Evangeline Lilly Is Facing Backlash For Refusing To Self-Isolate

Lost actress and Ant-Man And The Wasp star Evangeline Lilly is not heeding warnings to self-isolate amid the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, she’s straight-up refusing to keep her family at home, and unlike the actors who have assembled to spread the message that everyone must do their part, she’s telling folks that everything is “#businessasusual” for her. Yep, she’s sliding right past Vanessa Hudgens’ bad take (and apology) and also stepping into tinfoil-hat-land at a time when Idris Elba (who tested positive for the disease) is urging folks to not believe dangerous conspiracy theories about coronavirus.

Here’s how things began for Lilly on Thursday morning: with an Instagrammed cup of tea and a caption about dropping her kids off at gymnastic camp. Washing hands appears to be the sole precaution that Lilly is using for her family right now.

Given that much of the world is going into lockdown now, and millions of people’s livelihoods are at risk in addition to health concerns, the critical comments to Lilly’s tea caption quickly surfaced. In response, she wasn’t ruffled. To user @erinkcsmith, Lilly minimized the dangers of the coronavirus (for which there are at least 218,000 cases worldwide), calling it a “respiratory flu” and worrying instead about “Marshall [sic] Law”:

“Where we are right now feels a lot too close to Marshall Law for my comfort already, all in the name of a respiratory flu. It’s unnerving. I appreciate your engagement and the meaningful discourse. Let’s be vigilant right now. And kind. Watchful and gracious – keeping a close eye on our leaders, making sure they don’t abuse this moment to steal away more freedoms and grab more power, but gracious with each other as we try to navigate the unknown dangers of a modern, global world and power structure.”

To another commenter (@dsj22) who suggested that this was a conspiracy to undermine Trump’s reelection, Lilly agreed, “[T]here’s ‘something’ every election year.” Lilly also told @erinkcsmith that she’s “immune compromised at the moment,” and her father is suffering from “stage four lukemia [sic].” Lilly also insisted that she’s making a choice because “[s]ome people value their lives over freedom, some people value freedom over their lives.”

Lilly doesn’t appear to realize that prioritizing “freedom” in this instance won’t only affect the lives of her family but other people and communities, given that this virus can (and does) spread through asymptomatic carriers. As one might expect, her remarks have not gone over well on Twitter, which has the screencaps/receipts:

https://twitter.com/slothanova/status/1240701136052441089

https://twitter.com/KyraStarbucked/status/1240037697940586497

And over on Instagram, the comment threads are just as fierce. As @3rianne_ replied in a thread, there’s “no immunity, no treatment, no experience” with this virus, which might be deadlier than the 1918 Spanish Flu. Likewise, folks (including @charliesammyjoey) are calling Lilly “self absorbed” to have posted her remarks while thousands have already lost their jobs and businesses. And @ren_mars8 wants to remind everyone that Italy suffered 450 coronavirus deaths in one night, and conspiracy theories are nothing but harmful while dealing with a global-era, deadly virus.