For one day, celebrities will be taking a step back from their social media accounts and handing them off to global health leaders. The initiative, #PasstheMic, is a part of the ONE World Campaign seeking to raise awareness and end poverty in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a call-to-action video, celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Julia Roberts, Millie Bobby Brown, Rainn Wilson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Busy Philipps, Rita Wilson, Yemi Alade, Connie Britton, David Oyelowo, Danai Gurira and Robin Wright announced that they’ll be handing off their Instagram, Twitter and other social media accounts to doctors and other COVID-19 experts for a day to raise awareness of the coronavirus and its global effects.
Experts will include Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, chair of Gavi Board and former finance minister to Nigeria; Jen Kates, director of Global Health & HIV Policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation; Dr. Bill Frist, former U.S. senator from Tennessee; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former president of Liberia; Vera Songwe, executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa; and Craig Spencer, director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.
The campaign begins Thursday, May 21st with Julia Roberts passing off her account to Dr. Anthony Fauci and will continue for three weeks with a different celebrity-expert pairing.