Jennifer Aniston is urging her fans to wear a mask during the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, the 51-year-old actress shared a picture of herself wearing a black mask on Instagram, and explained why she felt it was important.
"I understand masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable," she writes, addressing her more than 34 million followers on the social media app. "But don’t you feel that it’s worse that businesses are shutting down... jobs are being lost... health care workers are hitting absolute exhaustion. And so many lives have been taken by this virus because we aren’t doing enough."
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Aniston went on to directly address those who feel that being forced to wear a mask in public is infringing on their rights.
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"I really do believe in the basic goodness of people so I know we can all do this BUT still, there are many people in our country refusing to take the necessary steps to flatten the curve, and keep each other safe," she writes. "People seem worried about their 'rights being taken away' by being asked to wear a mask. This simple and effective recommendation is being politicized at the expense of peoples' lives. And it really shouldn't be a debate 🙏🏼."⠀
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"If you care about human life, please... just #wearadamnmask 😷 and encourage those around you to do the same ❤️," she concluded.
In May, Aniston humorously shared a throwback paparazzi pic of herself giving the middle finger when it came to how she was feeling amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Dear Covid... You can kindly F@!k off now thank you BYE 👋🏼🖕🏼☹️ TBT," she joked.
Aniston has recently been using her massive platform to speak out about causes that are important to her, including voting and fighting against police brutality. She also recently participated in The Hollywood Reporter's Drama Actress Roundtable with Janelle Monae, Zendaya, Reese Witherspoon, Rose Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter, where the Black Lives Matter movement was candidly discussed. Aniston commented on how the pandemic had one silver lining -- she had the time and space to keep educating herself.
"Having the [space] to be alone and not be distracted has been almost divine timing in terms of the order of how everything has unfolded," Aniston said. "I think that's a blessing of this pandemic because there wasn't any chance for people to get distracted going back to work or going out to dinners or whatever. We were all pulled together, and it feels extremely unifying and oddly beautiful. And I've never read more in my life."
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