline Lilly). I can’t deny he’s speaking our language when he says that “masks protect you and your dank squad” and “now that’s thicc!”
But with the USA closing in on 200,000 deaths, there’s obviously a serious point to the message. Though younger people are at less immediate risk from COVID-19, they can still spread it and I doubt many want to be the Typhoid Mary that wipes out grandpa and grandma.
On top of that, while it’s true that masks aren’t a perfect solution, they have a scientifically proven benefit in stopping you unwittingly infecting others. Telling the public to very mildly inconvenience themselves to benefit complete strangers is a depressingly hard sell, but on the long road to returning to normal life, public mask-wearing is a key step.
Governor Cuomo welcomed the video, saying the following:
“We all need to do our part and wear a mask. Thanks to Paul Rudd for helping us spread this crucial message and reach young people like him.”
Let’s hope it makes a difference, because I sure want to see Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow sometime in 2020. Mask up, folks.
