Former St. Louis Cardinals player David Freese has a message for Missourians during the coronavirus pandemic: be selfless and safe.
“Just want to reiterate the importance of social distancing,” Freese, the 2011 World Series MVP, said in a public service announcement. “Just do the necessities, do what you got to do to take care of yourself, your family, and friends.”
“In the long run, this will just be a short period of our lives, but there’s a lot of people that are hurting out there and fighting, so just take care of your business. Be selfless. Remember everybody else. Be safe.”
The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) released a series of PSA videos related to coronavirus on Wednesday. In a partnership with the Governor’s Office and the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), MoDOT said the videos are “to keep Missourians informed of ways they can protect themselves from contracting or spreading the virus.”
More than 300 Missourians have tested positive for coronavirus and eight people have died as the global pandemic continues.
Former University of Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel also appeared in a PSA released by MoDOT Wednesday.
“Football is a contact sport where teamwork is vital to fight and win against an opponent. Today we are against the extreme opponent, the coronavirus,” Pinkel said. “To battle and win, we have to exercise teamwork at its highest level.”
The virus has been named “SARS-CoV-2” while the disease is called “coronavirus disease 2019,” or “COVID-19.” It can cause severe respiratory illnesses with symptoms such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned.
There have been more than 54,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., and 737 deaths, according to the CDC.
DHSS has opened a public hotline operated by medical professionals around the clock seven days a week. The hotline number is 877-435-8411.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For up-to-date information on coronavirus, check with the CDC and DHSS.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
