As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there is more need than ever for information about scientific, evidence-based precautions that we can all take to better protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities.
Misleading, inaccurate messages and advice about the COVID-19 pandemic are being shared across both traditional and social media platforms. We wanted to do our part to curb this.
The team that brought you the film CONTAGION, including director Steven Soderbergh, writer Scott Z. Burns, along with key members of the ensemble cast, and Participant have partnered with scientists from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health to share evidence-based information about COVID-19 through public service announcements (PSAs).
These PSAs were written under the guidance of the same experts who worked on the film Contagion: Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Columbia Mailman School’s Center for Infection and Immunity, who is currently leading research to develop tests and drugs for COVID-19; Dr. Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox and served as the first CEO of founder Jeff Skoll’s Skoll Global Threats Fund; Laurie Garrett, Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist and bestselling author; and Mark Smolinski, president, Ending Pandemics and founder of the Predict and Prevent Initiative at Google.org. We were joined for this campaign by adviser Dr. Stephen Morse, an infectious disease expert who serves as chair of Columbia’s Institutional Biosafety Committee and professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School.
The videos were all shot by the actors themselves—with no crew. (Kate Winslet’s was shot by her husband.)
Watch all the PSAs at ControlTheContagion.com