We’ve all got a part to play in slowing the spread of COVID-19, whether you’re a healthcare professional, musician, celebrity couple, former Governor of California or pastor. And in all those cases, the coronavirus pandemic is no match for people who stay inside to protect the vulnerable. That’s because we’re all connected, a fact few people know better than Kevin Bacon.
Bacon took to social media to launch a “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”-inspired campaign to encourage people to stay indoors. As you doubtless know, an old meme (like, very old — from the days before we had a word for “meme”) speculated that every single actor could be connected to Kevin Bacon in six movies or less. Bacon’s always been a good sport about the game and now, he’s leveraging it for a good cause, using it to illustrate the importance of social isolation.
“Right now, like people around the world, I’m staying home,” he said. “Because it saves lives and it is the only way we’re going to slow down the spread of this coronavirus. Because the contact that you make with someone, who makes contact with someone else — that may be what makes somebody’s mom or grandpa or wife sick.”
Bacon said everyone has someone they’re staying home for (he said he’s staying home for his wife Kyra Sedgwick) and told people to post their own someone they’re staying home to protect and tag six other people to get them involved. Bacon picked his famous pals Elton John, Jimmy Fallon, Brandi Carlisle, Kevin Hart, Demi Lovato and David Beckham, but you don’t need to have a gold-plated Rolodex to get involved.
