Daniel Radcliffe Is Fine. No, He Doesn’t Have Coronavirus, Despite That Fake Tweet.

(Warner Bros.)

Imagine you’re just scrolling Twitter and suddenly see that the first celebrity with coronavirus just happens to be our childhood best friend and crush, Harry Pot—er, Daniel Radcliffe. Imagine the fear that consumes you—the concern, the anger. We all suddenly want to protect the Boy Who Lived.

And then we see that’s it’s from a random Twitter account that is called BBC News but is not verified and has 125 followers …

Why Daniel Radcliffe, in the year of our lord 2020, I may never know, but it seemed as if he was the first to be fake-infected. The account, which is now suspended, just tweeted it out with a link to a real but unrelated BBC page to, I guess, make it seem official, but that brief moment had me yelling. I guess I’ll never be over my love for Daniel Radcliffe. Good to know.

Don’t worry, though. Our favorite wizard is fine.

What this does though is suddenly strike fear in the hearts of all of us who live online and care about the wellbeing of public figures and the unnecessary, opportunistic spread of panic. There’s been a few joke tweets circulating around the world saying who they thought the first to get infected with coronavirus would be, and while it’s a “hilarious” look at how Twitter culture exists, it does make me suddenly fear for the fake-out tweets like this coming.

Ever wonder why someone is suddenly trending, only to find out someone thought they were dead but they’re actually fine? It’s basically going to be that every day with no way of knowing what’s the truth until a publicist has to tell a reporter that their client is fine. So, you know, a bunch of unnecessary drama for no reason. So really, something that Harry Potter would love.

The thing is though, I’m now afraid of how many tweets are going to surface of random celebrities being sick because there are people who just truly want to see the world burn. There’s absolutely no reason to fake people out, unless you want retweets or to suddenly be “Twitter famous” because you claimed someone has Coronavirus with absolutely no backing to your claims.

Now though, as everyone lives in fear of each other, at least we can take this Harry vibe into our quarantine states.

image: Warner Bros.

So rest easy, my fellow Gryffindors. Harry Potter is alive and well and healthy, doing a play with Alan Cummings. Let’s not tweet out fake Coronavirus cases. We don’t need even more stress in our lives and worrying about a celebrity being sick on top of, you know, taking care of ourselves.

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Rachel Leishman

Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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