Idris Elba suggested coronavirus is the planet responding to “taking a kicking”, in a chat with US TV star Oprah Winfrey.
Elba, who is currently self-isolating at home having been diagnosed with the infection, said it was “no surprise” that such an outbreak had happened.
The Luther star told Oprah: “Our world has taken a kicking. It’s no surprise that a virus has been created that’s going to slow us down.
“This is almost like the world crying out. Like, ‘hey, you’re kicking me and what you’re doing is not good. I’ll get rid of you’.
“Like any organism would do. Like an infection.”
In the video chat, shared on Instagram, he added: “It’s one of the upsides of this whole drama is that we are forced to think together as a race. A human race.”
Oprah agreed that the human race should take a lesson from the outbreak.
She said: “It’s here to teach us. To show us something about ourselves. As individuals and also as a world.
“This is the moment for our humanity to either rise or not.”
More than 300,000 people have been infected with the new coronavirus worldwide since the outbreak.
Of those, more than 13,000 have died following diagnosis.
