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'Big Brother' Contestants Had No Idea Coronavirus Pandemic Was Happening

Unless you've been living under a rock, at a silent meditation retreat like Jared Leto, or evidently, in the German Big Brother house, there's no way you haven't been briefed on the coronavirus by now.

It has literally and figuratively gone viral.

There's a fairly good chance that you're well-aware of the very strange and deeply concerning times we're currently living in.

2020 is off to an absolutely terrible start...

Gyms, bars, restaurants, and shopping centers are shutting down, sporting leagues are suspending their seasons, travel bans are being implemented, and festivals and concerts are being postponed.

Essentially, anywhere that crowds can form are shutting down to slow down the spread of the virus.

Some countries, including Canada and the United States, are taking even more extreme measures, closing off their borders to all non-essential travel.

There have been over 200,000 reported cases in total, over 80,000 of which have recovered.

But unfortunately, so far, the total death toll worldwide has reached over 8000.

That number seems to be rapidly increasing every day.

As such, the intense measures being taken to prevent the virus from spreading are totally justified.

Everyone is being urged to stay home for the next couple of weeks and avoid social interactions.

Human trials for a vaccine have commenced, but there is still quite a long way to go before this blows over and order is restored.

While the entire world has been in a panic, selfishly hoarding unreasonable amounts of canned food, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer, the latest contestants on "Big Brother" Germany didn't have the foggiest idea what they'll be coming back to.

Daily Mail

What an unpleasant surprise to come home to.

According to The Guardian, the 14 people on this season of "Big Brother" were some of the last people in the world to learn about COVID-19.

The housemates had been already living in isolation since February 6th.

On the bright side, at least they're used to social distancing!

You may be asking yourself, 'Why didn't the producers of the show notify the housemates?'

Great question.

The producers of the show defended their decision to withhold the news of COVID-19 from the contestants.

Daily Mail

They disclosed to a German newspaper called Süddeutsche Zeitung, that they only reveal outside information to the guests if it pertains to their relatives, such as a family member’s illness.

They also explained that they took specific measures to prevent the house guests from catching the virus.

However, they didn't detail what those measures were exactly.

The show began to face backlash after this news surfaced, and the peanut gallery on Twitter did not hold back!

The uproar from fans caused Sat.1 to take a different approach — letting the contestants know in a live special episode on Tuesday evening.

They were informed about the growing crisis, and were assured that they will be kept up-to-date going forward.

The Guardian

They will even be given the chance to receive video messages from their family members.

"Big Brother" has not had to inturrupt their regularly scheduled program to alert the house guests of outside news since 9/11.

Daily Mail

And even then, they only did so because one of the contestants had a relative that had gone missing during the attacks.

What do you think of the producers initially keeping the news of COVID-19 away from the "Big Brother" contestants?

The Guardian

Let us know in the comments below!