Last month, Ellen DeGeneres shared in a tweet that she tested positive for COVID-19, which prompted the makers of the show to cease production while she recovered from the virus.
On Tuesday, she returned to TV for the first time since her diagnosis and opened her show with an account of her experience, in which she attempted to make light of the situation. “Obviously there are a lot of negative things going on, so I want to talk about something positive — my COVID test,” she said with a chuckle, before noting that she made a full recovery and thanking people for wishing her well.
In short order, DeGeneres described the scene on set when she learned she had the coronavirus.
“This is what happened, you guys. I was getting ready to tape the show that you were going to be here for, and I was in hair and makeup, and getting my face powdered and my extensions put in. And then my assistant Craig walks in and says ‘You tested positive for COVID.’ And then everyone around me ran away,” DeGeneres said to laughs from her virtual audience. “I went home, obviously, I had to quarantine, and Portia made me sleep in a different room, on a different bed, because she wanted the race car bed all to herself.”
Of course, COVID-19 is no laughing matter. To date, nearly 23 million cases and more than 382,000 deaths have been documented in the United States. At the time of publication, the United States has the seventh highest number of cases in the world per capita.
As a wealthy white woman joking about a disease that has disproportionately impacted people of color and low-income communities, DeGeneres’ opening routine on Tuesday’s show betrays an ignorance about how her race and class insulates her from facing some of the worst disparities and consequences of the pandemic. In addition to the illness itself, widespread unemployment, food insecurity, inability to pay rent, and resulting logjams in access to health care have wreaked havoc on those who can barely afford to face even one emergency.
During her monologue, DeGeneres went on to detail how she slept for 16 hours a day and experienced back spasms that she thought originated from either sleeping awkwardly or resting in a different bed. She had already complained of “excruciating back pain” in an Instagram video posted during her quarantine period, and the intense discomfort was indeed a symptom of the virus.
