In a video that encourages Americans to focus more on west Africans who are far more likely to die from Ebola virus, Jennifer Lawrence says she'd be fine if she got the dreaded disease.
The Oscar-winning actress teamed up with fellow stars from "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1" for the nearly two-minute online public service announcement from the Ebola Survival Fund.
The video opens with a montage of clips from breathless US television news coverage of the tiny handful of Ebola cases so far in the United States.
It then points out that none of the eight "American patients" treated for Ebola in US hospitals have died -- while in some parts of West Africa only two out of every 10 cases survived.
"A lot of them didn't make it," says Lawrence, to which her "Hunger Games" co-star Josh Hutcherson replies: "They didn't have a lot to begin with."
"In Liberia, they had 50 doctors for 4.4 million people," Hutcherson said, before telling Lawrence: "I know what would happen if you got Ebola."
"I'd be fine," she solemnly replied.
Mahershala Ali, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore and Jeffrey Wright also appear in the video.
But the core message came from Harvard medical professor and Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer, well-known for his work in developing health care in poor countries.
Ebola patients in West Africa, he said, urgently need IV fluids, electrolytes, food and "many more well-trained West African medical professionals."
"With high-quality supportive care, the great majority of people in West Africa will survive Ebola," Farmer added.
Two Ebola fatalities within the United States have been reported, but neither were native-born Americans.
Last month, another posse of Hollywood stars including Ben Affleck, Bono, Vincent Cassel, Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, came together for an Ebola video sponsored by the ONE Campaign.
Source: AFP
Careers
