World
Tom Hanks and the NBA Finally Wake America Up to the Coronavirus
- Beloved star reveals he has virus just as NBA cancels season
- Intrusion into sport, culture shatters business-as-usual view
Photographer: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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In a few dizzying hours, America went from mostly being able to ignore the new coronavirus to finding it inescapable.
On Wednesday evening, Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks revealed he had the virus, instantly becoming the world’s most famous face of Covid-19, as the disease is known. Around the same time, the National Basketball Association suspended the season after one of its own got a preliminary positive diagnosis. Together, the announcements brought the now global epidemic to the heart of America, targeting two of its biggest havens in times of crisis: entertainment and sports.