Kumail Nanjiani slams US administration for mishandling COVID-19

Kumail Nanjiani is taking a break for his stand-up comedian act as the US gears up for another spike in coronavirus cases.

The Dolittle actor took to Twitter to speak out against the US’ handling of the pandemic, especially since his wife, Emily V. Gordon falls into the high-risk category – she suffers from a rare autoimmune disease. “I’m sorry. I’m generally a very optimistic person and have fought to keep positive these last few months. But today is hard,” he wrote.

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“We are heading into a massive Covid spike and the people who are supposed to protect us are doing nothing and blaming us for being concerned,” he further added, pointing out how they’ve been under quarantine for about 8 months now.

Nanjiani went on to express his grievances, sharing how “we are the lucky ones.”

“We feel let down by our country. But it’s not about us. We’re the lucky ones. Over 226,000 people have died. That’s so many families destroyed. People have lost their homes, their jobs,” he said. He then questioned if other countries who have dealt better are in a different world than the US. “Are they dealing with the same disease we are? I guess that’s the difference. They’re dealing with it. We’re not. We politicized every suppression effort.”

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The The Big Sick writer and actor then proceeded to list down things that have been labelled a ‘weakness’ in the wake of US’ handling of the crisis: Wearing masks, protecting your friends and family, sleepless nights, worrying etc.

“We could have done so much more to prevent all these losses. But it’s not his fault. It’s China’s fault. 8 months and we’re still here,” he said, without naming the US President Donald Trump who has routinely called coronavirus the ‘China Virus’.

“I feel like I work really hard to keep all these doors closed in my mind, to try and keep all these scary/sad/devastating thoughts out of my head. Focus on the positive. Donate to worthy causes. People are doing fantastic work out there. Most days it works. But not today,” he further penned in dejection. He however then asked people to help connect him with worthy organisations to donate to and had some words of wisdom.

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“Just be careful out there. I’m afraid we have a couple of bad months ahead of us. Please respond with worthy organizations we can donate to. I’m gonna try & crawl back to optimism now,” he concluded.

Kumail Nanjiani has been diligent all through the virus outbreak, even before the US closed down, pulling out of the Film Independent’s live-script reading of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in March. However, he has kept busy with his wife and the two created a podcast Staying In with Emily & Kumail, focusing on their quarantine life while raising funds for charities helping those affected by the pandemic.