When the President of the United States is tweeting ill-informed comments about the danger and severity of coronavirus, is it any surprise that some members of the population aren't necessarily taking the spread of the disease all that seriously? On Tuesday night's episode of his eponymous late-night show, host Jimmy Kimmel stepped outside his Los Angeles studio to ask passersby what they knew about coronavirus.

“I'm not too worried about it,” said a middle-aged man when asked about his concern. “The president said it's just going to go away someday, so, you know, it's not really that critical of a deal.”

That guy was the only person to directly invoke Donald Trump—but his general lack of urgency was indicative of the people Kimmel chose to highlight during the segment. A couple of younger pedestrians couldn't explain the difference between coronavirus and either the flu or pneumonia. Another, when asked about her supply preparedness, answered thusly: “I like wine and toilet paper and, soap?”

Concern about the spread of coronavirus has dominated the news over the last two weeks, with numerous health officials urging citizens to practice social distancing whenever possible. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases leader Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a press conference on Tuesday, “We would like the country to realize that as a nation we can’t be doing the kinds of things we were doing a few months ago. ...It doesn’t matter if you're in a state that has no cases or one case, you have to start taking seriously what you can do now, if and when the infections will come. And they will come.”

The goal now is to limit community spread, and to flatten the curve of infections in order to take the pressure off the health care system—and allow those most in need of care to receive it. As such, in response to the outbreak, numerous large-gathering entertainment events, like South by Southwest and Coachella, have been either canceled outright or postponed. On a smaller scale, producers of television shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! announced they would forgo having a studio audience for the time being to limit coronavirus exposure.

Those measures, however, haven't hit late-night just yet. At the end of his coronavirus segment, a young woman claimed she lived in a town where the disease had spread among the community. Kimmel's producer sent her away down the street. The live studio audience laughed and clapped with delight.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

— Cover story: How Knives Out star Ana de Armas is conquering Hollywood

— Harvey Weinstein is ordered to jail in handcuffs

— Love Is Blind is the grimly fascinating dating show we need right now

— There’s no other war movie as horrifying, or vital, as Come and See

— Hillary Clinton on her surreal life and new Hulu documentary

— The royal family’s weirdest real-life scandals get even weirder on The Windsors

— From the Archive: A look inside Tom Cruise’s relationships governed by Scientology and how Katie Holmes planned her escape

Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story.