On Wednesday, March 11, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson announced that they had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19. The couple had recently traveled to Austalia for an Elvis Presley biopic that’s currently in pre-production and came down with cold-like symptoms, which prompted them to get tested.
With a well-known and well-loved personality like Hanks coming down with what has proved to be a more deadly virus than the flu, Twitter has been in an uproar. And, you can guess how that went.
Hanks commented on having COVID-19 to Deadline with the following message:
“Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia. We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive.
Well, now. What to do next? The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks’ will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no?
We’ll keep the world posted and updated.
Take care of yourselves!”
The message Deadline recieved seems to be the same one Hanks posted to his Instagram, and when that post went up, fans reacted immediately. Overall, the fans seem to be quite concerned with Hanks’ health and the health of his wife.
The majority of comments following Hanks’ post seem to be hearts and messages of love, similar to this fan comment:
“Be safe [heart emoji] wishing you both a speedy recovery]
But, other comments flying around social media have a bit more emotion in their words and, of course, memes.
Some fans were angry about his diagnosis, though not at Hanks. Their anger was directed at the virus and fate itself.
One fan took to Twitter to post:
“@/coronavirus you are a sick son of a b**** for bringing tom hanks into your mess”
A different fan has faith in Hanks’ ability to survive anything, saying:
“Coronavirus has fucking no chance beating Tom Hanks
Survived on an island alone
Landed a plane in the Hudson
Fended off Pirates
Come through the HIV/Aids thing
Fought in 2 separate wars
Woke up as an adult and got a job”
With social media being what it is, the memes started to fly.
One person commented:
“You know the [coronavirus] is officially a problem when Tom Hanks gets it of all people. Tom F***ing Hanks!” Along with a gif of Hanks saying “really?”
Another used the gif of Michael sitting at his desk on *The Office” while saying “All I can do right now is put on a brave face”, preceded by the comment:
“America before Tom Hanks tested positive for #COVID19”
With all of social media concerned for the Hanks’ family’s well-being, we wish them all a quick recovery.
You can find more Twitter reactions to the news here.
tom hanks & his wife have coronavirus pic.twitter.com/737TdrzjMX
— caitlin (@caitlincalhoun_) March 12, 2020
