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Will Smith has a new show on Snapchat and in his sixth episode he talked to DJ Jazzy Jeff. Remember when Snapchat was bigger and more widely used? My teenage son uses it as it’s popular with his friends but it fell out of favor with celebrities when it debuted a new UI in early 2018. I was able to watch this with my son’s help. I was so happy to see DJ Jazzy Jeff! I remember him well as his music with Will was a staple of my teen years. I’ve seen him since, I love the Boiler Room concerts on YouTube and Jeff did an incredible one from London a few years ago. (If you want to feel like you’re hanging out at a show, play those on your TV.) Of course he’s an amazing DJ, he’s 55 now and he’s got decades of experience. Unfortunately his age also makes him more vulnerable to coronavirus, although the way it affects different people can vary widely and seems to have no rhyme or reason. Jeff told Will that he was sick with a fever and pneumonia that went to both his lungs, but that he didn’t meet the criteria for a test. Here are some quotes from that interview.

I’m a lot better. Came home from my trip and I feel like I’m coming down with something. Got in the bed and I don’t remember the next ten days. I had a temperature that reached about 103. I had the chills. I lost sense of smell I lost sense of test. They gave me a flu test.

They couldn’t even give you a test?
No and when I went and got the chest X-ray, she came in and said, ‘You have pneumonia in both your lungs.’ I was out of breath every time I went to the bathroom

That was scary because Lynette [Jeff’s wife] doesn’t panic and she called me with the panic vibes. I just immediately called D-Nice to see if he would be available. [laughs] Not my DJ!

I aint ready yet!

Did anybody else in your family get it?
Lynette lost her sense of taste and smell. That was her only symptoms. My mother-in-law, unfortunately, I think got it but thank God she’s coming through on the other side. It’s really like a 14 day period. Unfortunately, people think we’re at the end [of the pandemic], and I think we are really at the beginning. That was one of the scariest things in my life.

[From Snapchat via People]

After that Will did a new rap to Jeff mixing in the background while friends danced on Zoom. It was fabulous! When he said to throw your hands in the air I did that! I head bopped and danced through the whole thing. I had to use my kid’s phone to watch this and am going to install Snapchat now just to see more episodes.

I’m covering this to highlight the fact that there still aren’t tests in so many places, even for the most obvious cases and especially for mild to moderate cases. In mid March I was sick without a fever but with something that lingered longer than anything I’ve ever had and left me weak and achy. I couldn’t smell or taste, I was coughing a bit and my chest hurt. So many of my local friends told me to get a test and why didn’t I just go to the doctor? I didn’t go to the doctor because I realized that if I had it I would spread it, that if I didn’t have it I had a higher chance of getting it at the doctors, and that there are no tests for mild cases. Plus I didn’t want to take up resources that sicker people could use. I also know that the doofus in chief lied through his teeth about the tests and everything else, but unfortunately I live in a rural area where people believe what he says. Biden is really highlighting this with his latest campaign, which is smart. I’m including that below.

Also, Jeff is well connected, but I bet he didn’t call in any favors with friends like Will and just decided to wait it out. (Not that there would be any shame in it if he did ask for favors. A personal health crisis is the time to do that.) From what I can find he now lives in Delaware and that probably also contributed to the fact that he couldn’t get tested.

Here’s Biden’s latest ad, which highlights the lack of tests. It’s very true, it’s compelling and scary as hell. The WHO, which Trump is threatening to defund, had tests available that almost 60 other countries accepted but the US did not. (Apparently this is standard US procedure, however it surely resulted in countless more deaths than if these tests has been rolled out by a responsible and prepared administration.)

I want Donald Trump to look these folks in the eye and explain to them why they or their loved ones haven’t been able to get tested for COVID-19. We’ve got to do better. pic.twitter.com/CUY6nmCPjl

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 15, 2020

Here’s a preview of that episode but I think you need Snapchat to watch the whole thing.

Snapchat put anotherepisode of Will from Home on YouTube. This isn’t the one with Jeff. In this epsiode Will calls Jaden at Jaden’s house because he’s socially distancing. Then they call Jaden’s friend, rapper Joyner Lucas, who shows Will parts of his video for “Feeling Like Will,” where he cosplays Will in his different roles. It’s really cute I enjoyed this one too.

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