The comedian got candid about his mental state and his fear in a powerful series of posts to Twitter on Sunday.
Comedian Kumail Nanjiani is getting serious. The Silicon Valley actor took to Twitter Sunday morning, and opened up about feeling helpless, scared and sad amid the ongoing pandemic.
"I’m sorry. I’m generally a very optimistic person & have fought to keep positive these last few months. But today is hard," Nanjiani, 42, wrote. "We are heading into a massive Covid spike & the people who are supposed to protect us are doing nothing & blaming us for being concerned."
The actor, who has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, went on to explain why this has been such a frightening time for his family.
"We’ve been in quarantine for 8 months because my wife is in a high risk group. We feel let down by our country," he continued. "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."
"And this was all preventable. I look at the Covid cases & deaths in other countries & it feels like they’re in another world," he wrote. "Are they dealing with the same disease we are? I guess that’s the difference. They’re dealing with it. We’re not."
The actor lamented how the nation seems to have "politicized every suppression effort" when it comes to combating the spread of the coronavirus.
"Wearing masks is a sign of weakness. Protecting your friends, family, neighbors is a sign of weakness. Getting your heart broken every day by rising cases is a sign of weakness. Worrying that the next text will contain unthinkable news is a sign of weakness," he wrote. "Sleepless nights because what will happen if the person laying next to you in bed gets sick is a sign of weakness. Science is a sign of weakness. We could have done so much more to prevent all these losses."
Nanjiani's wife, writer and producer Emily V. Gordon, was previously diagnoses with Still's disease, a potentially life-threatening systemic autoinflammatory disease that almost cost her her life.
The pair wrote and created the acclaimed 2017 romantic dramedy The Big Sick, based on their experiences together while Gordon struggled with her illness. Having Still's disease also puts Gordon at high-risk when it comes to COVID-19.
"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," Nanjiani continued. "Focus on the positive. Donate to worthy causes. People are doing fantastic work out there. Most days it works. But not today."
"I guess I have nothing constructive to say. Just be careful out there. I’m afraid we have a couple of bad months ahead of us. And I feel hopeless & helpless today," the actor concluded, while asking fans to suggest worthy causes to donate to. "I’m gonna try & crawl back to optimism now."
On Friday, the US saw the highest spike in COVID-19 cases, with over 81,400 new cases reported in a single day. Since the start of the outbreak, there have been over 8.8 million confirmed cases in the U.S. alone, and over 230,000 reported deaths thus far.
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