Last month on the 14th of July, Paul hosted a party at his mansion home in Calabasas, California. The event featured a number of internet celebs, including James Charles, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio and Tana Mongeau, and was criticised by the public and local mayor for breaching social distancing measures needed to slow the spread of COVID-19. As footage at the party showed, not one person wore a face mask.
And, despite heavy criticism, Paul seems to be defending his right to party, telling Insider that when it comes to self-isolation and COVID-19, “I personally am not the type of person who's gonna sit around and not live my life.”
"I don't know what to think of it, to be honest. I don't think anyone really does," Paul told Insider. "No one has answers, our leadership is failing us, and everyone kind of just doesn't know what to do. But I personally am not the type of person who's gonna sit around and not live my life."
"I'm a human being. I put my pants on the same way, I cry the same way, I have anxiety the same way, I fail the same way, I win the same way," Paul told Insider. "People don't like that, they scream out my failures and whisper my accomplishments."
Paul also told the outlet that he had chatted with Mayor Alicia Weintraub after the party and “everything was cool.” But, when Insider spoke to Weintraub, she told them that “she’d only spoken to a representative for Paul since the party.”
Yikes.
Unlike Paul, other influencers have apologised for their behaviour during this pandemic period and seem to be trying to make things better. In response to Paul’s and others’ parties, YouTuber Tyler Oakley called out some of his influencer colleagues for not taking the pandemic seriously. Then, James Charles and Tana Mongeau apologised and acknowledged that now isn’t the time for large social gatherings.
According to the John Hopkins University of Medicine, the U.S. has reportedly nearly five million confirmed cases of COVID-19. Los Angeles county alone has close to 200,000 cases confirmed and, given U.S. President Donald Trump’s stance that less tests = less cases, probably far more.