Warriors point guard Stephen Curry went on Instagram Thursday morning for a live one-on-one conversation about COVID-19 with Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Curry pooled questions for the interview from his 30 million followers the day before. Many of those followers are young people.
Dr. Fauci and Steph Curry chatted on a split screen. Curry appeared to be at home in his sweats, while the doctor sat in his study with a basketball hoop behind him. Curry asked questions about who was susceptible to COVID-19.
“Obviously if you have underlying health conditions or, if you're a little older, it affects you a little bit more seriously,” said Curry.
Dr. Fauci busted the myth that youth can’t suffer from this virus.
“What we are starting to see is that there are some people who are younger,” Dr. Fauci explained. “People your age [who are] young, healthy, vigorous and don't have any underlying conditions are getting seriously ill. It's still a very, very small minority, but it doesn't mean that young people like yourself should say, ‘I'm completely exempt from any risk of getting seriously ill.’ That's the reason why we talk about being careful of physical distancing."
Curry responded, “That's really one of the reasons why I wanted to have this Q and A and hopefully reach different demographics of people that are interested in the facts of what's going on.”
About 50,000 people watched the discussion, including former Pres. Barack Obama. He thanked the two men for holding the discussion and commented during the chat, “Listen to the science. Do your part. Take care of each other.”
People who missed the chat can watch it on Curry’s Instagram page and Youtube channel.